MCHALE TAKES GRATUITOUS HIT AT TSC CHAIR ADELA GARZA

By Juan Montoya

Sometimes it's hard to figure out the motives behind people posting stuff on the blogosphere and this morning's post by our good friend Jerry McHale on Texas Southmost College chairperson Adela Garza is one of those occasions.

On his post, Jerry tries to localize the burgeoning scandal involving congressional members embroiled in the sexual harassment cases by pinning some moral responsibility on Garza on the one involving Rep. Blake Farenthold who used the congressional Office of Compliance account to pay for a sexual harassment claim in which $84,000 was paid out.

Farenthold's former communications director, Lauren Greene, sued her boss in December 2014 over allegations of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and creating a hostile work environment.

It might be well to remember that the Garza left her employment with the discredited congressman in late 2011, the year before he ran for reelection after the redistricting that moved its jurisdiction to cover Corpus Christi and stretched from above Kingsville to Bay City along the Coastal Bend west all the way to Lockhart.

Since she left employment with Farenthold more than three years before the sexual harassment lawsuit was filed and she was no longer involved in the running of his office, how Jerry can pin some moral blame on her today for not speaking out against something that didn't happen on her watch seems to be a stretch.

It makes for good copy and allows our buddy to shout out his outrage at Farenthold through Garza who, as Jerry correctly pointed out, along with other courageous members of the TSC board alerted the college district that former TSC-UTB president Julieta Garcia would be the death of higher education in Brownsville.

They did this in spite of the fact that they had to face the umbrage of the powers that be, including Jerry's friends Sen. Eddie Lucio and Rep. Rene Oliveira. (In the photo at right, Adela and TSC supporters protest in front of Lucio's Brownsville office.)

Because of her warnings, the people rose and stopped her by voting out her lemmings on the board. Jerry is right to say that Garcia nearly razed TSC.

He goes on to say: "Garza has led the resurrection of TSC fearless of the consequences of her tough decisions. She spearheaded the firing of Lily Tercero as the junior college's president when it became obvious the latter was drowning in incompetence. Under Garza's leadership, TSC's enrollment is approaching 6,000 and is once again playing the key role is has always played for decades in Brownsville."

But then here comes the stretch.
"Sadly, Garza's stellar reputation has taken a hit as a result of her longtime association with Congressman Blake Farenthold who may rank as the ugliest playboy in the history of the United States..."

"Garza is a staunch Republican. Like former County Judge Carlos Cascos, is she so tribal that she will forgive Farenthold because she would rather have a pervert than a Democrat sitting in that seat?

Since when did Garza (or Cascos, for that matter) say that they would forgive her former boss and that "she (they) would rather have a pervert than a Democrat sitting in that seat?"

Localizing a national story works when there is a logical link to make it work. Unfortunately, Jerry's editorializing and slurring of someone who had nothing to do with the alleged immoral acts and who had left years before is a peevish stretch that just doesn't work.