Okay, that’s it...... I usually keep national politics out of this space. I do this mainly because I can’t even make Fort Bend politicians act right. What chance and what influence can I possibly have in national politics?

But the latest Republican talking point has gotten on my last nerve. Can you believe that Texas U.S. House member Joe Barton has actually apologized to British Petroleum for us making them pay for ruining our part of the ocean until the next generation. 

That was just the last straw.

I noticed a story in the daily rag about how the state Republican party is broke. It’s been an open secret that it has been broke for several years. 

Oh, they raise money to fund campaigns for specific people or positions. But they have been unable to raise money for the state party for several years because contributors simply don’t want to financially support a ragtag group of people who are so completely out of touch with the majority of even other Republicans in addition to most of the people in Texas.

I know my words are falling on barren ground here in Fort Bend, but the socially conservative leadership of the state party is defunct. First, none of them have any personal money to give and wouldn’t give it if they did, and second, we don’t trust them with our money. They would probably give it all to one of their good old boys to set up a school for something as utterly impossible as abstinence. 

Example: some local group got thousands of tax dollars from the Bush administration to establish local abstinence groups. One well-known son of a local couple and the daughter of the well-known preacher were leaders of the group except they had to cancel their weekend conference because she was pregnant and they had to take off to get married. 

It’s just such silliness as this that makes us keep our wallets in our pockets for the state party.

But after this past weekend when not only crazy Joe Barton, but Rush Limbaugh, and Michelle Bachmann also accused the President of a “Chicago-style shakedown.” Instead of patting him and his administration on the back for securing the $20 billion fund, they didn’t let the sun go down before they were raining on his parade.

I have to quote my two favorite pundits, the 80-year-olds “Margaret and Helen” who said, “We survived Bush. You’ll survive Obama.”

A page out of the other book.... The Democrats in Fort Bend held a big gala this past weekend. They took the occasion to honor Fort Bend Commissioner Grady Prestage with the keynote speaker none other than gubernatorial candidate Bill White. 

They borrowed a few things from the Republican book by having a VIP room where you could privately meet and have your picture taken with Mr. White. Those tickets were a little higher.

They had a silent and live auction and reportedly made a nice amount of money.

I was disappointed that I wasn’t asked to roast Prestage. However, the Democrats avoided all that by “honoring” him instead of “roasting” him. 

Drats!

I’ve known Grady Prestage for 25 years and can even remember dragging him to a chamber party and introducing him around when he was first running. I was impressed that one of our commissioners had a college degree, something that was not common at the time. In fact, I’m not sure any of them ever had. County Judge Jodie Stavinoha yes but none of the commissioners.

The Democrats held a successful event, and we will be running photos in the magazines--Fort Bend Business Journal and/or Fort Bend Focus.

Oh, one more thing. I saw several people there that I had previously thought were Republicans. Maybe they were just coming to see Bill White. Or maybe they were just honoring Grady Prestage. Or maybe.......Oh, and before I get off this subject, Commissioner Prestage has a couple of very handsome children (young adults now), a daughter and a son, who also attended the event.

Finally...... It has really ticked me off for years that other people have won editorial awards at this newspaper and our magazines. Oh, I’m really proud of them and I know why I’ve never been able to win although I think I’m a great chronicler of the local political scene and other things.

But I know how the judges think. They are looking for more stuff like Leon Hale writes and less like Rick Casey and I’m more of a Rick Casey writer. I like to write about stuff that politicians should be ashamed of.

Over the years, I’ve even accused my son, who is in charge of getting the contest entries together, of entering some of my, shall we say, less memorable columns. 

And it’s always been a great deal of satisfaction to me when strangers tell me how much they enjoy my column. I’m a little embarrassed because writing this column is so easy for me to do. 

Hey, our elected officials give me more than enough fodder each week. 

Anyway, although I’m a little embarrassed, I’m secretly glad that people do read it and enjoy it. 

So.....(I’m finally getting to the point) this past weekend I won the first place award for column writing at our trade convention, the Texas Community Newspapers Association, in Austin. My life is complete.

I guess now I put “award winning columnist” up by my name at the top of this space. Not long ago when my son won (probably because the judges were all hide-bound conservatives that year), we almost printed “award winning communist.” Thankfully, he caught it before it went to print.

But with my win, they probably will use “award winning communist” because they all think I’m so liberal.

I’m not necessarily liberal. I prefer to think of myself as “progressive.”

I haven’t forgotten the superintendent’s contract. I’m having a CPA dissect the annunities it contains. I promise next week.

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