Who Derailed Wendy Davis?

Is Wendy Davis going to get to run against Kim Brimer for the State Senate District 10 seat?

Obviously, Davis wants to -- she announced that back in August. Everything seemed like smooth sailing until Monday afternoon when three Fort Worth firefighters waltzed into Tarrant County Democratic Party headquarters with a letter for local party poobah Art Brender. According to the Star-Telegram, the letter calls on the party to disqualify Davis from running because she is still a Fort Worth City Council member. Seems there is a little conflict between state and local law.

State law forbids sitting council members from running for the Legislature, but local law requires her to keep her seat until a successor is sworn in. Joel Burns, who won the special election runoff Dec. 18 to replace Davis, is scheduled to be sworn in Jan. 8.

Brender has asked the secretary of state for a formal opinion on the issue, but there is a sense of urgency to the matter -- the deadline to file for the election is 5 p.m. tomorrow. Very interesting timing. Brender and Davis don't have a lot of time to figure this out.

So, I'm curious.

According to the Startlegram, the letter was sent by Cullen Cox, Rickey Turner and Javier Cerda, three firefighters who support the Democratic Party, according to Rob Gibson, second vice president of the Fort Worth Professional Firefighters Association. If these guys truly support the Democratic Party, why would they derail a candidate who looked to have an excellent opportunity to unseat a very vulnerable and disliked Republican?

As one local Democrat told me this morning, the dots seem pretty easy to connect. The political consultant for the Fort Worth Firefighters is Republican political consultant Bryan Eppstein. The political consultant for Kim Brimer is -- you guessed it -- Republican political consultant Bryan Eppstein.

And just when you thought that firefighters spent all their off time studying arcane aspects of state and local law.

Still Davis potentially has time to recover. And as Machiavelli once said, never do your opponent a small wound. Why did the letter arrive in Brender's hands on Monday? Why not tomorrow? Or Thursday?

But if Davis is done, who steps in? I think Davis would have been a tough opponent for Brimer. She was popular enough -- and liberal enough -- to play well in South and West Fort Worth. And she was conservative enough to appeal to voters in the suburban part of District 10 like Colleyville, Mansfield and the suburbs south of Fort Worth. So, Art, who is waiting in the wings?

UPDATE, 6 p.m.: Is everything falling into place for Wendy Davis? The S-T reports that Joel Burns was sworn in at a ceremony in his Ryan Place home this afternoon, apparently clearing the way for Davis' State Senate bid. This afternoon, Art Brender told a New Year's Day gathering at Fort Worth Democratic Party headquarters that he is unsure whether this means if Davis will need to withdraw her earlier filing for the Senate seat and submit a new filing tomorrow.

Rick Noriega in Dallas Yesterday

Rick Noriega isn't officially running for the U.S. Senate, but you'd never know it by watching him yesterday.

He was here in the Fort yesterday afternoon for a lunch at Joe T's where he spoke to a group of 50 over enchiladas, picking up campaign contributions and the endorsements of Tarrant County State Representatives Lon Burnam, Paula Hightower Pierson and Marc Veasey before making his way through the rain to Far North Dallas for event at the home of Lenna Webb and Bob Franklin.

Noriega's had a good week for endorsements. Governor Dolph Briscoe, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and State Senator Rodney Ellis gave him their support, as did the Texas State Association of Firefighters. An endorsment from Daily Kos appears to be forthcoming next week.

Why the endorsements? Why are all of these people lining up behind him now?

Because in the reddest of red states, in the heart of maybe the most Republican state in the country, Rick Noriega looks like he can do the unthinkable: run as a Democrat for a statewide office and win. And after listening to him last night, I'm more convinced than ever.

Part of his appeal is his military bearing. The Texas National Guard lieutenant colonel and Afghanistan vet isn't vulnerable to accusation of being "soft" on security. He can talk about running a convoy and setting up checkpoints because he's been there. As he puts it, he knows the difference between an M203 and an M&M.

"I just got back from two weeks of training at Fort Benning, and when you look at these 18- and 19-year-old kids who will do anything their country asks them to do, you realize they deserve better. They need leadership that is willing to be held accountable."

