July 9, 2025 • 28 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good morning. On this day in seventeen seventy six, a
week after the Continental Congress has agreed or has voted
for separation from our cousins the monarchy, to live as
free men, not under the divine right of a king,
(00:23):
but with God given natural rights that are not bestowed
by a government or a king, but by God to
us directly. Talk about populism. What a notion. Two days later,
the completion and signing of the Declaration of Independence, the
(00:47):
printer I think his name was Man rushed to his
print shop came back with two hundred printed versions to
big deal in seventeen seventy six of what are known
as the Broadsides. So July fourth, the document is issued
and goes forth. It's not in real time, it's not
(01:10):
posted to a website, so you've got some delays. But
a war is brewing. And it was on this day,
July ninth of seventeen seventy six, that George Washington ordered
that that document, the Declaration of Independence, the words that declare,
we are no longer under the rule of a king.
(01:32):
We are free men, independent men. Whatever we may call
this nation, whatever rights we may bestowed to each other,
we are no longer subjects of a king. It's a
very powerful statement. You thought it was rough when your
kids went off to school or the military. Imagine the king,
(01:54):
the impertinence of these colonists. Who do they think they are?
I rule by divine right, or so he thought. So
he has sent his troops, the mightiest in the land.
And on this day, July ninth, Washington would order that
(02:15):
the Declaration of Independence, those beautiful words, would be read
out to members of the Continental Army in Manhattan, where
they were stationed, while thousands of British troops on Staten
Island prepare for the Battle of Long Island. You know,
I'm a sucker for movies about an employee who blows
(02:40):
the whistle on a big company, whether it's Sharon Watkins
at Run or Silkwood or the informant about Archer Daniels Midland.
You know, kind of a take this job and shove
it sword of sort of thing, because the individual is
always subjugated to the whole. The group the more powerful.
(03:01):
But there's just something about that guy who says, I
don't care, I have nothing else, I have nothing to lose.
I'm going after this thing. And that's exactly what was happening,
and so there is the mightiest military in the world
(03:23):
Mustard to take you down. They've got better equipment, better training,
better numbers, all of it, and yet the bravery. Sometimes
I think when I see people whining, that perhaps we
could stand to know a little more of our rich history,
our birthright, our lineage, our heritage, our legacy, because it's amazing,
(03:48):
it's truly amazing. The kabuki theater of the TSA making
you take off your shoes at airport security checkports points,
which came about because of one idiot who tried to
create a bomb in his shoe and light it off.
Do you remember his name? Say it out loud if
(04:10):
you know it well. After that, we had to take
off our shoes, and you think about the changes how
people adapt. People stopped buying shoes that had laces on
them so you could take them off easily. People would
take off women would wear open toed shoes where they
wouldn't before, and then they end up having Kroger feet
(04:32):
because you take off your shoes and you gotta walk
through that dirty floor. It was awful, it was horrible,
And finally here we are now twenty four years later
and they finally admit, you can take off your mask
if you want to. You can stop getting nineteen booster shots.
Oh and by the way, because we're feeling gracious, you
(04:52):
can stop taking off your shoes when you go through
the airport.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
NBC News it's a major security shift a teas checkpoints
nationwide effect of immediately all passengers can keep their shoes on,
no need to screen them separately. Homeland Security Secretary Christy
Nomes says ninety four percent of passengers now have real IDs,
improving identity confirmation and TSA procedures and checkpoints have improved.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
We've added new scanners, new technologies, more tso officers in
some areas.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
The TSA began screening shoes for explosives in two thousand
and six after shoe bomber Richard Reid attempted to blow
up a flight from Paris to Miami in two thousand
and one. While pre check passengers have been able to
leave their shoes on, removing shoes has been a top
complaint among all passengers.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
For women, it's like you, I don't want to touch
the floor.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
In December, we saw how detecting explosives is still a
top priority at the TSA range in Huntsville. This is
what's left, the piece of a shoe and the handle
from a suitcase. The bottom line, this would have been catastrophic,
and the TSA and the FBI continue to focus on
mitigating the threat of potentially catastrophic explosives. Security experts believe
(06:10):
the terror threat remains real even as new technology provides
better detection and shoes stay on. Secretary Nome says TSA
pre check will still be valuable for passengers who don't
want to remove their laptops, and she says passenger safety
will not be compromised.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
You ever think about how much time we spend because
of a few Why do you have to even lock
your door? You own the property. Why do you have
to lock the door on your vehicle? Why do you
have to have alarms? This is what you have to
have a gun? And why do you have to have
so many passwords? Why do you have to waste so
much time trying to remember how to get into things?
