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Sunday, September 28, 2008
The case of the ‘profane’ mayor of Houston
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chivalry reigns in our state Capitol. Not through a joust-happy Ivanhoe encased in polished armor, but via a bully-hating governor wrapped in a charcoal-gray suit.
Earlier this month, Hurricane Ike shouldered his way through Houston, leaving the Texas city paralyzed, powerless and sweat-soaked as residents waited — and waited — for promised deliveries of water, ice and food.
On the morning of Day 4, a Tuesday, Bill White, the mayor of Houston — a Democrat with ambition — happened upon the mustering area near Reliant Stadium and the Astrodome. He discovered a parking lot full of idling and idle trucks, loaded down with the stuff his people needed.
White has, in the words of a local reporter, a famous temper capable of breaking arms over the phone. The mayor himself confessed to a “General Patton” moment. Possibly he saw a “Ray Nagin” moment bearing down on him.
In any case, White spewed a mouthful of invective at a pair of female truck dispatchers, using many poetic phrases involving words that, appropriately enough, rhyme with truck.
The women were — and still are — employees of the Georgia Forestry Commission, part of a contingent of 36 that remain in the disaster area.
“They were angry and sort of demoralized,” said Joe Stinebaker, who came upon the women hours later. Stinebaker is spokesman for Ed Emmett, the Republican chief executive of Harris County, in which Houston sits.
Emmett, a Republican with a background in transportation logistics, personally apologized to the Georgia dispatchers for the mayor’s outburst. But Emmett would also stay in the mustering zone the entire night, reorganizing the distribution process.
Details of the incident remain sketchy, in part because Georgia officials have shielded the employees involved from press inquiries. But it’s clear that the women, who have yet to be identified, passed word of their experience to Georgia.
Robert Farris, director of the Georgia Forestry Commission, described the dispatchers as highly trained professionals with experience in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
“Our people are used to working with people under stress,” Farris said. “But we were disappointed in the mayor’s behavior and his assessment of the performance of our people.”
Enter Sonny Perdue, defender of the delicate flowers in our State Merit System. On Sept. 19, the Georgia governor took time away from his own state’s building gasoline crisis to send a letter of protest — not to the acid-tongued mayor of Houston, but to Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
“It has come to my attention that two of our female employees…were verbally and profanely abused by Houston Mayor Bill White,” Perdue wrote. “I would not tolerate the profane berating of Texas or Georgia volunteers here in our state and I trust that you do not either.”
Three days later, though Texas still reeled from Ike’s embrace, Perry took the time to smooth Perdue’s ruffled feathers with a reply.
The Texas governor, too, was “dismayed.” He called the women to apologize on behalf of his state, and in his letter, fervently hoped that the incident wouldn’t sour diplomatic relations between the two states.
But Perry didn’t pass word of Perdue’s written outrage to the mayor of Houston. That was left to a reporter, who somehow obtained a copy.
Upon reading it, Mayor White drafted his own letter of apology to Perdue. Kind of. Read it here.
Contrary to implications made by the Georgia governor in his complaint, the mayor said he was not carted off by law enforcement authorities after his tantrum. He left in a convoy of trucks filled with supplies.
“I apologize to anyone who believed my anger was directed at them, as opposed to the results of a supply system which simply did not work and left dozens of trailers in a parking lot, while tens of thousands of citizens, volunteers and employees waited throughout this region,” White wrote.
The morning after his performance, the mayor noted, all distribution centers were appropriately stocked.
Bert Brantley, spokesman for Perdue, gave assurances that the governor of Georgia had no motivation for writing his letter, save his outrage on behalf of two female employees.
But, of course, conspiracy theorists must have their say.
On paper, Perry may have wondered whether the cussing out of two Georgia employees would damage relations between the two states. But in reality, the governors of Texas and Georgia are close friends, and speak regularly. Perdue is the former chairman of the Republican Governors Association, a well-funded organization whose highest priority is the protection of GOP incumbents.
Perry succeeded Perdue as head of the RGA last year. The organization’s executive director is Nick Ayers, who was Perdue’s campaign manager in 2006.
And this guy Bill White, the free-speaking mayor of Houston? Talk in Texas is that the Democrat might run for governor in 2010. And Perry has said he intends to run for a third term.
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Dear Sheriff Hill: Ally-ally-out-in-free!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is puzzling. One one hand, you’ve got the Saturday edition of the Clayton News-Daily reporting that a sheriff has gone missing:
Gov. Sonny Perdue has ordered an investigation into reports that Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill has abandoned his office.
Hill reportedly vacated the office when he lost his re-election bid in August. If the investigation confirms rumors of a cleared-off desk and an AWOL “chief law enforcement officer,” the governor could suspend the sheriff during the last two months of Hill’s term.
On the other hand, we know exactly where Hill was on Thursday: In federal court, tossing a wrench into a civil trial that is airing a man’s charges of false arrest. Hill blurted out information about the previous arrest record of the fellow who filed the lawsuit. A mistrial has been requested.
Photo credit: Johnny Crawford/AJC
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Tina Fey/Sarah Palin back on SNL: ‘Katie, I’d like to use one of my life lines’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tina Fey — with her Sarah Palin schtick — may be wreaking more havoc on a politician’s image than any comedian since Chevy Chase caricatured Gerald Ford as a good-hearted but bumbling fool:
