The War on Women: Dewhurst's Cynical Attempts at Damage Control

Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is in full damage-contol mode following last Tuesday’s debacle (for him, especially) in the Senate chamber. Today he sent out an email insisting that he will push through, in the special session that starts Monday, passage of the same legislation that failed last week — legislation that would have government interfering in the personal medical decisions a woman makes with her doctor about whether and when to have children. The war on women in Texas rages on.

His email also attacks the activists and lawmakers who helped stop the passage of that legislation last Tuesday, with Dewhurst complaining about an “outrageous effort to undermine the democratic process in the Texas capitol.”

We’re sorry, but what credibility does the lieutenant governor have to talk about the “democratic process”? He and other Senate Republicans flagrantly ignored their own rules and precedent in trying to ram through passage of their extreme and divisive legislation last Tuesday. In fact, even Republican state Rep. David Simpson — one of the state’s most conservative legislators — tweeted late that night that the Senate had “run roughshod over the rules.”

Then on Friday, in an interview with a right-wing website, Dewhurst suggested that news reporters on Tuesday night had been “trying to inflame the crowd, incite them in the direction of a riot,” and he threatened to “take action” against them. “We take a democratic policy seriously,” he cynically told his questioner.

This morning his spokesman backed away from those reckless comments, explaining that a review of video from Tuesday night showed no such “incitement” from reporters. Of course it didn’t.

So we have a lieutenant governor who tosses aside Senate rules, who attacks Texans who protest his irresponsible actions, and who suggests “going after” news reporters for imaginary crimes. But he says other people are engaged in an “outrageous effort to undermine the democratic process”?

Sorry, but that dog won’t hunt. There were too many people — hundreds of thousands of Texans and others across the country — who were watching online Tuesday night as the lieutenant governor threw out the rule book and tried to bully a courageous Sen. Wendy Davis as well as Sen. Kirk Watson and other colleagues into letting him distort and hijack the “democratic process.” Try as he will to limit the damage from that debacle, he can’t change what really happened.

17 thoughts on “The War on Women: Dewhurst's Cynical Attempts at Damage Control

  1. I hate to be inflammatory (Well, actually I get a thrill from it), but we are it is sad when you have the Lieutenant Governor of the second most populous state in the government this paranoid about a few “uppity lil’ ole gals” (even if he doesn’t say it, that is what he wants to say) fighting for their rights and for the rights of every other woman in Texas who is faced with this kind of difficult decision. I have had to council homeless and poor women who have had to make this choice and I have never known one of them who was not affected by having to make this decision. Creeps like Dewhurst and Patrick ought to be ashamed of themselves.

    The women in the gallery and Wendy Davis have the true patriotic spirit. Dewhurst, Patrick and the rest of the republican thugs would be fine with staging a Beer Hall Putsch in the state senate chamber rather than have an actual debate about the issues. They are no damn good.

  2. Republicans have been proven to be untrustworthy and capable of resulting to heinous methods of getting their way. I fear what will happen in Perry’s next special session. I don’t think protests and demonstrations will quell whatever the Repubs have up their sleeves to get the close-the-clinics bill passed next week. We need watchdog lawyers ready to pounce procedurally, I guess….

  3. Hi Swinedance. I share your concerns. What we are seeing here in Texas and in other parts of the country like with Proposition 8 in California, are the acts of desperate mean and women who are watching their Christian fundamentalist house of cards, which they thought would one day “rule in dominion” over the nation, fall completely apart.

    It does not surprise me. You may think I am nuts, but Jesus speaks to me now and then—as he did at the 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012 elections. The vision given each time was a huge bundle of sticks that represented all of the hopes and aspirations of conservative Republicans and Christian fundamentalists. The vision then showed Jesus take each bundle in hand, bring it up to his knee against the bundle of sticks (the way the old folks used to break fire kindling) and give it a big pull. Each time, the bundle of sticks shattered into millions of pieces.

    Another vision came to me in my van the other day and a still, silent voice with it. It was a voice from Jesus, and it said, “I have begun the final process of utterly destroying them and their influence in this land. I will have them all in utter derision.” He made it clear that he was speaking about conservative Republicans and the whole Christian fundamentalist, Tea Party, and dominionist agenda. No matter what happens in Texas in the next 30 days, they are all going down. Jesus is very angry with their heartlessness and lack of love towards their fellow man, especially the “least of these” among us. Obama is coated with holy Teflon right now, and nothing is going to stick to it—all part of the grand design to take these bastards down.

    Hey, I don’t make this stuff up. It really happens.

    1. Charles,

      As a secular humanist with latent catholic tendencies I appreciate hearing from a Christian who actually walks the walk and talks the talk. If there is a God, may he walk with you.

    2. Charles, do you read what you post?
      You write that we are heartless and have a “lack of love for fellow man” – yet you support the killing of a baby! I think you are having visions from someone other than Jesus and Pigdance I would find other examples of the Christian walk.

