Another day, another endorsement for Speaker Joe Straus as Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, signs up. But Tea Party favorite Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, isn’t giving up yet, not with unindicted suspected war criminal and former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton in his corner.
In a letter circulated this morning by Paxton supporters, Bolton said that he was endorsing the Tea Party fave from McKinney because he would take a firm stand on redistricting and border security. “If action is not taken soon,” Bolton, warned, “citizens all across our nation will face the same dangers already threatening Texans.” Considering Bolton was knee-deep in the utterly failed Bush-era policies that failed to bring democracy to the Middle East but did throw it further into ever-deepening turmoil, this may not be a ringing endorsement.
Paxton has done a splendid job of picking up support from fringe-right groups like the Texas Republican Assembly, and grand layers of astroturf like Dick Armey. However, this latest endorsement puts him in interesting company, since Bolton has recently returned from a rally in Paris supporting Mujahedin-e Khalq. A Communist group that was implicated in the 1991 Kurdish massacres ordered by Saddam Hussein, it has been regularly classified as a terrorist organization by the US and other nations.
This article appears in December 31 • 2010.