After six years of the dodge and deflect strategy from Republicans, it's kind of refreshing to hear that. But Noriega also knows that the Republicans aren't going to take this lying down.

"Are we as Texans ready to take a step forward? Our state is off track and if we are going to set things right, we must be ready for the campaign of misinformation that John Cornyn and the Republicans are ready to unleash. They'll use this to divide us so they can maintain power. We have to reject that, but it will be a tough fight."

I can't help but wonder how long will it take before Dallas' own Merrie Spaeth finds a way to swift boat Noriega and tell us he wasn't even in Afghanistan?

But Noriega was there. And he's also served with the Guard along the border, and was tapped by Houston Mayor Bill White to manage the care for 30,000 Katrina evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center. That, combined with his background as a legislator allows him to speak knowledgeably on defense, security and immigration issues. If that's what you want, he can do the wonk thing.

But he also has the one-liners down, too. When someone asked the inevitable Larry Craig question, he knocked it over the fence -- "Republicans give gays and lesbians a bad name."

Of course, that wasn't the only bit of Republican hypocrisy that he skewered. He got plenty of shots in at the junior senator from the State of Texas. "John Cornyn voted twice to build a wall along the border. When he's speaking in East Texas, he tells them he voted for it. When he speaks in the Valley, he says he voted against. But he's changed his position on lots of issues since this little chihuahua started nipping at his heels."

And that is part of what makes Rick Noriega such a formidable candidate -- he's an experienced legislator with a significant military background who also happens to be Hispanic. And because he's so strong with issues that Republicans have traditionally owned, he can talk about education, healthcare and social issues without appearing to be "soft" on anything. As he puts it, "Compassion isn't a weakness." Amen, brother.

So who is Rick Noriega? He's the guy Republicans have worried about for years. And he's the guy Democrats have been waiting for. He's a winner.

Help Rick Noriega Today
Today, grassroots activists across Texas are launching a petition to put Rick on the March 2008 Democratic Primary Ballot. The election code gives candidates the option of obtaining signatures or paying $5,000 to qualify a candidate for the ballot. Many candidates opt to just pay the fee because it's the "easy" way to go.

Not Rick. He's building a grassroots campaign, and here's our chance to show the strength of the Noriega grassroots. Texas requires a candidate to obtain 5,000 signatures. Rick wants 25,000 signatures. You can help him get there by signing a petition. Download one here or drop me a line and I'll sign you up.

Also, take time to tell someone about Rick. And, if you are able, send him a few dollars. A small investment in time and money today could mean a Democratic senator from Texas in 2008.

Rick Noriega in Fort Worth and Dallas

Rick Noriega, who I'm sincerely hoping will run for the U.S. Senate, will be in the area today.

This morning, he'll be in Fort Worth as Tarrant County State Representatives Lon Burnam, Paula Hightower Pierson and Marc Veasey host a fundraising lunch event to support his U.S. Senate Exploratory effort. The lunch will be held at Joe T Garcia's on 2201 North Commerce. It starts at 11:30 a.m.

"I am honored to have the support of my friends and colleagues from Tarrant County," Noriega said. "Representatives Burnam, Pierson and Veasey and I have stood side by side in the trenches fighting for common-sense solutions to help Texas families. They are outstanding public servants and advocates for their communities. I am grateful for their invitation to come to Fort Worth, and I look forward to discussing my campaign for change in the U.S. Senate."

He'll be in Dallas tonight for an event at the home of Lenna Webb and Bob Franklin at 17201 Hidden Glen Drive in the 75248. The event is scheduled from 6-8. If you would like to attend, contact Rick Cofer at (512) 771-6266 or rick@rickcofer.com. Campaign contributions will be accepted and appreciated. Please come out and meet the next Senator from the State of Texas.

If you are wondering "Who is this Rick Noriega?" watch the video above.

