The Posse Convenes
In Houston, Texas Democrats unite behind one cause: dumping Bush
By Michael King, Fri., June 25, 2004
The state Democratic Party convention in Houston last week was on the whole less entertaining than the Republicans in San Antonio a couple of weeks before. The music on the loudspeakers and the midway was generally friendlier – less military and devotional, more singer-songwriter – but there were no visiting penguins and pythons from Sea World, and there was also less melodrama on the dais. The Republican show had featured not only an aggressive battle for state party chair, finally won in the caucus shadows by incumbent Tina Benkiser, but also the jockeying for advantage among potential gubernatorial rivals Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Carole Keeton Strayhorn.
A cynic might suggest it was only because the statewide stakes were so much lower, but by contrast, the Dems at the George Brown Convention Center were a picture of harmony. Incumbent state chair Charles Soechting, who faced a handful of opponents prior to his installation by the State Democratic Executive Committee several months ago, was praised from all quarters and was re-elected by acclamation. The only headline infighting was the almost entirely offstage and largely symbolic spat between Houston state Reps. Garnet Coleman and Sylvester Turner, over whether Speaker Pro Tem Turner – judged to have abandoned his Dem colleagues last spring when they fled to Oklahoma to block redistricting – should be allowed to address the whole convention.
In the end, the dispute went clumsily unresolved, as Turner was scheduled to speak, but at an hour he found insulting (Saturday afternoon, pending adjournment), and left in a huff. It remains to be seen how long that bitterness will linger, but Turner's tightrope walk with Republican Speaker Tom Craddick – one strategic aspect of his latest failed run for mayor of Houston – appears to have been a bad personal gamble. New Mayor Bill White played the gracious host, beaming and welcoming, before he returned to the unhappy duty of every incumbent Texas mayor: cutting his municipal budget to the bone.
The Bush Factor
More than one speaker credited another absent Texan for harmonizing all these usually dissonant Democrats: the "uniter not divider," President George W. Bush. The Bush administration, and the profound determination to send it packing, were constant themes of the proceedings, and also the refrain of high-profile appearances by Sen. John Edwards and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, as well as Houston Congressman Chris Bell.
Edwards is the focus of much national speculation about Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's eventual choice for running mate, and leading into the convention he had become a favorite of Texas Democrats. Although he deflected direct questions on the matter, he clearly didn't hurt himself with these delegates, delivering a rousing speech attacking the administration on every issue from Abu Ghraib to civil rights. "The person who is responsible," declared Edwards on the Iraq torture scandal, "is the commander-in-chief. ... The fish stinks from the head down!"
Kucinich, who unlike Edwards is carrying on his beleaguered candidacy for president, likewise declined to hit directly at Kerry and spoke to reporters instead of the need for "inclusiveness and unity" in approaching the November election. Asked if he thought Kerry has sufficiently distinguished himself from Bush in his approach to the war on Iraq, Kucinich replied that there is "plenty of time for that" and emphasized instead his own conviction that the U.S. needs to look to the international community for a solution. "We have to get out of this war," Kucinich said, "and we have to go to the world community and get some help."
Judging from the spirited reception from the delegates – "Bring the Troops Home Now!" was a popular poster – hundreds of whom were Kucinich or Howard Dean supporters attending their first state convention, Kucinich's sentiments on the war struck a broad chord. Although the program included the requisite homages to veterans, there was relatively little of the Patriotism = Militarism that so marked the GOP's San Antonio meeting. The platform these Democrats adopted stopped short of a call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, but reflected a commonly expressed sentiment: "Our hope and desire is that our troops come home from Iraq as soon as possible, through an exit strategy that does not destabilize the region and place more lives in danger."
Cats and Dogs
In the short term, it may be Houston Rep. Chris Bell who has the most visible effect on the party's campaign fortunes. Bell recently ended an undeclared seven-year congressional "truce" by bringing an ethics complaint against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay that will play out over the summer. Since Bell was defeated in the spring primary – thanks in no small part to the DeLay-managed congressional redistricting in the Texas Legislature – he faced numerous questions about "sour grapes" and "retaliation" for having lost his seat. In response, Bell insisted that he had in fact been working on the complaint since last fall (crediting an investigative report in the Aug. 29 Texas Observer, "The Rise of the Machine," with catalyzing his action), and said with a smile that re-redistricting only "afforded me a lot of time to work on this thing."
Bell's complaint, pending before the bipartisan congressional ethics committee, makes three main charges:
The Republicans have since lodged charges of campaign finance improprieties against Dallas Democratic Rep. Martin Frost – Travis Co. District Attorney Ronnie Earle is duly investigating those charges – but have pulled back from initial threats to retaliate against Bell for filing his complaint against DeLay. Bell insists he will not be alone in this fight – that other prominent Democrats "can and will" join him in pressing the complaint against DeLay.
One Republican suggested that Bell's action will simply open a cycle of retribution in Congress, of "You killed my dog, I'll kill your cat." Bell shrugged, "I'm glad I don't have a cat." 
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