Yes, she was elected. Lots of elected officials have DUI’s and don’t resign, lots do. there is a procedure for citizens to remove an elected official that Perry could have followed, but he didn’t. OF course he had other options. He could have gone through official channels to remove her for office, he could have waited until the next election (she wasn’t planning on running again), he could have let the voters who voted her in office ask to have her removed or just vote for someone else next time. But if she didn’t resign he didn’t get to appoint someone. He’s governor, not king.
And as governor, he has the power to deny funding to any agency he wants unless overridden by the legislature.
“Other options”? Perry had NO options. Lehmberg is an elected official of Travis County. Perry has no authority to remove her, regardless of whether she’s a drunk or not. It’s not his job to remove her.
He doesn’t, however, have the right to use that power as a threat to further his own agenda.
And weird how he hasnt pressured any of the other officials under his term who had a DUI into resigning. There is no way a man like Rick Perry wanted Lehmberg out of office for purely moral reasons.
I read on another forum where the law was quoted and one case of drunkenness was stated as being enuff to remove one from office. But it seems to me there should be a more direct way to do so instead of cutting funding.
There is. If he had followed it he wouldn’t be under indictment.
Here is the procedure:
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/LG/htm/LG.87.htm
Who else that he “oversees” has a DUI?
Note, if he had taken the legal route, he wouldn’t have gotten to appoint her replacement.
A list was posted recently. And if he did pressure them into resigning we at least didn’t hear much about it and certainly wasn’t indicted.
From page three of this thread…
Plenty of other elected officials in TX have gotten DUIs since Perry was in office, but he’s not demanded any of the others resign. From a quick google search, I came up with the following list of offenders.
Gonzalo Barrientos, (D) Senator, November 2001
Kevin Brady, (R) Congressman, October, 2005
Harold Dutton, (D) State Representative, April, 2007
Mike Krusee, (R) State Representative, April, 2008
Pat Ahumada, (D) Mayor, Brownsville, TX, May, 2010
Greg Tierney, (I) City Councilman, Lewisville, TX February, 2011
Alonzo Perez, (?) Mayor, Elsa, TX October, 2011
Joe Smith, (D) City Councilman, Sherman, TX, June, 2012 and March, 2013
Marcus Knight, (I) Mayor, Lancaster, TX, November, 2012
Nora Longoria, (D) Appeals Court Judge, July, 2014
Of these, the only one to resign was Greg Tierney.
But if he had followed it he wouldn’t look all tough and badass and Chris-Christie-esque, so there’s that. He didn’t want to go into another POTUS campaign looking like some milquetoast weenie who “follows procedures.”
The claim was made in one book, but the author did not reveal his sources.
Thanks
Agreed. The DUI offense was a misdemeanor in Maine at the time, and he cleaned up his act. But inarguably he was a convicted criminal.
Just not for any cocaine offenses.
I concede the cocaine conviction. But he was still a convicted criminal for the guilty plea on the DUI.
In any case, my post was in response to Jay4’s claim that Obama is the worst president we’ve had. Since Jay4 has been banned, I see no reason to continue the hijack.
Doesn’t he? Isn’t that kind of the whole point of having a veto? To further your agenda?
no.
I am a public school teacher. Part of my responsibility is to assign grades to students. It is a power that statute grants to my office. Also, by statute, the school administration cannot change grades I have assigned; I own the grade.
However, I cannot tell a parent that I will give his/her kid a failing grade unless the parent mows my yard for a month. My assigning a grade is legal. My attaching a specific action by a third party to the assignment of that grade is not.