A Texan I Actually Dislike

As anyone who has spent any time on this blog knows, I love Texas. I particularly love Texans who are some of the most friendly, generous and kind people anywhere. In all the years I've lived in this state, I've never had a flat tire or car trouble that a man (or woman) hasn't stopped to help within three minutes of my pulling the car to the shoulder. It's the neighborly thing to do, you see.

Having said all that, I'm still forced to admit that there are some rotten tomatoes in the stewpot. This post is about one of them.

As most Americans are aware, we're only three weeks out from the November mid-term elections, which will be held on November 7th. One of those races is for State Comptroller of Texas, the state's tax collector. There are three names on the ballot: Republican Susan Combs, Democrat Fred Head and Libertarian Mike Burris.

By most accounts, Susan Combs is the front runner. She's an attorney, who worked as a prosecutor in Dallas before becoming a state legislator who served two terms. She's a cattle rancher who also worked on Wall Street. She is the current Agriculture Commissioner.

The Libertarian is an auditor with little political experience.

And then we have Fred Head. Fred served two terms in the Texas legislature and then lost his bid for re-election in 1980. Now, more than twenty-five years later, he's back. And the chief plank of his campaign platform: "Don't vote for Susan Combs because she's a pornographer."

Huh???

That's right. If you go to old Fred's website, it says:

"Susan Combs claims to be a person of high moral standards. Her record of writing, having published and selling a pornographic book clearly shows that Susan Combs is a two faced, hypocrite who was obviously more concerned with her literary career and seeing her name in print than the morals of the young People of Texas who are exposed to her 222 page book, A Perfect Match, which has her name at the top of every other page - - - a clear testament to Susan Combs’ insatiable ego and desire to see her name in print."

You heard me. This moron is claiming that a woman who wrote a romance novel in 1990--and we all know how steamy books were sixteen years ago--is a pornographer.

It would be sad if it weren't so damn stupid.

I sent Fred Head an email at the beginning of the week, pointing out that it is generally more helpful for candidates to emphasize their own merits instead of inventing negatives for their opponents. Writers all over the state have been emailing him with the same message.

The fact that Head is sticking to his smear tactics suggests that he has no merits to highlight.

An editorial in today's Waco Tribune Herald seems to agree. It said: Head's "central attention-getting issue has been to point to Combs' hobby of writing romance novels, literature he deems 'pornographic'. . . Combs is the most qualified candidate for state comptroller."