You get locked out of things. What if we just seriously, thoroughly, sternly,
(06:52):
viciously punished people who cause the problem, and then the
rest of us don't have to pay for it. My god,
I think Jucys super shit to meet them. Michael Barry,
my friend's father is eighty nine years old. He just
got out of sixteen days in the hospital. Been in
(07:14):
and out of the hospital over the last couple of years.
Saw a YouTube video on exercises he thought he could do.
So he got down on the floor in the kitchen
in his underwear to do his exercises because he thought,
(07:35):
I'm going to take my health into my own hands.
I got to get stronger, I got to get better.
Eighty nine years old, just coming out of the hospital.
My friend's mother called him and said, your dad is
on the floor and can't get up, so my friend
has to go over. He can't get off floor, so
(07:56):
he wants to know Petrow's name and number. So Petrick
gets on the phone with him and I think today
is his first session. And Petrick is so excited because
it's like a great before and after picture. Eighty nine
years old, can't get off the floor, just came out
of the hospital. He loves this stuff. I love the
idea of somebody eighty nine years old deciding they're going
(08:18):
to make a drastic change and get stronger. This doesn't
mean get stronger, like, go look in the mirror at
your muscles, you want to look like Lou Farigno kind
of thing. It means get stronger for life and feel
better and just be able to walk to the bathroom
without a walker. Jim, if I were to ask you
(08:39):
so when I was growing up, if you were to say,
somebody's really handsome, you'd say, or he's not. You know,
he's handsome, but I mean he's not Robert Redford, right,
who would that be for you? Robert Redford? Who else?
Brad Pitt, that's a little younger. And then there was
Rock Hudson, but nobody said that anymore because he is homo.
(09:02):
Yeah for a little bit older than me, Like my
mom would have said Rock Hudson. But who would it
be for muscled up? Because lou Faigno was one of ours,
or maybe we'd call him an incredible hulp Schwartzenegger, Yeah,
that was later. I've never liked Schwarzenegger. I've never trusted him.
I've never liked him, and his comments after he left
(09:25):
being governor proved that I was right in that. Well,
we have political intrigue in the Harris County. County judge race,
let me set the table. You've got Lena had all
go up for reelection again. So Lena is elected eight
(09:49):
years ago out of nowhere against ed Emmett. Ed Emmett
was not a very partisan guy. He would He was
more of a guy who just took care of business.
And he was by and large really liked because he
ran a good ship. He cared about policy, and that's
(10:14):
rare for a politician. He can be a little arrogant,
and I know him well, he wouldn't be surprised to
hear me say that. And I felt that the dome
project was the stupidest thing ever, and I said it,
that's what I do. But everyone believed he was a
good county judge. He wasn't trying to run. It wasn't
(10:37):
a stepping stone, He wasn't trying to run for a
higher office. It was just a job he did and
I think tried to do to the best of his ability.
Nobody believed he was taking kickbacks, nobody believed he was
playing favorites. He was trying to run the county in
an efficient, effective manner, and that was basically true. And
(10:58):
nobody ever worried about what was going on at County
Commissioner's court because things were done well and then and
then it was a year when the Democrats sweep the
blue wave, highly effective digital targeting of voters, things like
(11:24):
going into a rock ribbed red precinct and finding out
of one hundred and seventeen voters there the three Democrats
and targeting those three to get them to vote. Well,
you're not going to win that precinct, might not even
win that state rep district or even that state Senate district.
(11:44):
But for a county wide seat, going to find votes
like that and then mobilizing your base, getting folks out
to vote, and let's be honest, some cheating. It's a recipe.
So the election is over and and Lena the child
monster has won. Nobody can believe what's happened. Rodney has
(12:08):
orchestrated this thing. Behind the scenes. They had an old
white guy who had announced to run or filed to run,
and they talked him into pulling out. And I've heard
some rumors about how that deal happened, but it was
all about the cause. So he was offered, shall we
say something, to get out of the race and support her.
But Democrats didn't know who she was. She just had
(12:31):
a D beside her name, and that was the last
race where you could That was the last race where
you could get straight party voting. So nobody voted for
Lena had doggers. They voted D. So she wins, and
then she has a reelection against Alex Meeler, and of
course you remember that race, Republicans came together. Meeler was
(12:52):
a great crossover candidate. She was a military veteran of
some reput She was a bomb technician. She had a
law degree from Harvard, she had an NBA from Harvard,
she had business experience. She's tough, she's a mother. Everybody
knows Lena's a weirdo like Kamala Harris, these women who've
(13:15):
never had children, and they're emotionally unstable. You don't want
an episode of Sex and the City playing out in
the county Commissioner's court. And that's exactly what's turned out
to be the case. She's emotionally immature. So Mieler runs
(13:36):
a very good race and everything goes right. But to
his credit, Rodney engineered. Remember he brought in an election
administrator and then another one too in the same year,
and they cheated that race. Well, now Lena has a
challenge within the Democrat Party, three of them. This is
(13:56):
going to be interesting. I'll tell you why that matters.