Republican Homosexual Epidemic Speads

Bob Allen, Glenn Murphy ... move over. Is there room in that bathroom stall for one more? Idaho Senator Larry Craig is the latest Republican to catch a case of gayness. Although he says "I am not gay," a guilty plea on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge after an undercover police officer alleges Craig solicited him for sex at the Minneapolis airport, and not to mention another allegation by a 40-year-old professional man with close ties to Republican officials told the Idaho Statesman he had oral sex with Craig at Washington's Union Station, would seem to indicate otherwise.

More Republican Hypocrisy

In June, Tim Droogsma, a former press secretary to a US senator and a Minnesota governor, told the Star Tribune after reading its sex relationships column: "I don't think I'm too prudish -- which, I realize, is what prudes always say -- but do we really want this sentence: 'She hopped on my lap, facing forward. I pulled up her skirt in the back, slid her panties out of the way, and unzipped'?" (Editor's note: Actually, I'd love to read that sentence in my Startlegram and I think that would help solve some circulation problems ... and sell more papers. Ba-dum-bump! Thanks. I'm here til Thursday. Try the veal.)

Well, you see where this is going, don't you?

Droogsma was arrested this week in a midafternoon prostitution sting in St. Paul.

Separated At Birth?

From the awesomeness that is PinkDome: former Fort Worth state rep Anna Mowery and The Simpsons' Cat Lady.

Blowing and Going

There has been a rash (probably a poor choice of words) of blowjob-related stories in the news. And who am I to ignore them? Salacious details to follow:

Republican Hypocrite, Part 1: Old news now, but still, get this. Fla. State Rep. Bob Allen, one of 21 Florida legislators to sign Gov. Jeb Bush's friend-of-the-court brief supporting the state's ban on gays adopting children, was arrested recently for soliciting sex from an undercover officer in a public restroom. But he had a defense: he was afraid of the scary black man. Um-kay.

Republican Hypocrite, Part 2: What are the odds of this? Another Republican looking for a little man love. The problem this time wasn't a pesky undercover police officer, rather some poor Young Republican who really didn't want to wake up to national chairman Glenn Murphy, Jr., unexpectedly fellating him. Wonkette has the dirty details.

H-Town Five-Oh: Thinking about trading oral sex in exchange for avoiding arrest for traffic warrants? A Houston Assistant Police Chief sez no prob! Thanks, Grits for Breakfast for the tip, er ... I mean the heads up, er, I mean ... uh ... nevermind.

Politics, Unusual

You know, I had just about written off the Lone Star State as a lost cause. Any state that would give Slick Rick Perry such a long term at the helm would not seem to be taking full advantage of everything that representative democracy has to offer. However, we have a few glimmers of hope lately:

Senate District 10: There's blood in the water, at least according to The Lone Star Project. The ethically-challenged Kim Brimer, who pioneered the sleazy practice of using special interest campaign contributions to make mortgage payments disguised as "rent" on a second home kept in the name of a spouse. Brimer used the scheme to funnel over $200,000 to his wife to pay for a second home in Austin. Enter Wendy Davis. Sure, she's well liked in downtown Fort Worth, but how will a Democrat play in the red collar suburbs of Colleyville, Grapevine, and Euless? Reports that she donated to George W. Bush in 1999 as well as Kay Granger may make her a little more acceptable. But will that make her less likeable to Democrats? Will Tarrant County Democratic Party Chairman Art Brender decide to run? Who knows? But PinkDome has isolated one huge factor in her favor: she's much hotter than Brimer.

Fort Worth City Council Race: Of course, the real reason that the Caravan is excited about Davis taking an early exit from the City Council is the open door for Bernie Scheffler to run again. The Startlegram finally got around to calling Bernie for a Saturday story. Bernie told the S-T: "It came a little earlier than I expected it to," he said. "I think I'm still going to be one of the smaller candidates, campaign-funding-wise. But there will be one familiar name on the ballot, which will give me an advantage, unlike the last time, when I was a political newcomer." Looks like one opponent will be Joel Burns, a member of the city Zoning Commission and chairman of the Fort Worth Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission, announced his candidacy via e-mail Friday. I'd like to encourage all my regular readers to take a minute to visit Bernie's campaign site at I Heart FW and read a little about the man and if you could, send a few dollar his way. He's not a big-money establishment candidate, his money comes from small donations from regular people sending in a few dollars at a time. Help if you can.

