East Bernard Express (East Bernard, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 21, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 22, 2014 Page: 2 of 6
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age 4 Thursday,May 22, 2014
East Bernard Express
Bill Wallace, Editor & Publisher
bwallace@journal-spectator.com
Keith Magee, Managing Editor
kmagee@journal-spectator.com
Burlon Parsons, Associate Editor
bparsons@journal-spectator.com
P.0. Box 111 • Wharton, Texas 77488 • 979-532-0095 • 979-532-8845 fax
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Did Perry
commit
bribery?
Governor Rick Perry
has an interesting
dilemma.
He is being called
to appear before a
Travis County grand
jury, which is deciding
whether the governor
should be indicted for
bribery or some related
offense.
The quick facts are that
the Travis County Dis-
trict Attorney, Democrat
Rosemary Lehmburg, was
arrested for driving while
intoxicated April 12, 2013.
She pleaded guilty, was
fined $4,000, served more
than three weeks in jail, and
promised to get counseling.
In June, while comb-
ing the Texas Legislature’s
proposed two-year budget,
Perry said that unless
Lehmberg resigned as DA,
he would use his line-item
veto to strike out $7.5 mil-
lion in state funding for the
office’s Public Integrity Unit.
She didn’t resign, and he
did veto it.
Craig McDonald, head of
the left-leaning watchdog
group Texans for Public
Justice, immediately filed
an official complaint with
the DA’s office.
The case was eventu-
ally transferred to Senior
District Judge Robert C.
Richardson, a San Antonio
Republican.
He in turn named re-
spected defense attorney
Michael McCrum of San An-
tonio as special prosecutor.
After a few months of inves-
tigation, McCrum told the
Austin American-Statesman
he was “very concerned”
about the governor’s veto.
Now, a special grand jury
is hearing evidence and
witnesses, including some of
Perry’s staff members. And,
it’s supposed to hear from
the governor himself.
But he’s trying to avoid
having to walk through the
front door of the building
where the grand jury meets
— like everybody else, in-
cluding his staff members.
Rather obviously, while
he is making another try
for president, Perry doesn’t
welcome national circulation
of pictures of him going to
testify before a grand jury.
But the only way he could
get to the grand jury room
without that public parade
is from a garage, through
an office in the building —
which happens to be the
DA’s office.
In other words, he wants
a favor from the very
woman his veto sought to
punish.
Lehmberg told the Austin
American-Statesman that
she thought Perry should
use the front door, like other
public officials have.
“I think it is awkward
that it is being asked of me,
but I will do what’s appro-
priate,” Lehmberg told the
newspaper.
Lehmberg had refused
Perry’s threat to resign or
lose the state appropriation
for several reasons.
• She had been hand-
ily re-elected in 2012, and
called that a commitment to
voters.
• She said she would not
seek re-election in 2016.
• If she resigned, the
governor would appoint her
replacement. Lehmberg, a
Democrat, had a consider-
able number of Democrats
who didn’t want Republican
Perry to name her successor.
• The DA’s office was
already investigating
problems with the Cancer
Prevention and Research
Institute of Texas, or CPRIT,
a $3 billion pet bond project
of Perry’s to fight cancer.
It had turned out that
some multi-million dollar
grants — some without the
required scientific review —
went to companies whose
owners had been high-dollar
contributors to Perry.
CPRIT’s Chief Com-
mercialization Officer,
Jerry Cobbs, was indicted
in December for securing
execution of a document by
deception, a felony.
If Lehmberg had re-
signed, Perry would have
shut down the official over-
seeing an investigation that
involved him, and would
have been able to appoint
the next DA overseeing that
process.
So in addition to Perry
objecting to a woman
charged with driving while
intoxicated directing the
office that prosecuted such
offenses, he also would be
shutting down an office that
was investigating a project
tied to him.
The governor’s office says
Perry was merely exercis-
ing his constitutional veto
power.
Here’s the portion of the
Texas penal code concerning
bribery:
36.02. BRIBERY, (a) A
person commits an offense
if he intentionally or know-
ingly offers, confers, or
agrees to confer on another,
or solicits, accepts, or agrees
to accept from another:
(1) any benefit as consid-
eration for the recipient’s
decision, opinion, recom-
mendation, vote, or other
exercise of discretion as a
public servant, party official,
or voter ...