Duck King of doing it suggested for general audiences. Before
we get in the Republican primary, we start with the
Democrat primary, which is going to be far more interesting,
at least at this point, and far more heated. So
(14:20):
the presumption has been that Lena's not going to run
for re election. She spent a lot of time in
the nuthouse over the last term and a half. Her
staff was all under indictment. They were caught with their
hands in the cookie jar. That's not the least of
(14:43):
what they've done. They just got caught and there was
a district attorney, Kim Ogg, who prosecuted it. And Rodney
made sure, you're not going to prosecute me or her again.
So he threw everything he had at replacing her with
somebody he could control, Shawn Tier. Remember that a grand
(15:06):
jury was convened to review Rodney's African art in the
County warehouse scandal. That I was told the Feds were
going to prosecute. What favors were pulled to keep him
out of that. I still don't know. I've heard rumors,
but I don't have confirmation. So you got Lena, and
(15:30):
she has no money left in her account. She is
clearly growing more unstable by the day. She's cussed at
her fellow commissioners. It's very bad. And folks I know
that work down there, tell me that she is on
(15:51):
the verge of tears or in tears all day every
day when she's there, which is not very much. This
is all too much for her. She doesn't want to
walk away from it because she'll never get it back.
And she likes the idea of herself as this mythical
young Latina immigrant who came here and lived the American dream,
(16:18):
and little girls are looking up at me, and I
am successful and nobody can take it away from me.
I earned it. So you got Lena. Lena has name ID,
which as a candidate running for election, that matters. I
(16:41):
have not seen any polling in a Democrat primary, So
take away your hatred or dislike or distrust or disdain
for her, because you won't be voting in the Democrat primary.
So you're only going to be talking about people who
are fruits and nuts. You're talking about Democrat primary here.
We haven't had a good spirited contest Democrat primary in
(17:09):
Harris County in a while. Well we're about to. And
that's going to be bad for statewide races because we're
going to have a contested race for Sheila Jackson Lee's seat,
and we're going to have a contested race for county judge.
And that's going to mean that a lot of Democrats
(17:31):
are going to get fired up about voting. Now, do
they vote in November? I don't know. Do they come
back in November because they have a candidate that inspires
them more than Lena Hidalgo, I don't know, but there
is the risk that they do. So you're going to
have next year Democrats in the Harris County region very
(17:53):
fired up over this race. At least, I think Republicans
are going to be looking at a spirited attorney general
race where you've got Joan Huffman, state Senator from this area.
You've got May's Middleton state senator from this area. He's
got a lot of money he's going to put into it.
Johan Huffman's going to have the Texans for Lawsuit Reform.
She's going to have a lot of money, so's can
(18:14):
have two well funded race candidates. You've got Aaron Wrights,
who worked for Paxton and now works in the DOJ,
just started up there. The rumor is he will have
Ken Paxton's endorsement and that he will have Trump's endorsement.
That's the rumor. It's probably coming from his camp. I
(18:36):
don't know if that's true. If it is, then that's
going to be a really, really interesting primary. We're gonna
have some interesting primaries coming up. You've got a candidate
who has not announced who is going to be running
against Dan Crenshaw, who's going to be able to raise
money and who has a lot of grassroots support. He'll
(18:59):
be our guests in less than a week. But a
hard run race against Crenshaw in a primary is going
to be hard for Crenshaw to fend off. There is
another presumably well funded Republican candidate with some Second Baptist support,
(19:24):
some players at Second Baptists, some power folks, and some
campaign insiders, who is also expected to run in that
congressional race. So I think you can expect the Crenshaw
seat to be a very very spirited Republican primary race
for his congressional seat. There are a few others that
will be out there we'll talk about. But let's go
(19:45):
back to the County Judge race. You got Lena Hidalgo
who says that she hasn't decided if she's running or not.
When you waiver like this, you're never running because the
people there's only so much money out there, and the
smart money knows after years or they've seen you come
(20:07):
and go, they know that if you're wavering, then some
days you're in and some days you're out. You don't
have the heart for it, you're not gonna win. And
so what's going to happen is you but you can't.