Rick Noriega: There was a great post on Job's Anger about another ethically-challenged Republican, John Cornyn, who not only voted against ethics reform, he opposed increasing the funds available for the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Great guy, Cornyn. Why help children when you can help the fat wallets in the insurance industry get fatter. Enter Lt. Col. Rick Noriega. This is the guy I want representing the great state of Texas for me in the U.S. Senate. And as long as I am trying to pry money out of your wallet, send Rick Noriega some, too. He's got an uphill battle against Cornyn in the money department. He needs your help. And we need him.

Kinky in '10? Well The Kinkster hasn't ruled out another tilt at the wildmill in 2010, as a Democrat no less. He's already got my vote. Just tell me where to show up. I can't quit you.

Mowery Heads Out To Pasture

After 19 years representing my part of Fort Worth in the Texas House, right-wing fossil Anna Mowery announced her resignation Tuesday. I say good riddance. As the S-T put it, "Mowery became known in recent years in part for her unflinching support of House Speaker Tom Craddick."

More than 10 other candidates have signaled in recent months that they are considering a run for Mowery's seat, including, among Republicans, Fort Worth school board member Chris Hatch, former Fort Worth Councilman Clyde Picht and Fort Worth lawyer Robert Higgins, who unsuccessfully challenged Mowery in the 2006 primary. Democrat Dan Barrett, a Fort Worth lawyer who opposed Mowery in the general election in 2006, has said he is considering pursuing the seat again.

Mowery's resignation will likely mean that a special election for her seat will be added to the Nov. 6 ballot, but it could be called earlier if Slick Rick Perry so decrees.

Dennis Kucinich for President

I'm not sure that this country is ready for a president named Dennis, but teh interweb quiz told me to vote for him, so here I am. Here's how I scored on the quiz: Kucinich 45, Gravel 38, Obama 26, Edwards 25, Richardson 23, Clinton 23, Biden 18, Dodd 17, Paul 3, McCain -9, Cox -16, Thompson -20, Huckabee -25, Giuliani -26, Brownback -41, Romney -41, Hunter -41, Tancredo -42.

As Paul pointed out to me when he sent me this quiz, some issues (campaign finance reform, earmarks in legislation, and investment in alternative energy, for example) aren't mentioned as issues of interest. An excellent point. But I am still wondering who the hell Gravel is? Am I that much of a wackjob that I identify with candidates no one has ever heard of?

Abstinence of Malice

Congratulations, Rick Perry, your state had the nation's highest birth rate among teenagers ages 15 to 19 in 2004, according to a newly released study of children's health.

The Kids Count study, which is updated annually by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, said the Texas rate of 63 births per 1,000 teens remained the same from 2003 to 2004. "It's a touchy subject," Robert Sanborn, president of Children at Risk, told the AP. "We can preach abstinence quite a bit, and there is nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't affect some kids, and apparently it's really not working in Texas."

Good job, Rick. Texas may not be No. 1 in any education or healthcare access categories, but at least we're No. 1 in this. You've made us proud.

Is There A Blue Texas in the Future?

When I attended the Breakfast With Burnham event last month, Lon said something that I dismissed at the time at partisan-speak. Lon believes that the Democrats have a chance to capture the State House in the next election cycle. I've more or less resigned myself to living in a Red State for the foreseeable future, so I really just wrote off the comment. That is until I read this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

Royal Masset, a political consultant and longtime political director for the Republican Party of Texas--who played a key role in organizing the grassroots support that took the GOP from marginality to an overwhelming majority--has been predicting a reversal for years.

"There's a certain inevitability in demographics," he told the WSJ. "We knew that if we could win 40% of the Hispanic vote," as Mr. Bush did in 2004, "we'd control Texas until 2030." But in 2006, the number of Texas Hispanics who voted Republican fell to between 30% and 35% (depending on the poll).