Perry had threatened to
veto things before, like tax
hikes. That’s part of the
exercise of the governor’s
power to veto bills or pro-
posed appropriations he or
she doesn’t like.
It’s another thing, at
least some lawyers think, to
threaten to veto something
if another public official —
like Travis County District
Attorney Rosemary Lehm-
burg — doesn’t do some-
thing, like resign from office.
Meanwhile, we’ll see
if Perry gets his private
entrance.
■
CPRIT saga will stay
alive: Sen. Wendy Davis,
the Democratic nominee
for governor, seems to have
some traction on Republican
opponent, Atty. Gen. Greg
Abbott, ducking out of pro-
viding oversight of CPRIT.
Though a board member,
in five years Abbott never
attended a board meeting.
An assistant attorney gen-
eral went to some.
Meanwhile, companies
associated with donors gave
him around half a mil-
lion dollars since 2001 got
almost $43 million in grant
money from CPRIT.
Contact Dave McNeely at
davemcneely 111 @gmail.com
or 512-458-2963.
What is in a name?
“What’s in a name? That which we
call a rose by any other name would
smell as sweet; so Romeo would, were
he not Romeo call’d, retain that dear
perfection which he owes without that
title. Romeo, doff thy name; and for
that name, which is no part of thee,
take all myself.” These are the words
written by William Shakespeare and
spoken by the character Juliet.
The opinion expressed in that
famous passage from Romeo and
Juliet is not one that everyone would
agree with. Certainly the Bible gave
a lot more significance to the names of
people than Shakespeare did. “Peter,”
for example, means “the rock,” and
Simon Peter would become the rock the
church was built on — at least, from
a Catholic point of view. Upon mak-
ing a covenant with him, God changed
Abraham’s name from” Abram,” which
means “exalted father” to “Abraham,”
which means “father of many na-
tions.” The name “Jesus” means “one
who saves.” And there are many other
examples.
When a playwright gives a character
in a play a name which suggests some-
thing significant about that person, it is
called a “charactonym. ” This can take
the form of the obvious, such as nam-
ing a dishonest man, “Joe Crooked,” to
a more subtle form, such as “Captain
Bluntschli” (a very blunt person) in
George Bernard Shaw’s play, Arms and
the Man. The name “Earnest” in Oscar
Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being
Earnest, is obviously a char actonym.
Most people don’t think too much of
the significance of names until they are
faced with the joyful task of naming
their baby. Some folks, even some psy-
chologists, believe that the name you
give your child will help influence who
he or she becomes. If that’s not true,
they would argue, why does a “Regi-
nald” often become rather refined and
Ray
Spitzenberger
Images
mr
stuffy? And a “Jack” becomes a regular
fellow? In my opinion, it probably has
more to do with the personality of the
parents naming the child.
When I was growing up in Dime
Box, a rural town with a population
then made up mostly of Germans,
Czechs and Wends, it was not uncom-
mon for girls and women to have first
names like Hulda, Elda, Malinda,
Meta, Selma, Helena, Hildegard,
Frieda, Olga, Vlasta —just to name
a few; and boys and men to have first
names like Erhardt, Ewald, Alphonse,
Rinehardt, August, Matthias —just
to name a few. These names reflected
the ethnicities of the community where
they were accepted as perfectly “nor-
mal” names. However, when some of
the so-named moved to Houston or
Dallas or even out of state, they were
a little embarrassed about their given
name.
Although both of my parents and all
of my ancestors were either German
or Wendish-German, they gave my
twin brother and me English names,
“Raymond” and “Ralph.” Neither of us
particularly liked our given names, but
we didn’t necessarily hate them either.
Although my brother liked his middle
name, I greatly disliked mine. For his
middle name, “Max,” he was named
after our father; for mine, “Dell,” I was
named after my mother.
I groused about being given a “girl’s
name,” just as my younger daughter
groused about being given her father’s
name many years later. As I grew
older, I decided that “Dell” really wasn’t
a girl’s name, because my mother’s
name was actually “Adele.” And I think
my daughter has decided that having
the first name “Rae” is pretty cool (at
least it wasn’t “Ray.”)
