AUSTIN ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ Corporate interests representing liquor, construction, energy and insurance companies ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ many with business before the state ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ will provide $1.4 million for Gov. Rick Perry’s daylong inaugural festivities. From the parade and barbecue to the glittery black-tie ball, a host of big-dollar benefactors is footing the bill for much of Tuesday’s celebration. Mr. Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst will be sworn in at a noon ceremony at the Capitol that is expected to draw thousands of onlookers and attract the state’s political and corporate elite. Under state law, corporations are forbidden from contributing to political candidates but may pay for inaugural activities. Critics say special interests use the arrangement to curry favor with politicians.
Special interests? Currying favor with Texas politicians? They’d do that?? OH, THE HUMANITY….
I’m not going to get all “holier than thou” on y’all and act as if an incoming Democratic Governor wouldn’t be doing exactly the same thing as Governor Goodhair and Lt. Governor Lightweight are doing. What disturbs me so greatly is corporations and special interests are allowed to fund the inauguration festivities to begin with- for anyone of any party. Can anything more nakedly and obviously scream “Quid Pro Quo”? Surely, no one is naive enough to believe that corporations and special interests are funding the inauguration festivities out of the goodness of their corporate hearts and a sense of civic pride? No, at some point these favors are going to be called in- and we all know that money talks, right?
One of the things I’ve always loved about the Texas state government is that it really IS the best government money can buy. If you want something done, and you’ve got sufficient cash on hand, someone in state government will see that it happens. This isn’t to say that state government in Texas is corrupt and/or for sale to the highest bidder; I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on that one.
It’s often been said that money is the mother’s milk of politics. Here in Texas, it’s the case of Wild Turkey and three bags of crushed ice in the bed of an F-250 barrelling down a west Texas farm road in the middle of the night with the county sheriff’s naked 16-year-old daughter kneeling on the floorboard between your legs and your pants around your ankles.
Companies say political contributions are part of doing business in the state, and that every inauguration – for both Democrats and Republicans – has had corporate sponsors.
Hey, if sports teams and their stadia can have corporate sponsors (Welcome to Vagisil Field…home of your World Champion Fighting Tampons!!), why not state government?
Among the donors are companies whose executives have won plum appointments by Mr. Perry as university regents and to commissions dealing with everything from highways to hunting leases.
Dallas-based TXU Corp., which sought Mr. Perry’s assistance to speed construction of 11 new coal-fired power plants, is a $15,000 donor. An effort to stop the “fast-tracking” permits is expected to be a hot issue between the governor and critics in the Legislature.
Of course, there’s absolutely NO connection between the “fast-tracking” issue and TXU’s $15,000 donation. TXU is just trying to prove that it’s a good corporate citizen by making sure that Governor Goodhair and Lt. Governor Lightweight have an inauguration party that Texas can be proud of.
Right…and right about now, squadrons of flying pigs are violating Saudi Arabian airspace….
Other business donors have a variety of state interests, including toll roads, liquor regulation, insurance rates, taxes and real estate.
Government for sale? In Texas? Perish the thought….
When y’all begin running in circles, weeping and gnashing your teeth as you decry the lack of integrity in Texas state government…well, don’t say you weren’t warned. Personally, I think we should just go ahead and create a new tourism slogan for Texas that adequately reflects the reality. How about:
TEXAS: THE BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY!!
At least you can’t argue that it isn’t true, eh?