This shift alone spells trouble for Republicans. Many conservatives may not want to hear it, but Mr. Masset puts the blame on talk radio and cable TV reaction to immigration reform. He says an uncompromising attitude toward comprehensive reform and appeals to fear sometimes carry a whiff of racism that alienates Hispanics.

And if the demographic shift continues to gain momentum, there's a real possibility that Democrats could achieve a majority in the Texas House by 2010. In 2003, Tom DeLay helped redraw the state's congressional districts to give Republicans six new seats in Congress. In just a few years, Democrats could turn the tables. Mr. Masset sums it up this way: "This thing with the Latino vote is deadly serious."

Wow. Could this be true, or is this some doom-and-gloom prediction designed to whip up the Republican base? I haven't been able to imagine a Democrat who could win in a run for a statewide office until I saw this guy -- State Rep. Rick Noriega (pictured above). He'll announce today the formation of an exploratory committee leading up to a U.S. Senate campaign.

Noriega, a five-term House member from Houston and a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard, is a 26-year veteran of the U.S. armed forces, who spent most of 2005 running training facilities in Afghanistan as part of the Texas National Guard. Noriega also ran a National Guard border-security operation in Laredo, and Houston Mayor Bill White had him manage the housing of Hurricane Katrina evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

"As Americans, it is our duty to stand up and speak when things have gone off the rails," Noriega, 49, said in an Independence Day posting on several Democratic-leaning Internet blogs. "It is in our very fabric, our soul; it is God's requirement of us as heirs to the legacy of this country, to exercise the right to speak out as our forefathers taught us."

This guy looks like a world-beater, or at least a Cornyn-beater. And it looks like he'll be in town Thursday to help Lon Burnham celebrate his birthday at the Botanic Gardens. I think I'll try to drop by and check that out. For more information on Rick Noriega, check out the Draft Rick Noriega blog.

I Stand Corrected

So you spend your time working on blog, trolling the Internet, looking for interesting topics to expound upon. You try to make it good. And what happens? Nobody reads it. Your voice is an echo in the wilderness.

Then, you have days like today, when you get comments like this one on my "Follow The Money" post from April 18:

I am writing to correct the record to this posting.

The "Pete Geren" listed is most likely Preston M. Geren Jr. - the father of Acting Secretary of the Army Preston M. Geren III.

The Acting Secretary of the Army Geren did not make any contribution to the Rudolph Giuliani presidential campaign. He does not make contributions as a matter of practice. He certainly would not make a contribution to a presidential campaign while serving a president.

Very Respectfully,

COL Dan Baggio
Chief of Army Media Relations

OK then. So I check the Google and find that the Army does have a spokesman named Dan Baggio. So I go back and check my post. Pete Geren, $2,300, Rudy Giuliani. OK. Go back to the database. Preston Geren, $500, Rudy Giuliani. OK, where's the number 2,300 come from? Which Preston are we talking about?

So I go to the FEC database. We find that Preston M. Geren Jr. donated $500 to the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee Inc. on March 27. Research would seem to support the good Colonel's claim. So did the numbers change? Do I just suck at reporting? What happened? I don't know.

But here's what I have to do -- man up and say I just screwed the pooch. So here goes:

Dear Secretary Geren:

Your Chief of Media Relations, Col. Dan Baggio, contacted me regarding my post of April 18 where I reported that you had donated $2,300 to the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee. I was wrong. You didn't donate the money. Looks like your dad did. And it was only $500. My bad. I apologize.

But as long as I got you here reading my blog and all, I'd like to ask you a few questions:

What's up with all the Preston Gerens? I know it's a family name and all, but could you mix it up a little for those of us who can't keep y'all straight.

Next time you talk to Charlie ... could you ask him for one a those "Life's too short to live in Dallas shirts?" I wear an XXL. Too many Railhead ribs, y'know.

Next time you see Col. Dan you might check his computer. He's on the Interwebs a lot. He might be looking at porn. Check his hard drive just to make sure.

