Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez May Seek 2012 Democratic Senate Nomination In Texas—TPA Round-Up

At the end of this post is the weekly posting of the Texas Progressive Alliance Round-up. The TPA is a confederation of the best political bloggers in Texas.

With the round-up this week is the news that Democrats are recruiting retired Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez to run the U.S. Senate from Texas in 2012. This is the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

(Above–General Sanchez.)

General Sanchez had a role in authorizing the torture at Abu Gharib prison in Iraq. He is 59 and lives in San Antonio. He is, it appears, a Democrat.

From the Ft. Worth Star Telegram—

“I would describe myself as during my military career as supporting the president and the Constitution,” Sanchez said. “After the military, I decided that socially, I’m a progressive, a fiscal conservative and a strong supporter, obviously, of national defense.” Sanchez, a Rio Grande City native, said he was shaped by his upbringing. “It’s my views and my history, having grown up in South Texas, depending on social programs and assistance, that America has a responsibility to its people,” he said.”

My good friend Perry Dorrell at the top Texas politcial blog Brains & Eggs is not impressed by the idea of General Sanchez seeking public office here in Texas.

From Brains & Eggs—

“….I’m particularly out on generals who implicitly or otherwise approved of torture. I’m out on conservative Democrats — especially those who describe themselves as ‘fiscal conservatives’, because it’s nothing but a dog whistle to the TeaBaggers..”

On the hand my friend McBlogger in Austin feels that General Sanchez might make a good candidate for Texas Democrats.

From McBlogger—

” ….first off, the Abu Ghraib thing. He wasn’t directing the troops in the prison to do what they did, however, he took responsibility as their highest ranking commanding officer…”

As for myself, I’ve not yet formed a view. It is early in the process .As soon as I do have a more clear view, the blog reading public will be the first to know.

Here is the round-up—

Off the Kuff discusses the bet the Republicans have made about how the voters will react to deep cuts to public education.

At TexasKaos, Lightseeker warns Don’t Buy Into the Lie – Help Spread the Truth About the Fiscal Mess! Updated with video! Check it out – be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

From Bay Area Houston: Unlike the GOP, which believes the solution to teen pregnancy is duct tape and a $50,000 speaking engagement by Bristol Palin, Planned Parenthood actually provides education services, family planning services, and low cost birth control.

Barack Obama asked the question “Are You In?” last week, and PDiddie atBrains and Eggs decided he wasn’t.

Texas has a revenue problem that’s so bad even the GOP is starting to realize it. WCNews at Eye On Williamson posted about that: Texas GOP tax talk getting louder.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the potential, and potentially wacky, new districts in which Denton County might end up.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that Republicans want to stop you from voting, kill public education and control women’s uteri. Did you see anything about creating jobs, except for the special uterus police?

More bad news for fracking from Public Citizen’s Texas Vox blog, as they report that the House Appropriation will discuss on Thursday the tax exemption for “high cost” wells, valued at several billion dollars that should be going to schools and health care. As fate would have it, they had already planned to join a press conference that morning led by TPA’s own TXSharonon the health impacts of fracking — click for details!

Neil at Texas Liberal noted that while it is great for Houston Mayor Annise Parker that she raised $1 million for her re-election campaign in a single night, this fact is much less relevant to a public that finds little to care about in a municipal political atmosphere nearly devoid of grassroots enthusiasm.