You're not mature enough politically, you're not seasoned enough to
walk out with class and dignity. You're waiting around, jealous
(20:30):
that the money folks are going to other people, The
endorsements are going to other people, the operatives are going
to other people. And so what's not clear in all
of this is Rodney playing his hand. Now, where I
suspect Rodney would be is Erica Lee Carter, who is
Sheila Jackson, Lee's daughter, who had a mixed announcement of
(20:54):
if Lena doesn't run, I'll run in the announce in
the in the in the text of a tweet, but
in the official announcement below. I'm running, So maybe they can't,
but they might not be the smartest group. Then you've
got a city council and Letitia Plumber, and then you've
(21:15):
got the former mayor of Houston and these porker we'll
kind of go through what that race looks like coming up. Yeah,
I do enjoy your show. If Lena is not the
county judge anymore, she would have to pay for her
own trips to France and nobody would be there to
receive her.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Hello, La commdaont Might I interest you in our extensive
wine least perhaps Merleaux Chardon, perhaps pad wine with our
Caviado virgin.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I am feeling very overwhelmed right now, so I'm going
to go to the bathroom, and when I come back,
I hope that you guys will respect my mental balance.
Oh jive, is this American now?
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Boone the Explorer?
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I heard that and it does not make me go.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Well, yes, we can tell by the flush.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
So enough about Lena. If Rodney wanted her to be
the county judge, Erica Lee, Sheila Jackson, Lee's donner and well,
Erica Lee wouldn't be in the race, and probably not
Letitia Plumber either. He would as the saying goes clear
(22:46):
the deck. Now, he couldn't clear the deck from a
nice porker. An these has our own power base and
her own ambitions. Let me go back when an ease
Porker started running for city council. She was a She
(23:09):
was in the finance department of Mossbacher Energy, Bob Mossbacker
being a legendary fundraiser in Republican circles, Secretary of Commerce
for George H. W. Bush. He was there for George H. W. Bush,
the father forty one for many, many years. One of
(23:32):
George Bush had a coterie of guys behind him that
were as strong, impressive, successful, tough, smart as anybody I've
ever seen in politics. He collected them from the early
(23:55):
sixties and he maintained close ties with them. You know,
you had the Heugh Litt Keys on the business side,
but you had guys like James A. Baker the Third
as fine a presidential advisor conciliary as there has ever
(24:17):
been in American history. He was but one Bob Mossbacker another.
So this was kind of a blue blood Republican operation
and a niece was able to survive there. And I
don't know that anybody knew her politics. They may not
have known she was gay. They may not have cared.
(24:41):
I don't know that they would have. They're not a
big social conservatives. But she's very smart. A niece sat
next to me on city council. I guess technically I
sat next to her because she preceded me. She ran
for office as an at large citywide city councilman and lost,
(25:04):
and then she came back and won, and she managed
She managed to do something it's very hard to do.
She made being gay to be a motivating force for
a lot of Houston gays. Hey, this will be our
first openly gay elected official. Because Sylvester was still in
(25:27):
the closet. This is going to be this is a
big deal. We've got a candidate who's going to represent us.
It's going to be we're gonna be able to say
here's a qualified person. And yet, outside of that that
(25:48):
sort of targeted campaign toward inner city gays, she was
just a person who was about the dollars and cents
and the budgets. And I will tell you, serving with
her own city council. That was true. She was not
a tax and spin nut. We agreed on most things
that they should be common sense, that we shouldn't have waste,
(26:12):
we shouldn't play games, there shouldn't be corruption. I'm the
first one to tell you that on city council during
my two years, that was my experience. Then she cycles
off because she turned limited off and she becomes the
controller city controller, and the city controller would be kind
(26:37):
of like for the president. There's a fed chairman. You
could see it sort of like that. It's the auditor,
it's the controller. It's the person who blesses the finances,
goes out to the bonds. The way it has emerged
and become I don't know that this was originally fashioned
in this manner, but it's a healthy thing is that
(26:57):
the controller is there to question the mayor. And we've
had some terse relations between mayors and controllers over the years,
George Grinneas being George Grenneas and Bob Lanier being probably
the most rancorous and Lanier absolutely broke Grinneas and Grienneas
(27:22):
can be a pompous little weasel, or so I'm told.
I only know him socially. But I don't think greeneas
was doing anything wrong. I think Greenneas was doing what
he thought was his job. And Bob Lanier was much
like Donald Trump. He did not want to be questioned.
He didn't believe you had the heft to question him.
(27:44):
So anyway, you got Anie Parker. She serves out her
two four year terms because by this time they've changed
the term limit process and she's been biding her time
as part of the lgbt Q Victory Fund. She is
the strongest challenger to Lena. But you've got Sheila Jackson,
Lee's daughter, which you have to believe Rodney is behind.
