Gene Seaman & The Blame Game

By now, you’ve no doubt heard about the Texas Ethics Commission complaint filed against Gene Seaman over “Condogate” by one of his constituants.

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times has some great coverage of the complaint if you’re not familiar with it.

What I’d like to highlight, however, is how Gene Seaman tipifies  traditional Republican tactics in his campaign’s response to the allegations.

Check out this quote (at the end of what follows) from Seaman’s campaign manager, Mac McCall:

In a required 2005 personal financial statement, Seaman says he is a real estate developer and owner, financial planner and insurance agent. The statement lists Ellen Seaman as a housewife.

Texas law presumes that everything owned during marriage is community property, said Ann Coover, a local lawyer, board certified in family law.

“Unless the parties involved can show evidence that the funds paying for a particular asset were a gift, inherited or owned at the time of marriage, it is presumed to be community property,” she said.

If Gene Seaman provided his wife with the funds to buy the condo, it would constitute a gift and would be viewed as community property, lawyers said.

Property also can be separated contractually after marriage, lawyers said. The contract, called a partition and exchange agreement, must be in writing, signed by both partners and notarized, lawyers said.

Monday, Seaman’s spokesman Mac McCall said there is no written property separation agreement between the Seamans. Ellen Seaman paid cash for the condo with her own “personal income and assets,” McCall said. He declined to disclose Ellen Seaman’s source of the money.

“It’s a personal matter of a private citizen,” he said.

Now, I hate to bring Bill and Hillary Clinton into this, but consider this:

Back in 1992 when Clinton was running for president, Hillary’s commodity trading was all the rage. But, you never heard the Clinton campaign say, “oh, it’s the personal matter of a private citizen how Hillary spends money or trades commodities.”

Sure, Republicans will argue, “well, Clinton was running for leader of the nation and Seaman’s just running for state representative.”

And, to that, I say, “so?”

There’s no double standard when it comes to this type of stuff.