SORRY DR. G.F. MCHALE-SCULLY, BUT WE BEG TO DIFFER

By Juan Montoya

An old editor of mine once said that getting into an an argument with a newspaper doesn't pay.

"You don't get in an argument with a guy sitting on a barrel of ink,"Griff Singer used to say. "They'll always have the last word."

That's why I have hesitated to respond to the ruminations of http://www.downtownbrownstownnews.blogspot/ Market Square/Cameron Hotel ghoul and good friend Jerry McHale. In a recent Peerless Observer column, the good doctor said that he would prefer that both Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos and Texas Southmost College trustee Adela Garza dispel any idea of running for the newly-created Congressional District 34 because they have much work to do here.

He also said that although we put up with Republicans locally, we despise them at the state and national level. Instead, the said, they should concentrate on doing our work.

We beg to differ on that point.

So did, apparently, the voters of District 27 when they booted out Solomonosaurus Ortiz after 28 years of lackluster performance that enriched himself and his cronies, including his assistant Lencho Rendon and his buddies like Louis Jones over at Dannenbaum Engineering.

Ortiz and the able and willing lambiscon Sen. Eddie Lucio milked the Brownsville Navigation District and sucked out the bulk of the $21 million in bonds that the taxpayers of the district will pay for the next 20 years. In the end, taxpayers will in all likelyhood pay more than $40 million if you add in the interest on the bonds that were issues to build the truck-rail bridge that never materialized.

As far as we know, the new Republican congressman Blake Farenthold has no such conflicts of interest cooking in his pot.

Remember, Jerry, that Solomonasaurus and Lencho (though his brother) also had a hand in providing security at the ports in his district while at the same time passing legislation in Washington D.C. that required heightened security measures for the nation's ports. Even after all this was made public, Solomosaurus lamely denied he had a hand in the cookie jar by saying that he had transferred control of his share in the scam to someone else (Rendon's brother). Only when the heat got unbearable did he desist.

Those security contracts made them rich beyond their wildest dreams they might have harbored when they eked out a living as a county sheriff and an investigator.

Should we speak of the Lucio legacy? Should we go over his role in convincing the commissioners at the port to kick out Brown and Root and replace them with the Dannenbaum gang? Should we remind our three readers that he also was on the "consultant" racket with Dannenbaum, and later with the builders of the private jails in Willacy County that created a scandal when some of the commissioners he convinced to hire his employer got indicted and convicted of taking bribes from his buddies?

Eddie also backed away from that smear by temporarily stopping his "consultant" gig. Once the stench of the scandal blew over, Eddie jumped on the gravy train again. For all we know, he is still getting his cuts in return for using our public office for private gain.

Yes, we know that Cascos has withdrawn from the congressional race this year because he fears that the remaining (local) commissioners led by Eddie Hernandez and John Wood will go crazy like kids in a candy store if no one is watching them. We understand they already are. And we, like you, are grateful that Cascos will bypass this round of elections to tend to his beloved Cameron County.

Likewise, at the other side of town, you, like us, have expressed our undying gratitude to Adela Garza and her three fellows on the Texas Southmost College board of trustees for not allowing Fred Rusteberg, Juliet Garcia, David Oliveira, Robert Robles and Robert Lozano to dissolve the college district and plunder $200 million in assets and hand them over to their masters at the UT System.

No one expected Garza, Trey Mendez, Kiko Rendon and Rene Torres to bear the intense public vilification they withstood from an enraged power structure which saw its dreams of plunder destroyed by the courageous stand these four publicly-minded elected officials took on our behalf.

I, for one, would gladly support Adela if she made a run for the congressional district, the southern part which Solomonosaurus held and used as a personal petty cash kitty.

You say that "we have no qualms about electing them to municipal or county posts because we abhor the hypocrites and crooks who represent the crooked and incompetent Cameron County Democrats.

"We chose Cascos to stop the avaricious Gilberto "Hooters" Hinojosa and we picked Garza to halt the treacherous Julieta "La Santissima Putissima" Garcia. They have succeeded and we congratulate them for delivering on their commitment and not betraying our trust. But they still have work to do. They have volunteered for never-ending wars and we want them to remain on the front lines. As much as we respect both of them, we detest the racist, rich, reactionary and right-wing Republicans in Austin and Washington more than the Hinojosas and Garcias of South Texas. ...We prefer our dastardly Democrats over the righteous Republicans."

Don't you think that you're asking a little too much from these good people? What if Atlas shrugged and the globe tumbled? Would no one (me and you) have a responsibility to step in and shoulder the load as well?

It is, after all, the people's government. And let's face it Jerry, the people spoke and elected Farenthold over Solomonosaurus. They can speak again and elect Adela over the likes of Mando Villalobos and all the baggage and corruption he drags with him.