(28:07):
And now you've got this city councilman, Letitia Plumber, who
has a very similar background to Kamala Harris. Interestingly enough,
her family is Yamani, Indian and black, and she has
to look kind of the Kamala Harris at one point
was a real commerce she was. She was, she had
(28:28):
a big future. She was. I don't see Letitia Plumber
getting any any momentum, but
Good morning. On this day in seventeen seventy six, a
week after the Continental Congress has agreed or has voted
for separation from our cousins the monarchy, to live as
free men, not under the divine right of a king,
(00:23):
but with God given natural rights that are not bestowed
by a government or a king, but by God to
us directly. Talk about populism. What a notion. Two days later,
the completion and signing of the Declaration of Independence, the
(00:47):
printer I think his name was Man rushed to his
print shop came back with two hundred printed versions to
big deal in seventeen seventy six of what are known
as the Broadsides. So July fourth, the document is issued
and goes forth. It's not in real time, it's not
(01:10):
posted to a website, so you've got some delays. But
a war is brewing. And it was on this day,
July ninth of seventeen seventy six, that George Washington ordered
that that document, the Declaration of Independence, the words that declare,
we are no longer under the rule of a king.
(01:32):
We are free men, independent men. Whatever we may call
this nation, whatever rights we may bestowed to each other,
we are no longer subjects of a king. It's a
very powerful statement. You thought it was rough when your
kids went off to school or the military. Imagine the king,
(01:54):
the impertinence of these colonists. Who do they think they are?
I rule by divine right, or so he thought. So
he has sent his troops, the mightiest in the land.
And on this day, July ninth, Washington would order that
(02:15):
the Declaration of Independence, those beautiful words, would be read
out to members of the Continental Army in Manhattan, where
they were stationed, while thousands of British troops on Staten
Island prepare for the Battle of Long Island. You know,
I'm a sucker for movies about an employee who blows
(02:40):
the whistle on a big company, whether it's Sharon Watkins
at Run or Silkwood or the informant about Archer Daniels Midland.
You know, kind of a take this job and shove
it sword of sort of thing, because the individual is
always subjugated to the whole. The group the more powerful.
(03:01):
But there's just something about that guy who says, I
don't care, I have nothing else, I have nothing to lose.
I'm going after this thing. And that's exactly what was happening,
and so there is the mightiest military in the world
(03:23):
Mustard to take you down. They've got better equipment, better training,
better numbers, all of it, and yet the bravery. Sometimes
I think when I see people whining, that perhaps we
could stand to know a little more of our rich history,
our birthright, our lineage, our heritage, our legacy, because it's amazing,
(03:48):
it's truly amazing. The kabuki theater of the TSA making
you take off your shoes at airport security checkports points,
which came about because of one idiot who tried to
create a bomb in his shoe and light it off.
Do you remember his name? Say it out loud if
(04:10):
you know it well. After that, we had to take
off our shoes, and you think about the changes how
people adapt. People stopped buying shoes that had laces on
them so you could take them off easily. People would
take off women would wear open toed shoes where they
wouldn't before, and then they end up having Kroger feet
(04:32):
because you take off your shoes and you gotta walk
through that dirty floor. It was awful, it was horrible,
And finally here we are now twenty four years later
and they finally admit, you can take off your mask
if you want to. You can stop getting nineteen booster shots.
Oh and by the way, because we're feeling gracious, you
(04:52):
can stop taking off your shoes when you go through
the airport.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
NBC News it's a major security shift a teas checkpoints
nationwide effect of immediately all passengers can keep their shoes on,
no need to screen them separately. Homeland Security Secretary Christy
Nomes says ninety four percent of passengers now have real IDs,
improving identity confirmation and TSA procedures and checkpoints have improved.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
We've added new scanners, new technologies, more tso officers in
some areas.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
The TSA began screening shoes for explosives in two thousand
and six after shoe bomber Richard Reid attempted to blow
up a flight from Paris to Miami in two thousand
and one. While pre check passengers have been able to
leave their shoes on, removing shoes has been a top
complaint among all passengers.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
For women, it's like you, I don't want to touch
the floor.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
In December, we saw how detecting explosives is still a
top priority at the TSA range in Huntsville. This is
what's left, the piece of a shoe and the handle
from a suitcase. The bottom line, this would have been catastrophic,
and the TSA and the FBI continue to focus on
mitigating the threat of potentially catastrophic explosives. Security experts believe
(06:10):
the terror threat remains real even as new technology provides
better detection and shoes stay on. Secretary Nome says TSA
pre check will still be valuable for passengers who don't
want to remove their laptops, and she says passenger safety
will not be compromised.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
You ever think about how much time we spend because
of a few Why do you have to even lock
your door? You own the property. Why do you have
to lock the door on your vehicle? Why do you
have to have alarms? This is what you have to
have a gun? And why do you have to have
so many passwords? Why do you have to waste so
much time trying to remember how to get into things?
