Thursday Roundup: The Walls Fall Off The House

No matter how much one tries to build an institution impervious to morality, expressly for political benefit, it seems like there's no way to stop someone from having a conscience somewhere in there.

Testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in exchange for immunity, Monica Goodling, ex-aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, says she "may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions and... may have taken inappropriate considerations into account." Of course, she didn't have anything to do with the firings, just like the entire rest of the Justice Department — we all know now that the document listing attorneys to be dismissed was immaculately conceived. But she did say she "crossed the line" in favoring Republican candidates for assistant U.S. attorney positions, as well as immigration judges and Board of Immigration Appeal members. She also stated that Gonzales had been briefed on the document, and attended a key meeting on the firings. For those of you keeping track, yes, that means Gonzales lied under oath when he said he had not seen any memos or been in any discussion on the subject. And possibly was party to witness intimidation as well; Goodling mentioned a meeting with Gonzales after the attorney firings became a public scandal where he asked her how she recalled the situation, and "offered his perspective" that they had been fired for performance, not partisanship, as the Hill puts it. She said that meeting made her "a little uncomfortable." I can't help thinking that if their recollection was the same, the meeting wouldn't have made her feel uncomfortable at all. But maybe that's just me.

The Times quotes Congressman F. James Sensebrenner (R-WI) trying to save the day for the Republican party, saying, "It seems to me that with this fishing expedition there ain't no fish in the water." Would that be because they're all beached, Congressman?

Fortunately for the Republican party, they're not all as bad as Rep. Sensebrenner in reframing the debate. The Times also reports on John D. Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Company, and other high-level oil executives bemoaning the high price of oil at the pump. How's that, you ask? Isn't it, after all, the oil companies setting the prices? Ah, see, clearly you do not know the industry like Hofmeister does. Gas prices aren't being driven by the desire of oil companies to maintain high profits and keep their stock prices up and their options immensely valuable. The real reason gas prices are up is because those crazy liberals are trying to push biofuel alternatives. Clearly, they say, this is a disincentive to go forward with plans for production increases they had outlined to Congress earlier; scaling back production means lower supply, which means prices go up.

The Times subtly — maybe too subtly — points out the flaw in that argument: as just about everyone knows, there's not enough non-food corn in America to hit the 35 billion gallon ethanol target President Bush called for — with current methods corn-based ethanol will hit approximately 15 billion gallons, or about a third of a billion barrels compared to the 8.85 billion barrels of gasoline we produce per day. Yet we are about to eclipse the gas prices reached in 1981 after Reagan removed price controls on gas after the Iranian revolution and the subsequent invasion of Iraq, which drastically cut oil production from both countries. And yes, that's even after scaling for inflation.

The Texas legislature is breathing a big sigh after yesterday's hectic up-until-2 session. Not a sigh of relief, perhaps, but a sigh nevertheless. The Statesman has the story on how the Republican leadership in the Lege got a clobbering this session, and the Dallas Morning News notes that Democrats don't have all that much to cheer about either. I thought about making a few phone calls and getting some opinions, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it — even this far north, you can just feel the exhaustion coming from the pink dome. I'd like to focus on the positives that came out of yesterday — after all, we're all about the positives here at the Blue — but that would make for a particularly short roundup.

There were some positives, of course, particularly with regards to higher education: Perry won't be blanket vetoing education spending this session, as he and top legislators met to find compromise on the spending bill that would allow him to use his appropriations line-item veto power instead of killing the appropriations bill altogether. Can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, I suppose. And we may still be seeing that student loan reform we were looking for: Sen. Zaffirini's bill stiffening rules on loan companies' interactions with college financial aid departments got new life breathed into it after a near-death experience by being added to the Senate's version of HB 3815, which passed yesterday. The clock's still ticking on it, as the House needs to approve the amendment, but hopes are high.

But if I'd chosen to stay unerringly positive, I couldn't run this story: After all the Republican challengers stepping up to run against Craddick, the last thing he needs is an allegation that he's been using the influence of the Speaker's chair to try and get special favors. Oops. Apparently Speaker Craddick wanted to get a refund from a travel agent on a trip he purchased and didn't use, and threatened to "embarrass" the travel agency if they didn't give him a refund. The travel agency turned around and filed suit against Craddick. That's not going to play very well come re-election time.

(Update: Burnt Orange Report has links to the documents filed in the lawsuit, as well as further coverage from Courthouse News.)

Possibly the most remarkable positive to come out of yesterday would have to be the end game to the death of the Voter ID bill. Senator Mario Gallegos, who ignored doctors helping him fight the rejection of his transplanted liver to be in on the Senate floor so Democrats could successfully block the voter ID bill, was able to go back home yesterday night. Perhaps a little late in coming, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst told him last night that he could go, as the voter ID bill would not be considered. Gallegos was reported as seeming "more relieved than victorious" — and who can blame him? I usually cringe a little at terms like "hero" being bandied about, but this is one case where it clearly applies. Texas Democrats can't thank you enough, Sen. Gallegos, for your conviction and determination.

To close things off today, Charles Kuffner has the scoop from Dwight at the Chron about EarthLink reconsidering some of its citywide Wi-Fi deployments after its latest financial reports put them $30 million in the red for the quarter. His link to the Chron blog is not just a good discussion of the ramifications of municipal wireless access, but also pretty much a launchpad of links to discussion of citywide Wi-Fi.