HINOJOSA HANDS DEMOCRATS JUST REWARDS

Once upon a time you dressed so fine

You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you ?

People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"

You thought they were all kiddin' you

You used to laugh about

Everybody that was hangin' out

Now you don't talk so loud

Now you don't seem so proud...

You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal...
How does it feel?

By Juan Montoya

There was a time when people would have laughed you out of town if you had told them that at the same time that a Texas Republican U.S. senator was swearing in a Cameron County judge the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives would be swearing in a Republican congressman for District 27 at the very tip of South Texas.

But lo! and behold! that is just what transpired this week in Brownsville and Washington D.C. as Carlos Cascos was sworn in for a second term as county judge by United States Senator John Cornyn of Texas and Blake Farenthold was sworn in by new Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio.

And, in a dark corner somewhere in the South Texas, Cameron County Democratic Party Chairman and former county judge Gilbert Hinojosa was licking his wounds and wearing sackcloth and ashes contemplating  – once again – his bitter defeat at the hands of the minority party.

In the grand tradition of Ray Ramon and Solomon Ortiz, Gilbert's star has set.

You'll say that it was John Wood who lost to Cascos for the county judge's race, but behind the scenes pulling levers like the Wizard of Oz, were Gilbert and the other cogs of the Machine like Texas Sen. Edddie Lucio, County Clerk Joe Rivera, and District Clerk Aurora De la Garza.

The tortuous death throes of the party's demise dragged on for the better part of a month after the voters rejected the siren song Nov. 2 by voting for Cascos again.

In the classic Duval County/Archie Parr tradition, votes appeared and disappeared, totals changed, tally sheets were left uncounted, secret counts were held by mysterious groups in the dark of night, and workers witnesses secret goings on in the counting rooms.
Alas, it was all for naught.

With Texas Rangers (not the baseball team) investigators holding the threat of criminal indictments like the Sword of Damocles over their heads, county officials involved in the voting dispute blinked and admitted that, indeed, the voters had shunned the Demo machine.

Not even the syrupy enticements of Sofia Benavides, the oily influence of the Lucios, or the ample blandishments of De la Garza could tilt the balance in favor of Wood.

And Hinojosa, who – in the words of Rivera – came to Cameron County from Hidalgo with nothing but a fig leaf to cover his economic nakedness – was left furtively pulling on slack strings as his puppet show succumbed to the people's will.

Not that he didn't try.

It was Hinojosa who would have had Wood assume his role as "Patron" over the peons of Cameron County rather than swallow his desire for revenge against the man who toppled him from his throne four years ago after more than a decade of wielding unbridled political clout from his throne on Harrison Street.

The campaign against Cascos had started when Gilbert lost to Carlos the first time and it didn't stop until it became clear that for all the cards up his sleeve – the politiqueras, subterfuge, deceit, influence peddling, patronage and guile – the effort to thwart the wishes of the electorate failed.

Hinojosa's political fortunes were dashed. He had hitched his star to failed Texas gubernatorial candidates in the past and just lately had gambled that Hillary Clinton would defeat Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination. He was so miffed when Hillary lost (and his dreams for a federal judgeship vanished) that he refused to allow the Obama supporters use of the party's headquarters for the general election push against John McCain.

He had come, oh, so close. Like Tantalus who sees the desired fruits to soothe his hunger and water to quench his thirst (tantalizingly) out of reach, Gilbert never quite achieved what the likes of his predecesor Tony Garza (damn, another Republican!) did by becoming a statewide office holder and then Ambassador to Mexico.

But don't feel sorry for Gilbert. Over the years as a maggot on Cameron County carrion he has amassed millions. He will not suffer. Like Ramon, he will crawl off to some swanky condominium and marinate in his bitterness and bile thinking of a political career that might have been.
But what of Sofia Benavides, Wood, Rivera, De la Garza, Lucio, and everyone who tagged along behind him like rats after the Pied Piper?

They, like the Democratic Party, have lost all credibility. After  Gilbert goes back to Mission, who'll pick up the pieces? Or is it too late already?

The carcass has been picked clean by Hinojosa who will traipse off with nary a backward glance at the political and human flotsam he left behind.

Herminia Becerra will deliver the eulogy at the party funeral wearing a multi-colored campaign hat and a Wood T-shirt. Rivera will serve as an usher, and De la Garza will be the grieving widow. Gabino Vasquez will pass out programs and Patty Matamoros will hand out devotional cards for the grieving.

And outside in the cold will be the rest of us, the gullible Democrats who thought that they meant it when they mouthed the ideals of the workingman's party, compassion for those in need, and equal rights for everyone regardless of economic status of political pull.

But, unlike them, we won't have a seat at this table. Like Hinojosa, they have already taken their portion of the pie and left the crumbs for the rest of us to fight over.

Democrats: Either reform your party, jump ship, or die.