You get locked out of things. What if we just seriously, thoroughly, sternly,
(06:52):
viciously punished people who cause the problem, and then the
rest of us don't have to pay for it. My god,
I think Jucys super shit to meet them. Michael Barry,
my friend's father is eighty nine years old. He just
got out of sixteen days in the hospital. Been in
(07:14):
and out of the hospital over the last couple of years.
Saw a YouTube video on exercises he thought he could do.
So he got down on the floor in the kitchen
in his underwear to do his exercises because he thought,
(07:35):
I'm going to take my health into my own hands.
I got to get stronger, I got to get better.
Eighty nine years old, just coming out of the hospital.
My friend's mother called him and said, your dad is
on the floor and can't get up, so my friend
has to go over. He can't get off floor, so
(07:56):
he wants to know Petrow's name and number. So Petrick
gets on the phone with him and I think today
is his first session. And Petrick is so excited because
it's like a great before and after picture. Eighty nine
years old, can't get off the floor, just came out
of the hospital. He loves this stuff. I love the
idea of somebody eighty nine years old deciding they're going
(08:18):
to make a drastic change and get stronger. This doesn't
mean get stronger, like, go look in the mirror at
your muscles, you want to look like Lou Farigno kind
of thing. It means get stronger for life and feel
better and just be able to walk to the bathroom
without a walker. Jim, if I were to ask you
(08:39):
so when I was growing up, if you were to say,
somebody's really handsome, you'd say, or he's not. You know,
he's handsome, but I mean he's not Robert Redford, right,
who would that be for you? Robert Redford? Who else?
Brad Pitt, that's a little younger. And then there was
Rock Hudson, but nobody said that anymore because he is homo.
(09:02):
Yeah for a little bit older than me, Like my
mom would have said Rock Hudson. But who would it
be for muscled up? Because lou Faigno was one of ours,
or maybe we'd call him an incredible hulp Schwartzenegger, Yeah,
that was later. I've never liked Schwarzenegger. I've never trusted him.
I've never liked him, and his comments after he left
(09:25):
being governor proved that I was right in that. Well,
we have political intrigue in the Harris County. County judge race,
let me set the table. You've got Lena had all
go up for reelection again. So Lena is elected eight
(09:49):
years ago out of nowhere against ed Emmett. Ed Emmett
was not a very partisan guy. He would He was
more of a guy who just took care of business.
And he was by and large really liked because he
ran a good ship. He cared about policy, and that's
(10:14):
rare for a politician. He can be a little arrogant,
and I know him well, he wouldn't be surprised to
hear me say that. And I felt that the dome
project was the stupidest thing ever, and I said it,
that's what I do. But everyone believed he was a
good county judge. He wasn't trying to run. It wasn't
(10:37):
a stepping stone, He wasn't trying to run for a
higher office. It was just a job he did and
I think tried to do to the best of his ability.
Nobody believed he was taking kickbacks, nobody believed he was
playing favorites. He was trying to run the county in
an efficient, effective manner, and that was basically true. And
(10:58):
nobody ever worried about what was going on at County
Commissioner's court because things were done well and then and
then it was a year when the Democrats sweep the
blue wave, highly effective digital targeting of voters, things like
(11:24):
going into a rock ribbed red precinct and finding out
of one hundred and seventeen voters there the three Democrats
and targeting those three to get them to vote. Well,
you're not going to win that precinct, might not even
win that state rep district or even that state Senate district.
(11:44):
But for a county wide seat, going to find votes
like that and then mobilizing your base, getting folks out
to vote, and let's be honest, some cheating. It's a recipe.
So the election is over and and Lena the child
monster has won. Nobody can believe what's happened. Rodney has
(12:08):
orchestrated this thing. Behind the scenes. They had an old
white guy who had announced to run or filed to run,
and they talked him into pulling out. And I've heard
some rumors about how that deal happened, but it was
all about the cause. So he was offered, shall we
say something, to get out of the race and support her.
But Democrats didn't know who she was. She just had
(12:31):
a D beside her name, and that was the last
race where you could That was the last race where
you could get straight party voting. So nobody voted for
Lena had doggers. They voted D. So she wins, and
then she has a reelection against Alex Meeler, and of
course you remember that race, Republicans came together. Meeler was
(12:52):
a great crossover candidate. She was a military veteran of
some reput She was a bomb technician. She had a
law degree from Harvard, she had an NBA from Harvard,
she had business experience. She's tough, she's a mother. Everybody
knows Lena's a weirdo like Kamala Harris, these women who've
(13:15):
never had children, and they're emotionally unstable. You don't want
an episode of Sex and the City playing out in
the county Commissioner's court. And that's exactly what's turned out
to be the case. She's emotionally immature. So Mieler runs
(13:36):
a very good race and everything goes right. But to
his credit, Rodney engineered. Remember he brought in an election
administrator and then another one too in the same year,
and they cheated that race. Well, now Lena has a
challenge within the Democrat Party, three of them. This is
(13:56):
going to be interesting. I'll tell you why that matters.
