LaRouche, Etc. (Updated)

LaRouchePAC is back on the scene just ahead of this week's Texas Democratic Party State Convention, brandishing a press release detailing a request for support and / or an endorsement from TDP Vice Chair Roy LaVerne Brooks. Brooks is running against incumbent TDP Chairman Boyd Richie for that leadership position.

UPDATE: Apparently the press release was wrong. Post updated with new information.

Here is the statement and correction sent last night by Michael Maddi, speaking on behalf of LaRouchePAC, reproduced in part:

The press release is not accurate in stating that Roy LaVerne Brooks asked for the endorsement of the LaRouche Political Action Committee and never actually states that she sought Lyndon LaRouche's personal endorsement. It is the case that she contacted Kesha Rogers to ask Kesha to support her campaign.

As I'm sure you remember, Kesha was one of four candidates two years ago for Texas Democratic Party Chair. I believe that many of the delegates were tremendously impressed by Kesha's optimism and passion for building the Democratic Party across the state. I can't speak for Ms. Brooks, but I believe that's what motivated her to seek Kesha's support.

The press release has been pulled from the website and should be posted soon in a more accurate form.

So, we should take this to mean that the official position of LaRouchePAC is that Roy LaVerne Brooks was not actually seeking a LaRouche endorsement, but rather support from Kesha Rogers.

More soon.

The original press release:

PRESS RELEASE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

`Candidate of Change' Image Takes a Hit in Texas

June 1, 2008 (EIRNS)-This release was issued on May 31 by the Lyndon
LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC).

On the eve of the Texas Democratic Party state convention, which opens
next Thursday in Austin, the national Obama campaign has demonstrated again
that it has no interest in the young voters it has activated, except to have
them cast a vote for Obama, then disappear from sight. Texas Party Vice
Chairwoman, Roy LaVerne Brooks, who is a candidate for state Chair at the
upcoming convention, was told by Rudy Shank, from the national Obama
campaign, that she should drop out of the race, "because they would like a
convention without hurt feelings."

Brooks, who cut her teeth in Texas politics working with former U.S.
House Speaker Jim Wright, asked Kesha Rogers and the LaRouchePAC to back her
candidacy for state Chair. She agreed that the content of her campaign
should be the concept put forward by Lyndon LaRouche in his "Bind the
Wounds" statement, and not centered around the "phenomenon" of Obama. She
has run her campaign based on the idea of returning the Party to the
tradition of FDR and the American System, and recruiting new voters to this
perspective. As a result, she has been endorsed by some leaders among the
Hispanic Dems, who are backers of Hillary.

However, she came under pressure last week from the national Obama
camp, which pushed her to turn on black leaders who were not supporting
Obama. Kesha Rogers advised her she would never win on the basis of racial
identity, nor by attaching herself to a media cooked-up rock star persona,
and that, instead, the deeper issue to take up in her campaign is that of
developing among new voters an understanding of the real issue, FDR vs. the
Brits, and winning them over to the FDR tradition, rather than the
opportunistic approach of the faith-based, Elmer Gantry delivery system.

Over the last two days, the national Obama campaign changed its
approach. Roy LaVerne was contacted by Rudy Shank, who was sent by the
national campaign to Texas, to produce an "harmonic outcome" at the Texas
convention. As part of this strategy, she was told she should drop out of
the race for state chair. If she refused, the Obama campaign would take away
her status as a superdelegate.

If she agreed to this demand, her status as a superdelegate would be
maintained, even though her term as Vice-Chair ends at the conclusion of the
state convention.

When she briefed Kesha on these developments, we told her she should
fight this, by going public. She hesitated until yesterday, when it was
announced that the incumbent State Chair, and her opponent, Boyd Richie, has
endorsed Obama, thus making it clear that the Obama campaign had gone behind
her back. Richie, who is a flunkey for the existing Democratic Party
establishment in Texas - which is essentially the same DLC-types who have
destroyed the state party - had been uncommitted.

In the May 30 Houston Chronicle, political columnist Rick Casey ran an
article on this battle, under the headline "An Obama mystery at state meet."
Casey makes the obvious point in his reporting on this scandal:

"There are ironies in the request by an Obama operative that Brooks
back off the chairman's race.

"One is that she is an African-American. The state Democratic chairman
has traditionally been a white male, with an occasional white female
slipping in.

"Another is that Brooks is casting herself as a 'change' from the good
ol' boy system. Brooks' chances of unseating Richie are enhanced by several
thousand change-oriented newcomers who will swell the convention to about
triple its normal size.

"All this begs the question: Why would the national Obama campaign
involve itself in a state [chair] race?"

After reviewing the business-as-usual monkey business in the Texas
Democratic Party, in which minorities are taken for granted, and given
secondary, token roles, Casey concludes his article as follows:

"Brooks said she told Shank she would stay in the race. "'I made the
comment that I may need to jump over to Hillary's side because I'm not going
to be treated like a dish rag,' she said.

"I asked if she was serious.

"'I'm very serious if they keep trying to get me out of the race and I
learn that Obama is behind it,' she said."

These developments confirm what Lyndon LaRouche had said six weeks
ago, when he was given a report from Kesha Rogers from the district caucuses
which had convened to choose the national delegates. Kesha reported that,
despite the influx of thousands of new people, who had been activated by the
rock-star-hype around Obama, the Obama delegate slots were going to the old
party hacks. Lyndon LaRouche said that this is the clear pattern, that
Rohatyn, Pelosi, Dean, were going to use these young voters - many of who
have been mobilized as MySpace/Facebook zombies - for their votes, then cast
them aside.

This morning, LaRouche said this fits the pattern of the effort, by
the DNC, to disenfranchise the primary voters in Florida and Michigan, at
their meeting on May 31.

Kesha Rogers is presently at a Credentials Committee meeting, asking
leading Democrats what they think of how the Obama campaign has lined up
with the British in Africa, while organizing to keep the plantation system
in the Texas Dem Party. She said that there is recognition of the problem,
and both anger and discomfort over it. (HCS)

For your reference, this is the Chronicle article referenced in the release.

There's quite a bit to get into here. We'll be examining this and other events in upcoming news reports and analyses on the race for Texas Democratic Party Chair.