JERRY! JERRY! JERRY! JERRY! JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!

(Ed.s Note: If I ever handed in a first-person story in the newspapers I worked for, I could expect an irate city editor to walk over to my desk with the printout and throw it on my desk. "Our readers don't care what you think. They want you to inform them of what happened. So rewrite this and inform them. We couldn't care less what you think." And so it is with some trepidation that I write the post below about a personal friendship I promise it won't happen again soon.) 

"Oh and it's a hollow feelin' when

It comes down to dealin' friends

It never ends…"

By Juan Montoya

I helped him bury his baby daughter.

And when I was put in storage, he raised money so my kids could have a Christmas.

When I graduated from J school, my first job was at the Brownsville Herald where Jerry McHale and Dave Handleman ran the sports desk. In those days – since it was a relatively small paper – we often found ourselves at some of the same events; fights, soccer games, etc., covering it for the sports section and the news side.                                                                                                                                                                                                       At first we were just co-workers and after a while, became friends. That's why what follows is a bit painful But if there must be a break, then let it be a clean one.

Those who read the cyber pages know that Jerry is an undying fan of District 37 State Rep. Rene Oliveira. I once knew Rene and considered him an acquaintance.                                                                                                             He remained on the fringes of our barrio group, aloof in a sense because of his station and familial status. Nonetheless, we had mutual friends in a small town with a lot of people.                                                                                                                                                                    But one must be dispassionate when it comes to politics. and there's the rub.

I know that Jerry is rewarded – perhaps not as handsomely as others – by Oliveria. And that's not necessarily bad. Everyone like a little beer money once in a while.

But rewards carry the encumbrance of obligation. And that obligation, your political support in your writing, sometimes – to paraphrase JFK – demands too much.

In perusing past Oliveira campaign financial statements, I would occasionally run across Jerry's name as well as my other colleague from the newsprint days, Tony Gray.

The amount that Rene put in their pockets ran into the $1,000s (Jerry's reported take is documented above.) He has made it worth their while to laud his exploits in Austin and cover up his foibles here. To each his own.

But when you weight the value of friendship against the results of political representation, then the money amounts to the 30 pieces of silver that Judas got in return for his treason. In this case, it's our poor community (nuestros pobres pueblos, as Neruda used to say) that you're selling down the river.

Let's face it. Rene has been there too long. When he starts to talk about his lapse in judgment and about how it was fortunate that no one was hurt when he slammed into the rear of a car being driven by a woman, and talking about putting it all behind as a "personal matter," then you know that the selfish nature of the politician is being put above the people that he is representing, us.

The same thing happened seven years ago when Rene's girlfriend took the fall for him when his uninsured car struck a van from behind and ruined the vehicle. They were not rich. They were barely making it and their old van was their only method of transportation. What did Rene do? Did he "take care of it" as he told the lady he struck April 27?

No. He stiffed them and they took the loss. He walked away from it and got his girlfriend Lupita a Cadillac. Que tal pollo. Now the woman – a friend's sister – had the further misfortune of suffering an aneurysm and memory loss.

We don't voluntarily choose selfish, self-centered (and may I add pampered) individuals to represent us in government. We tend to look for the best among us so we can be proud of our leaders and set them as an example for the young 'uns.

Rene stopped being that a long time ago.

And so it pains me when I read Jerry's posts disparaging vitriol against Rene's opponent in the District 37 state rep runoff, Cameron County Pct. 2 commissioner Alex Dominguez, and calling him everything from a rookie do-nothing to a greaseball. It pains because I know it's not Jerry talking. It's Rene's money.

It may be another tequila sunrise, but I stop at that point when one starts dealing in friends...It never ends.