Duck King of doing it suggested for general audiences. Before
we get in the Republican primary, we start with the
Democrat primary, which is going to be far more interesting,
at least at this point, and far more heated. So
(14:20):
the presumption has been that Lena's not going to run
for re election. She spent a lot of time in
the nuthouse over the last term and a half. Her
staff was all under indictment. They were caught with their
hands in the cookie jar. That's not the least of
(14:43):
what they've done. They just got caught and there was
a district attorney, Kim Ogg, who prosecuted it. And Rodney
made sure, you're not going to prosecute me or her again.
So he threw everything he had at replacing her with
somebody he could control, Shawn Tier. Remember that a grand
(15:06):
jury was convened to review Rodney's African art in the
County warehouse scandal. That I was told the Feds were
going to prosecute. What favors were pulled to keep him
out of that. I still don't know. I've heard rumors,
but I don't have confirmation. So you got Lena, and
(15:30):
she has no money left in her account. She is
clearly growing more unstable by the day. She's cussed at
her fellow commissioners. It's very bad. And folks I know
that work down there, tell me that she is on
(15:51):
the verge of tears or in tears all day every
day when she's there, which is not very much. This
is all too much for her. She doesn't want to
walk away from it because she'll never get it back.
And she likes the idea of herself as this mythical
young Latina immigrant who came here and lived the American dream,
(16:18):
and little girls are looking up at me, and I
am successful and nobody can take it away from me.
I earned it. So you got Lena. Lena has name ID,
which as a candidate running for election, that matters. I
(16:41):
have not seen any polling in a Democrat primary, So
take away your hatred or dislike or distrust or disdain
for her, because you won't be voting in the Democrat primary.
So you're only going to be talking about people who
are fruits and nuts. You're talking about Democrat primary here.
We haven't had a good spirited contest Democrat primary in
(17:09):
Harris County in a while. Well we're about to. And
that's going to be bad for statewide races because we're
going to have a contested race for Sheila Jackson Lee's seat,
and we're going to have a contested race for county judge.
And that's going to mean that a lot of Democrats
(17:31):
are going to get fired up about voting. Now, do
they vote in November? I don't know. Do they come
back in November because they have a candidate that inspires
them more than Lena Hidalgo, I don't know, but there
is the risk that they do. So you're going to
have next year Democrats in the Harris County region very
(17:53):
fired up over this race. At least, I think Republicans
are going to be looking at a spirited attorney general
race where you've got Joan Huffman, state Senator from this area.
You've got May's Middleton state senator from this area. He's
got a lot of money he's going to put into it.
Johan Huffman's going to have the Texans for Lawsuit Reform.
She's going to have a lot of money, so's can
(18:14):
have two well funded race candidates. You've got Aaron Wrights,
who worked for Paxton and now works in the DOJ,
just started up there. The rumor is he will have
Ken Paxton's endorsement and that he will have Trump's endorsement.
That's the rumor. It's probably coming from his camp. I
(18:36):
don't know if that's true. If it is, then that's
going to be a really, really interesting primary. We're gonna
have some interesting primaries coming up. You've got a candidate
who has not announced who is going to be running
against Dan Crenshaw, who's going to be able to raise
money and who has a lot of grassroots support. He'll
(18:59):
be our guests in less than a week. But a
hard run race against Crenshaw in a primary is going
to be hard for Crenshaw to fend off. There is
another presumably well funded Republican candidate with some Second Baptist support,
(19:24):
some players at Second Baptists, some power folks, and some
campaign insiders, who is also expected to run in that
congressional race. So I think you can expect the Crenshaw
seat to be a very very spirited Republican primary race
for his congressional seat. There are a few others that
will be out there we'll talk about. But let's go
(19:45):
back to the County Judge race. You got Lena Hidalgo
who says that she hasn't decided if she's running or not.
When you waiver like this, you're never running because the
people there's only so much money out there, and the
smart money knows after years or they've seen you come
(20:07):
and go, they know that if you're wavering, then some
days you're in and some days you're out. You don't
have the heart for it, you're not gonna win. And
so what's going to happen is you but you can't.
