Seeking To Arouse Sexual Interest As Your State Comptroller of Public Accounts
By Vince Leibowitz on Aug 1, 2006 in 2006 Texas Elections
Comptroller of Public Accounts has to be one of the least sexy of statewide offices. However, Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, who is seeking the office, may change that.
Although Republicans and her camp insist that the steamy romance novel she wrote in the 1990s is a non-issue in her campaign, the attention the Main Stream Media continues to give to Democrat Fred Head’s references to the novel suggest otherwise.
The San Antonio Express-News has a story in which Combs’ people continue to insist the novel is a non-issue:
The book is back in Susan Combs life like an old boyfriend who is best forgotten but keeps popping up at the most inconvenient times.
“A Perfect Match” is a steamy romance novel published in 1990 by Combs, who was in between jobs when she wrote it but is now the state’s agriculture commissioner and the Republican nominee for state comptroller.
It tells the story of Emily Brown, a cryptanalyst for the National Security Agency who “spent her days decoding secret messages with the zeal that most people applied to solving crossword puzzles,” the book jacket states. Then she meets her match in super-spy Ross Harding.
“Their mouths had fused hotly, desperately, a feverish urgency in his touch,” reads one passage, referring to the pair’s passion for each other.
The SAEXN also quotes this entertaining tidbit from one of Head’s campaign fliers:
“Would you vote for a candidate who wrote a trashy, pornographic romance novel that glorifies premarital sex and seeks to arouse sexual interest as your State Comptroller of Public Accounts?” Head asks in a campaign flier.
Here’s what the Combs camp has to say:
“It’s a non-issue,” said Combs spokesman Reggie Bashur. “The comptroller’s office is serious, a lot of weighty issues, and it’s strange that Mr. Head would pick this as his issue to discuss.”
Could it be because the trashy novel is somewhat out-of-line with the right-wing values Combs frequently espouses? More:
“This right wing bunch that has supported her all these years, when they learn about this book, they’re not going to be able to hold their noses tight enough to vote for her,” Head said.
[...]
When she took on the city of Austin and environmentalists as a property rights advocate in 1995, her opponents first raised the book as evidence that her politics were expedient pandering. One question posed to her then was how could she vote for abstinence education in public schools while publishing a book that includes premarital sex.
Yes…one might wonder that.
These torys are just sad. It’s like they would love to go wild if they only knew how. Read Scooter Libbey’s racy novel? Did Phil Gramm’s porno movie ever get made? And how come we never get to see Jack Abramoff’s pro-apartheid action movie?
The story about that book is older than Terry Keel’s haircut. She was razzed about it when she passed her first bill in the House, it was even read into the back mike in the House Chamber. Pete Patterson tried to use it, to no effect. Yep it’s news.
I’m sorry, but they’re right; this issue is a non-starter. Of course the MSM is interested, they’re always looking for something that appeals to peoples’ prurient interests. People will look at the story, giggle, and say, “Who cares.” She has a record in the Lege and as Ag commissioner that Fred should be hammering her on. The number of people that really care about this probably numbers in the low hundreds.
When I heard him focus on this exclusively at the convention, I just groaned. This is on a par with with Strayhorn spending all her time trying to get on the ballot as Grandma.