TX SEN: Once Again, The Texas GOP Exposes Its Idiocy In Senate Race
By Vince Leibowitz on Jan 22, 2008 in 2008 Texas Elections
We here at Capitol Annex literally couldn’t believe our eyes yesterday when we received this email from the Republican Party of Texas and its chairwoman, Tina Benkiser:
Rick Noriega castigated Ray McMurrey, an educator for nearly two decades, at the AFL-CIO convention Saturday, saying “It’s easy to talk from the cheap seats when you haven’t been in the trenches for a long time fighting for Texas families…” Noriega was responding to Mr. McMurrey’s repeated requests for Mr. Noriega to debate him.
“While we think McMurrey is way off in his advocacy for immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Universal healthcare, and publicly funded elections, we certainly have admiration for Ray McMurrey and all Texas Teachers who are charged with preparing Texas children for the future. For Mr. Noriega to infer that McMurrey was in the ‘cheap seats’ is an affront to every Texas teacher. Noriega owes Mr. McMurrey and all Texas teachers an apology,” said Tina Benkiser, Chairman of Republican Party of Texas.
Has Benkiser actually lost her mind? Did the Texas Public Policy Foundation borrow it and forget to give it back?
Number one, she’s taking Noriega’s words out of context. I was in the room when Noriega spoke, and his speech wasn’t criticizing McMurrey for being a teacher. It was simply pointing out that the central focus of McMurrey’s campaign was only to criticize Noriega.
Second, this is yet another thing to show that the GOP is scared out of its wits of Noriega. Otherwise, why would they step out and defend McMurrey? It’s because the GOP would much rather face a candidate who has no chance of winning the race than Rick Noriega, who has the potential to send U.S. Senator John Cornyn packing back to private law practice.
Glad to see we can finally agree on something. Corny ’s campaign is scared. Scared stupid.Like giving free press to both Noriega and Mcmurrey.
Noriega’s comments were way out of line. McMurrey challenged him from the podium, not the “cheap seats.” And as far as being in the trenches goes, no one does more for the state of Texas or works harder to secure our future than our educators. Taken as a whole, Noriega’s comment denigrates McMurrey’s record of public service, and denies the reality that he is a serious challenger in this primary.
And since when does a legitimate challenge to debate count as a political cheap shot? Noriega needs to man up and debate to prove to democratic primary voters that he’s solid enough on the issues to take on Cornyn.