Tom Leppert reminds me of old Bush/Cheney Flip Flop ad

Remember this:



Reading today's Op/Ed piece by Tom Leppert reminds me of this commercial when you think of everything he has flip flopped on.

Fiscal Conservative now, raises taxes then.
Fiscal Conservative now, increases debt back then.
For Right to Work laws, fought for and got the endorsement of SEIU
Calls himself a Conservative, cozies up to ACORN.

One of the other candidates could do really well putting out a flip flop ad like the old John Kerry won that Bush's team did back in 2004.

Just In: Does Ted Cruz speak spanish?

just got a message from a GOP Activist in the valley, "did you know Ted Cruz cannot speak Spanish?" If this is true, what does this say about a candidate whose touting the heritage of his father (who learned to speak English) yet himself didn't learn the language of his father?

There is a strong difference between the Cuban communities and the Latin communities in how they view each other, with Texas having a much larger Latin community. If it is true that Ted Cruz cannot speak Spanish, that is a big blow considering he may have a problem with the other reason he's running for Senate.

UPDATE: Another activist in Bexar County just wrote in, "imagine if Michael Williams had never visited an oil or gas well, but runs on being the Railroad Commissioner, would he have any credibility? or what if Roger Williams had never driven a car, being a car dealer would be laughable with his business background. Ted Cruz runs on two things: his arguing cases in front of the Supreme Court and his father coming here from Cuba. Ted can't speak spanish and was born in Canada. People don't know this about him."

Ouch.

Ted Cruz forgets it's "on behalf of the Office of Attorney General"

If you've listened to Ted Cruz speak, you have to love his story of how his father immigrated to America and how he argued so many cases in front of the Supreme Court.

There is just one issue regarding his being Solicitor General, and that is he would not have argued one case if not for the fact that Attorney Greg Abbott were not the AG.

When one goes to official Attorney General website for the Solicitor General, they read "As the chief appellate lawyer for the State of Texas, the Solicitor General supervises all appellate litigation on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General."  Key words here are "on behalf of the Office of Attorney General."

Yesterday, Ted Cruz appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show and masterfully listed all of this cases he argued in front of the Supreme Court. What he didn't mention was that it was "on behalf of the Office of Attorney General." That part seems to never to get mentioned by Ted Cruz.

There are rumors that Greg Abbott is growing tired of hearing Cruz take 100% of the credit because what does that do for Abbott. If things shakedown as it appears they will, Dewhurst will run for the Governorship leaving Greg Abbott to run for Lt. Governor. Will he get a free pass in the race or will others run against him, if so, he will want to run on his AG record. But now Ted Cruz is taking full credit for that.

Ted Cruz has never run for political office, which is a good thing. Taking credit for something that is not exclusively your doing, however, is not a good thing.  Listen to his interview with Hugh Hewitt and judge for yourself, excuse the pun, on whether or not you think he is 100% responsible for all his SG activities. More than one person has contacted ReplacingKayBailey to bring this to our attention, both from Austin and across the country. If this is his #1 reason for being qualified to be a Senator, it could be a huge hit to his campaign.

UPDATE: An email just came in that says, "Ted Cruz wants to take credit for everything, hmmm, has he heard of a google search? Google Texas Defends Pledge of Allegiance and you see all kinds of articles on Attorney General Greg Abbott. The Ten Commandments case was where the Governor was sued, and Rick Perry has taken credit for standing up against that lawsuit. Ted is disingenuous on this one."

Dallas Morning News has Leppert a "Loser" in Dallas Mayors Race

Tom Leppert must be counting on Dallas to be his base in trying to replace Kay Bailey. Two things are wrong with this scenario, Kay Bailey isn't that popular in Dallas and Tom Leppert didn't govern conservatively in Dallas.

First, look at how bad Governor Perry beat KBH in Dallas County. While he didn't get 50% of the overall vote, he did get just a tick over 50% of the early voting. No one, and I mean no one, expected the Governor to win her back yard - and he did.

Second, just examine the record - which we have done - and he is nowhere near a fiscal or social conservative. Fiscal conservatives do not raise taxes, do not saddle citizens with a City Owned hotel that will increase the debt (just about everywhere this has been tried has been a failure), do not go to liberal icons like Eddie Bernice Johnson with a hand out begging for federal dollars, etc. Social conservatives do not hire an openly gay chief of staff and march in gay pride parades.

So on both issues, he is a bust. Which leads us to to James Ragland of the Dallas Morning News placing Tom Leppert in the catagory of losers from last weekend's Mayor's race.

Was Leppert the biggest loser?

The former mayor has taken a rhetorical beating for leaving office early to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Kunkle has taken dead aim at Leppert’s “big-ticket” projects, and his message has gone over well in some quarters.