You're not mature enough politically, you're not seasoned enough to
walk out with class and dignity. You're waiting around, jealous
(20:30):
that the money folks are going to other people, The
endorsements are going to other people, the operatives are going
to other people. And so what's not clear in all
of this is Rodney playing his hand. Now, where I
suspect Rodney would be is Erica Lee Carter, who is
Sheila Jackson, Lee's daughter, who had a mixed announcement of
(20:54):
if Lena doesn't run, I'll run in the announce in
the in the in the text of a tweet, but
in the official announcement below. I'm running, So maybe they can't,
but they might not be the smartest group. Then you've
got a city council and Letitia Plumber, and then you've
(21:15):
got the former mayor of Houston and these porker we'll
kind of go through what that race looks like coming up. Yeah,
I do enjoy your show. If Lena is not the
county judge anymore, she would have to pay for her
own trips to France and nobody would be there to
receive her.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Hello, La commdaont Might I interest you in our extensive
wine least perhaps Merleaux Chardon, perhaps pad wine with our
Caviado virgin.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I am feeling very overwhelmed right now, so I'm going
to go to the bathroom, and when I come back,
I hope that you guys will respect my mental balance.
Oh jive, is this American now?
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Boone the Explorer?
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I heard that and it does not make me go.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Well, yes, we can tell by the flush.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
So enough about Lena. If Rodney wanted her to be
the county judge, Erica Lee, Sheila Jackson, Lee's donner and well,
Erica Lee wouldn't be in the race, and probably not
Letitia Plumber either. He would as the saying goes clear
(22:46):
the deck. Now, he couldn't clear the deck from a
nice porker. An these has our own power base and
her own ambitions. Let me go back when an ease
Porker started running for city council. She was a She
(23:09):
was in the finance department of Mossbacher Energy, Bob Mossbacker
being a legendary fundraiser in Republican circles, Secretary of Commerce
for George H. W. Bush. He was there for George H. W. Bush,
the father forty one for many, many years. One of
(23:32):
George Bush had a coterie of guys behind him that
were as strong, impressive, successful, tough, smart as anybody I've
ever seen in politics. He collected them from the early
(23:55):
sixties and he maintained close ties with them. You know,
you had the Heugh Litt Keys on the business side,
but you had guys like James A. Baker the Third
as fine a presidential advisor conciliary as there has ever
(24:17):
been in American history. He was but one Bob Mossbacker another.
So this was kind of a blue blood Republican operation
and a niece was able to survive there. And I
don't know that anybody knew her politics. They may not
have known she was gay. They may not have cared.
(24:41):
I don't know that they would have. They're not a
big social conservatives. But she's very smart. A niece sat
next to me on city council. I guess technically I
sat next to her because she preceded me. She ran
for office as an at large citywide city councilman and lost,
(25:04):
and then she came back and won, and she managed
She managed to do something it's very hard to do.
She made being gay to be a motivating force for
a lot of Houston gays. Hey, this will be our
first openly gay elected official. Because Sylvester was still in
(25:27):
the closet. This is going to be this is a
big deal. We've got a candidate who's going to represent us.
It's going to be we're gonna be able to say
here's a qualified person. And yet, outside of that that
(25:48):
sort of targeted campaign toward inner city gays, she was
just a person who was about the dollars and cents
and the budgets. And I will tell you, serving with
her own city council. That was true. She was not
a tax and spin nut. We agreed on most things
that they should be common sense, that we shouldn't have waste,
(26:12):
we shouldn't play games, there shouldn't be corruption. I'm the
first one to tell you that on city council during
my two years, that was my experience. Then she cycles
off because she turned limited off and she becomes the
controller city controller, and the city controller would be kind
(26:37):
of like for the president. There's a fed chairman. You
could see it sort of like that. It's the auditor,
it's the controller. It's the person who blesses the finances,
goes out to the bonds. The way it has emerged
and become I don't know that this was originally fashioned
in this manner, but it's a healthy thing is that
(26:57):
the controller is there to question the mayor. And we've
had some terse relations between mayors and controllers over the years,
George Grinneas being George Grenneas and Bob Lanier being probably
the most rancorous and Lanier absolutely broke Grinneas and Grienneas
(27:22):
can be a pompous little weasel, or so I'm told.
I only know him socially. But I don't think greeneas
was doing anything wrong. I think Greenneas was doing what
he thought was his job. And Bob Lanier was much
like Donald Trump. He did not want to be questioned.
He didn't believe you had the heft to question him.
(27:44):
So anyway, you got Anie Parker. She serves out her
two four year terms because by this time they've changed
the term limit process and she's been biding her time
as part of the lgbt Q Victory Fund. She is
the strongest challenger to Lena. But you've got Sheila Jackson,
Lee's daughter, which you have to believe Rodney is behind.
(28:07):
And now you've got this city councilman, Letitia Plumber, who
has a very similar background to Kamala Harris. Interestingly enough,
her family is Yamani, Indian and black, and she has
to look kind of the Kamala Harris at one point
was a real commerce she was. She was, she had
(28:28):
a big future. She was. I don't see Letitia Plumber
getting any any momentum, but
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