(This image is from a political ad by the Texas Democratic Party.)Both the media and many political blogs are saying last week was a bad week for Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott (the current attorney general in Texas) -- and they do have a point. Abbott embarrassed himself and his campaign by trying to back out of a statewide televised debate with Democrat Wendy Davis. And when he saw the bad publicity he got for that, he is now trying to arrange another debate through a different media outlet -- hoping to give the public the impression that he was not treated fairly by the media outlet that organized the debate (WFAA-TV). That's ridiculous, but he's just trying to save face after pulling a political blunder.
And that wasn't the only bad news for Abbott last week. As Attorney General, he lost two cases last week -- one in federal court and another in a state court. In the federal court case, Abbott was trying to defend an anti-abortion statute it took the Republican-dominated two special sessions to pass (and which would have closed almost all clinics in Texas that perform abortions). But Abbott lost the case, as a federal judge ruled that the two most onerous sections of that law are unconstitutional, and he must now try to defend this bad law in a higher federal court.
In the Texas court, a judge ruled that the school finance plan passed by that same GOP-dominated legislature violated the Texas constitution. The judge said the plan was not fair to all school districts, especially after the Republicans cut $5 billion in state funding from education. The solidly Republican Texas Supreme Court might save Abbott on this suit (since they never vote against corporations, and may be afraid a new plan might tax those corporations a little), but it won't happen before election day.
I can't argue that it was a very bad week for the Attorney General who thinks he should be governor. But I would like to remind folks that this is nothing new for Abbott. He has lost a whole series of cases he has taken to court while Attorney General.
Abbott tried to get federal education funds restored after Texas refused to abide by federal guidelines -- and he lost. Abbott tried to restore the right of the TCEQ to license Texas power and chemical plants after the EPA took over licensing (because the TCEQ was allowing too much pollution from those plants) -- and he lost. Abbott joined AG's from other states and tried to get Obamacare overturned -- and he lost. Abbott took the EPA to court to overturn their rule that polluting states like Texas must stop sending their pollution to downwind states -- and he lost. And those are just a few of the cases that Abbott has lost during his tenure.
Now you may be thinking Abbott must be an incredibly incompetent attorney (and that may well be part of the problem). But the biggest reason he loses almost all of the cases he's involved in is because he has no respect for the law -- either state or federal law. Abbott files or defends cases to please the teabaggers (since they control the Republican Party in this red state) -- and has little to no regard for whether those cases are justified under the law or not.
Greg Abbott hasn't just had a bad week -- he has had a bad several years. Do we really want someone like this to be governor?