      1. Joe. I stand by the visions and I stand by what I said. The visions came true in all cases. None of the fundie or conservative evangelical prayers were answered, and if you people had any visions, none of them came true. Why is the Lord not answering your prayers on virtually any subject these days? Have you stopped to ask that question? If you read Matthew 23, you will find that the common mistake of the fundie “mindset” (in this case the scribes and pharisees) is to think that some scriptural words printed on a page is all you need to be right and holy. Jesus ponts out to them that they are dead wrong—not just with regard to the traditions of men—but also a failure to take into account the “spirit of the law” and the necessity of showing mercy. By the way, the so-called “doctrine of inerrancy” is not in the Bible. It is a tradition of men imposed on the Bible by fallible men (better known as country hick, haydeed preschers) from the outside. Your side fails Matthew 23 in just about every way possible. Go read it.

    1. Joe – It is nice to hear from a nineteenth century time traveler. Now go back.

    2. Joe, doesn’t that decision whether or not to have children also reside with THE MAN who is about to insert his penis and millions of fertile spermatozoa into the vicinity of a potentially viable ovum? How many young man, horny, possible high on alcohol and loud music, think that in the process of having sex with a woman there are entering the realm of potential PARENTHOOD? If you want to end abortion, then why not work to PREVENT UNWANTED PREGNANCY. Each unwanted pregnancy prevented is an abortion avoided! Why isn’t Texas provide free condoms TO EVERYONE? If Perry and Dewhurst and those other anachronisms educated Texans about pregnancy prevention (pills, IUDs, condoms, etc.) then there would be greatly reduced abortion.

      1. Thank you John! I fear your response to this Luddite (or Cretin, if you prefer) was far more succinct and contains more logic more than his poor little mind can grasp. I commend you sir for continuing to make the effort!

        1. You both can use your comments and attacks to cloud the issue. I do agree that men play a huge role in this is well and sorry I failed to mention that. With that said – we are still talking about murder regardless of the century.

  4. Joe. Perhaps you would like to answer the question John asked just a couple of posts down. I doubt anyone here is absolutely thrilled with the idea of abortions. I’m not. Abortions would not be needed if all people did abstain. They would also not be needed if people used birth control measures and followed the directions that come with them. However, and this is no surprise, abstinence does not work because people are unable to resist their sexual urges. One of my cousins and I do genealogical research that goes back to about 1890-1910. You would not believe the number of Christian people in our rural families who were having sex out of wedlock back in those days. This is why Texas has one of the highest out-of-wedlock birth rates in the country. Many Christian people and nonChristian people cannot resist the urge to fool around—no matter how hard they might try.

    The only way abortion can be stopped is with contraceptives—plain and simple. But you say, “Oh no. We cannot do that. It would lead to too much sexual sin, and sin is a reproach to any people.” Take your pick Joe, and I will feed it to you in your own words, “Which would be more acceptable to you, a few extra notches higher on the sexual sin meter or 55 million murders?” Which is worse? Those are the only two choices you have because we know for certain that abstinence does not work simply because human beings are too weak to abstain. But if you remember what the Apostle Paul said, something you clowns never do, he said that God gave the Old Testament law to the Jewish people primarily to demonstrate to them that men and women are incapable of keeping it—no matter how hard they try—thus paving the way to the need for grace.

    Why don’t you people ever read that Bible, or are you too damned stupid to remember anything that is inside those black covers?

    1. I said nothing about contraceptives and you know nothing about me- but i am happy I provided you an opportunity for you to make my point – you are no different then the politicians who use their agenda without consideration of life. When you considered the baby in you response? 20 weeks is five months pregnant. I disagree with you – there are plenty of choices – one being adoption. Whatever it takes to save a life is what I stand for.

      1. So, Joe, you do “whatever it takes to save a life”? I assume you were in Huntsville last week protesting the 500th execution by Texas (the state with the most active death chamber in the US) since re-enacting the death penalty. Or do you only believe in protecting “lives” without a Social Security number? You know what I mean.
        Again, it is ALL about contraception. If you are willing to do “whatever it takes” to prevent abortion, why aren’t you demanding Rick Perry immediately initiate sex ed curriculum in all schools and provide FREE contraception (condoms, pills, IUDs, etc.) to all who seek them? Contraception does not increase “promiscuity” (if that is your fear); but it does decrease disease and unwanted pregnancy….which means far fewer abortions. I’ll help you with any pro-sex ed and pro-contraception activities you are interested in.

        1. John I could easily turn that around on you as well – you contradict yourself and your opinion – the difference in my case is that the baby is innocent. You want to save the life of a criminal who has taken the life of another and kill the innocent. Step aside from the talking points John and admit that your position doesn’t make sense no matter how you spin. To kill a baby at 5 months is inhumane.

      2. Joe. I think you are talking past me rather than to me. I never said anything about you mentioning contraceptives first. I did that because it is a better option than abortion.

        Adoption is not a good option because Christian fundamentalists are allowed to adopt babies, which is tantamount to child abuse in and of itself. It also runs the risk of creating more fundies by raisng up children in fundie traditions, although most children these days are wise enough to escape from it by the time they are 18. America will never be really free and the Christian faith will never really be free until that “ism” is gone.

  5. Taking advantage of Senate rules for your own gain = “what the people want”.

    The other side using Senate rules to combat your efforts = “undermining the democratic process”.