If Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton didn’t exist, Ted Cruz would have to invent him. It’s been said of Cruz that even his friends don’t like him. If Paxton ever had friends, they spend much of their days washing off the stink.
Paxton makes Cruz (almost) look like a more or less normally craven politician – no mean accomplishment. The mere possibility that this state might find itself represented in the Senate by both Cruz and Paxton is bitterly unthinkable. Despite our undeniably many sins – from deep-fried butter to SpaceX – even we don’t deserve that fate.
But Paxton wants to be a U.S. Senator, so as the midterm election quickly approaches, Texans of voting age should take the time to review his uniquely dismal record as a public official, if only for renewed motivation to rush to the polls.
The problem is, it’s flat difficult to keep up. Nearly every week some new Paxton outrage comes to light. Recently, for singular example, it was revealed that Paxton was using the office of attorney general to harass and intimidate Texas pediatricians – those indispensable people who devote their lives to protecting the health of our infants and children. Attorney General Paxton says he wants to know if the doctors are too enthusiastically advocating that their patients be vaccinated against infectious diseases – child-killers we had largely eliminated until his fellow crackpot, Robert Kennedy, took over as U.S. Secretary of Pandemic Promotion. Paxton has been demanding that already overburdened doctors provide confidential records of patient care – and if he doesn’t get the answers he prefers, he demands new ones.
The ink on those news reports hadn’t dried when it was reported Paxton was seen partying in Dubai with a couple of his campaign donors who also happened to be wanted (since indicted) on federal charges of fraud. By Paxton’s side was (once again) a woman not his wife, Angela, who eventually filed for divorce on “biblical grounds” – not a reference to irregular church attendance.
Angela Paxton, who ascended some time ago to the Texas Senate seat her husband had vacated when he became attorney general, has her own dubious priorities. She has been promoting the GOP ticket as a whole, mostly avoiding mention of the husband with the wandering eye, because she’s a “team player.” That was the same spirit she maintained when she recused herself from the Senate vote on his impeachment – but not from the quorum, which number proved to provide the difference between conviction and acquittal. Hell may hath no fury like a woman scorned – but thanks to Angela, her husband’s britches didn’t get singed.
That was all after Paxton’s own AG legal staff – hard-right Republicans all – reported him to the FBI for his abuse of office, and after the overwhelmingly Republican Texas House impeached him for that, and for suborning bribery. But the Texas Senate, browbeaten by presiding Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (himself a wholly owned subsidiary of West Texas oil-and-gas tycoons Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks), was cowed into submission, and voted against conviction. Paxton’s lawyers blamed the entire impeachment procedure on a conspiracy instigated by President Joe Biden and “establishment” Republicans like George Bush – who had long since lost any country-club influence on their party at all – witness Paxton’s primary blowout against once respected GOP stalwart, incumbent John Cornyn.
The impeachment was an illuminating spectacle. Paxton has since distinguished himself by persecuting his political enemies, harassing true public servants like the pediatricians, and accumulating as much wealth, property, and (apparently) paramours as possible. His Democratic opponent, James Talarico, has described Paxton as the “most corrupt politician in America.”
That’s obviously unfair. Paxton’s open corruption is undoubtedly dwarfed by that of his opulent model and mentor in the White House. But he has indeed learned his foundational lesson well; there is no limit to how a man might personally prosper and rise in public office, as long as he has no shame. A finally laughable example was his theft of an expensive pen from a courthouse security bin – Paxton surrendered it only when he was told he had been caught on video.
Indeed, as a public official, Paxton has behaved as though he is auditioning to become a cartoon villain on Adult Swim, perhaps under the name “Crapton.” The animators would barely have to use their imaginations.
Texas voters, on the other hand, have a historic opportunity to prevent the public disgrace that is Ken Paxton from rising any further in political power, while restoring a touch of sanity to Texas politics. All it will take is turning out to vote.
From 2005-2020, now-retired Austin Chronicle News Editor Michael King wrote about city and state politics from a progressive perspective in his weekly column, “Point Austin.” We’re pleased to bring back his column whenever he’s inspired to tackle the state we’re in.
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