Outside of deep East Texas, you might have missed this mid-December nugget of Capitol news: “Three groups control [state] budget writing: the trial lawyers, the Black Caucus, and the Hispanic Caucus.” That was the considered wisdom of state Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center, speaking to a town hall meeting at the Jasper Co. Courthouse, as reported in the Jasper Newsboy. Asked to expand on this remarkable revelation, a Christian spokesman said his boss could not be reached for comment, but that Christian had been “misquoted and misrepresented” in the Dec. 18 report by Georgia Purdy. But Purdy, a former Jasper High journalism teacher, told Naked City she had “absolutely not” made a mistake — “I take very good notes, and there is nothing in [the story] that is not absolutely accurate.” Purdy’s editor Willis Webb reiterated that his paper “stands behind everything she reported.” The Newsboy subsequently published an op-ed by Beaumont Democratic Rep. Joe Deshotel, chairman of the Black Legislative Caucus, describing Christian’s comments as “what some might see as a Trent Lott frame of mind.” Other pearls of Christian wisdom: “Seventy percent of folks attending school don’t have parents who pay taxes”; “Something that has really harmed education is the Americans With Disabilities Act. … We have kids in class wearing crash helmets knocking their heads against the wall”; “Human Services, in other words welfare, and Medicaid are the biggest drain on our system”; rising insurance rates are “not the insurance companies’ fault. The problem is that nobody is accountable for his actions”; “The Texas Conservation League [Texas League of Conservation Voters?] is my major opponent [and] these people actually offer classes to teach how to spy on your neighbor.”
This article appears in January 10 • 2003.