Generally, given names seem to fol-
low trends, with each decade reflecting
a different trend. Recently, the Social
Security Administration has released
a state by state list of most popular
baby names for 2013. In Texas, the
three most popular boys’ names were
Jacob, Jayden, and Noah; and the three
most popular girls’ names were Sophia,
Emma, and Isabella. Nationwide,
the top three boys’ names were Noah,
Liam, and Jacob; and girls’, Sophia,
Emma, and Olivia. The State trends
and the national trends are not so
different, but there is a regional flavor
when you look at the entire list.
The problem with names being
trendy is that by the time you are ten
years old, your given name has become
passe. And by the time you are twenty,
it’s downright obsolete. When you are
80, as I soon will be, it is positively
prehistoric — is anybody named “Ray-
mond:” anymore?
In later years, I asked my mother,
considering their German/Wendish
heritage, why she and my father gave
my twin and me English first names.
Her reply was that she was related to a
couple who named their twins “Alton”
and “Malton,” and finding those names
repulsive, she was determined to give
us “pretty names.” Well, I guess they
could have done worse.
Ray Spitzenberger serves as pastor
of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wal-
lis, after retiring from Wharton County
Junior College, where he taught Eng-
lish and speech and served as chairman
of Communications and Fine Arts for
many years.
esterday when I was young
I was talking to an old friend recently
who told me about his childhood when he
was studying for the gallows. Fortunately
he never got caught doing illegal things,
but he was a suspect until he went to the
Army in World War II. The military likes
to take wild and crazy kids and train
them to jump out of airplanes, dive in
submarines and other sorts of question-
able behavior.
“Bubba,” well call him, is nearing
100 now and likes to talk about the bad
companions he hung out with since they
are all dead. When Bubba was still a
single digit kid the gang used to play on
the courthouse lawn.
There was no air conditioning or eleva-
tors back then so windows were left open
and for a fire escape the county installed
huge spiral slides from every floor of the
three story building which were accessed
by jumping out a window. Jury trials
were held on the third floor and when
court was in session there was usually a
crowd and lots of activity. Bubba and his
pals would slip in the back of the court
and when some excitement stirred up the
courtroom these hooligans would jump
out the window and slide down to the
lawn. They all used waxed paper to sit on
which after a few slides improved the ve-
locity of their exit. When the judge caught
‘Doc’
Blakely
Pokin’ Fun
LojHlJ
on to them he posted a bailiff to sit on the
window sill to stop the practice.
I asked Bubba what they did then.
He said, ‘We jumped out the window of
the second floor until they sent another
bailiff, but by then the thrill was gone
and you can’t slide very far from a ground
floor.”
‘Wasn’t that dangerous for such young
kids?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah. But my Mama said she
wasn’t worried about me breaking my
neck or drowning in the river since I was
destined to be hung for something or
other. The only problem we ever had was
once we snuck into the courthouse on a
holiday and we slid down that slide all
day before a Widow woman who didn’t
have anything better to do turned us in to
the Sheriff’s office.
Probably a good thing too because
a red headed, freckle faced boy got to
going so fast down that spiral slide that
he screwed hi mself into the ground and
was stuck tighter than Uncle Harvey’s
hatband.”
“So was he hurt?”
‘Naw, but it took several deputies
quite a while to get him out until they
stumbled onto the fact that it was a left
hand thread.”
Bubba went on to join the “Greatest
Generation” in the Army, and adds ‘Yes,
our Army wise guy.” But he never lost
that sense of adventure developed as a
kid.
Maybe he didn’t end the war single
handed but once he got into the thick of
the fighting the Germans never made a
single successful attack on his battalion
... in the Philippines.
■
Hey folks: The next Java Jam will be
this Friday at 6 p.m. at the Milam Street
Coffee Shop in downtown Wharton with
special guests Bluegrass Solution, a five-
piece Bluegrass band. See www.mila.mst-
coffee.com for details.
Doc Blakely is a humorist and moti-
vational speaker who resides in Whar-
ton. For more information, visit www.
docblakely.com.
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Wallace, Bill. East Bernard Express (East Bernard, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 21, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 22, 2014, newspaper, May 22, 2014; East Bernard, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth787282/m1/2/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Wharton County Library.