And, worse still, Leppert’s calculated attempts to paint himself as a true conservative took a hit when photos surfaced of Leppert sporting a Service Employees International Union T-shirt. (NOTE FROM RKBH: Don't forget the ACORN video too)

Leppert's campaign cannot be happy with his hometown newspaper pointing out he was a loser in the race. Natinsky even tried to convince voters that he was the Leppert choice and it got him to finish dead last. Republicans know that Leppert is not a Republican, and using Leppert to get the GOP failed big time.

What does Leppert do, does he stay in the race or does he switch teams?

Dewhurst Roasted by redstate.com's Erick Erickson - OUCH!

Yesterday, we pointed out that David Dewhurst was advocating for higher spending because he was using a weird logic that it would just get rolled to local property taxes. As a party that believes in local control, it seems odd that a Republican would choose big government instead especially when it's believed he is running for the Senate.

We've written here and tweeted that rumors continue to circulate that he will bypass the Senate for the Governor's mansion.

And this hist today, leading conservative Erick Erickson of redstate.com roasted Dewhurst by calling him DewCrist after Florida's former Republican turned Independent because he couldn't get the GOP Nomination for Senate.

"Next year’s U.S. Senate primary in Texas offers a wide range of choices....and then there is Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, or as I like to call him, DewCrist."

Much like the former Governor of Florida turned ambulance chaser, DewCrist’s conduct as lieutenant governor has been consistent: whatever advances his political aspirations at that moment, his continuing to play both sides of the fence is costing Texas conservatives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make historic policy gains.

It only gets worse for Dewhurst:

For the past three years, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has promoted a responsible agenda for improving Texas public universities. The measures in the package are intended to increase transparency and accountability, emphasize quality teaching, and rein in the runaway costs.

Recent polls show that Texas voters overwhelmingly support these higher education reforms. After all, who could possibly be against making teaching a higher priority, reducing university operating costs, and making universities more transparent and accountable?

University administrators, tenured professors, and alumni elitists – that’s who. And now, apparently David DewCrist.

At the start of the session, DewCrist named Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a liberal Democrat and the University of Texas’ best friend in the Legislature, to chair the Senate’s higher education committee. Just this week Zaffirini said in an interview, “Rick Perry doesn’t understand higher education. He doesn’t have a graduate degree, and he graduated a long time ago with a major in something like agriculture. I have a PhD, so I understand the value of research and teaching. He just doesn’t understand it.

In other words, DewCrist has handed over education reform in Texas to an elitist, arrogant snob.

OUCH.

I would have thought that the 2010 gubernatorial primary would have been enough to convince DewCrist that the path to the Republican nomination no longer went through the Dallas Country Club. But I guess conservative voters are going to have to convey that message again next spring.

Dewhursts actions this session could have been geared towards a Senate run, but it doesn't appear that way. With the gains in the House and Senate towards conservatives, he could have conceivably become the champion much like Governor Perry did to get re-elected. Instead, Dewhurst has been a man without a spine and favoring liberals over conservatives. We thought he was eyeing the Governorship, now we wonder what party he will run under.

Dewhurst Advocates for More Spending

David Dewhurst, in another sign that he is going to bypass the Senate race, advocated the state increase spending on public schools - making an argument that if the state funds education at a higher level it keeps the local school districts from raising taxes.

“We in the Senate believe that – at the end of the day – if we fund public education at the level that we are proposing –than local school districts won’t have to raise local school property taxes,” Dewhurst said. “... I don’t want to short public education and create a tax hike all around the state.”

One has to wonder how this will square with the Republican motto of local control especially when talk is again about abolishing the Department of Education. Advocating a state funding approach versus letting individual citizens fight local property tax increases seems to give a sign Dewhurst isn't going to seek a Senate race.

With the hiring of Dave Carney, Governor Perry's political guru, one would think there wouldn't be a rift between the two. Governor Perry is adamant about not tapping into the rainy day fund, and Dewhurst was asked about it during his press conference.

Dewhurst was also asked whether Gov. Rick Perry’s statement that “A budget that drains the Rainy Day Fund, depends on accounting gimmicks or spends more than available revenues is harmful and unsustainable for taxpayers, employers and state lawmakers alike.”

When asked, Dewhurst said, “I’m not going to get into a debate as to what Gov. Perry will do, what he said. As far as I’m advised, there’s nothing in the fiscal matters bill over at the House (SB 1811) that hasn’t been things we’ve passed in the past,” noting that the Legislature delayed payments in 2003.

Leppert Now Caught in ACORN Video

Democrats just don't get elected in Texas to statewide office anymore...this can only explain why a person who has ties to SEIU, raising taxes, incresing the debt on Dallas, being a sanctuary city mayor, and now ties to ACORN is running as a Republican - because there is nothing in his background that is conservative.

Today a video surfaced clearly showing Tom Leppert campaigning at an ACORN office while running for m]Mayor of Dallas. (HT to Matt Dowling for getting the video).



A friend reports that Leppert is largely avoiding these issues at events he speaks at, one has to wonder if the public doesn't know or doesn't care. After seeing what happened with Kay Bailey Hutchison, one has to assume they don't know yet. If that is the case, Tom Leppert's candidacy is doomed.