Harris County GOP Chair Jared Woodfill’s petulant whine about insufficient partisanship on City Council gets roundly panned today in this Chron editorial and in the letters to the editor. blogHOUSTON is also critical, though more of Woodfill’s Jared-come-lately tactic.
I attended a Houston Democratic Forum event last night at which City Council member Ron Green was the featured guest. Green was asked about yesterday’s story and reported that no one on the Council took it very seriously – they all joked about it that morning. The consensus opinion among people I spoke to at the HDF meeting was that Woodfill was prodded to do this by Republicans in Austin – Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in particular. That’s all speculation, so take it for what it’s worth. If I were to guess, I’d say we probably haven’t heard the end of this, though I don’t think there will be anything more at this time. We’ll see how it goes, but if there really is concern about Bill White being a rising star, then there will be an effort to dim his luster. Next time I’d bet it’s done better.
Jared-come-lately is nice! I wish I had thought of it! 🙂
However, my complaint goes beyond just Woodfill’s bad timing. He’s simply been disengaged. If Republican leaders want to engage Houston muni politics, super! Jump right in and start offering solutions or reasonable criticism. But offering up “socialized towing” when it was offered (to use one example) is sloganeering, not my idea of conservative municipal governance or constructive criticism. If they (we?) can’t do better than that, then Mayor White’s gonna keep getting mostly what he wants. If THAT’s upsetting to elite Rs, then I’d suggest they engage the debate before it’s over!
That’s harder, of course. 🙂