Regarding Iraq: I know y'all are working on it a lot, and you're spending a lot of money, but could you do one thing for me: please help Pfc. Joshua Calloway. He seems like a good kid who is suffering from PTSD at Walter Reed. And, honestly, it sounds like the Army is doing a horrible job of helping this young man. Please, please get Joshua the help he deserves.

Respectfully and sincerely,

Steve

P.S. The next time I see you up at Ocean Rock, I'll buy you a beer. Friends?

Following the Money - Again

Two of my former S-T colleagues Randy Galloway and Vince Langford -- among many, many other journalists -- got punked by MSNBC for campaign contributions made over the past several years.

Is this an ethical lapse? Maybe. When I worked at the newspaper, I never gave money to candidates or political organizations. It didn't seem like the right thing to do. Since that time, I have given money to John Kerry and Kinky Friedman as well as the Democratic National Committee.

UPDATE, 6.21.07: Star-Telegram editor Jim Witt's take: "Star-Telegram employees, as private citizens, are free to contribute to and work for political parties, causes or candidates and to participate in debate on issues of the day. But it is very important to avoid situations that might raise a perception of bias in the context of our responsibility to report and comment upon such activities. And the contributions cannot be represented to have been made by the company. But because of the inherent conflict of interest, it is expected that no member of the News/Editorial staff will (a) seek election to public office; (b) accept appointment to a public board, commission or panel that makes or carries out policy or that advises elected or appointed officials; or (c) work for a politician or a political organization, either as a volunteer or for pay. So a sports copy editor like Vince Langford or a sports columnist like Randy Galloway would be allowed to make a political contribution under our policy because they don’t have any influence on what we cover, who we cover or how we cover politics. But news executives like myself or our political reporters and editors would not be allowed to do the same."

UPDATE, 6.22.07: Today's the S-T announced the results of its review of newsroom employees. They found that two news editors bought some Kinky Friedman merchandise. Wow. Earth-shattering.

A History of Guns: Part Eight

This is the eighth in a personal history of guns in my life. Previous entries: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six and Part Seven.

Crime Fighting
When people defend their need for guns, invariably they mention two things: protection from government tyranny (although private gun ownership in Iraq didn't stop Saddam Hussein) and self-defense (although studies show a gun in the home increases the chances of homicide and suicide). Of course, why believe statistics?

I'm not going to spend much time on protection from government tyranny. It seems that's what the Founding Fathers intended the Second Amendment to be (although some disagree). I'm a little amused by the thought of rednecks with shotguns leading resistance from the forest a la Red Dawn. But to me, if people were really serious about protecting themselves from government tyranny, why would they be so quick to throw away other basic civil liberties like habeas corpus and unreasonable searches? But I digress.

Self-defense would seem to be a more compelling argument for gun ownership. Do guns help protect people from crime? Yes, they do. In fact, I have a scare-the-pants-off-of-you story about that.

My friend, Sharon, lives in Munger Place, a lovely little turn-of-the-last-century neighborhood in Dallas. It's a great neighborhood if you want an old Craftsman-style house, but it's bordered by some rather rough neighborhoods. People have been murdered in the street very close to Sharon's house. Nonetheless, she takes her dogs for a walk at night. When dogs gotta go, they gotta go.

One night, Sharon was out with her teen-age son walking the dogs when two guys in a car drove by really slow, asking if they wanted a "ride." Sharon says nothing, turns in the opposite direction and sends her son running home to get her husband. The guys go down the street, turn around and come back. By the time Sharon's husband shows up with his pistol, these guys are trying to drag her into the car. The guys see the gun and take off.

If Sharon's husband doesn't show up with a gun at the right moment, she's probably a crime statistic. Did guns protect life and limb in this instance? You bet.

For another example of this, look at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As basic government services like police protection absolutely disintergrated in the wake of the storm, people depended on guns to protect themselves, their family and their property. I never thought I would see the day when the rule of law would so completely and utterly break down like it did then. And if it could happen then and there, who's to say it couldn't happen again?

So maybe I'm just getting in touch with my inner Archie Bunker, but my attitudes have shifted some regarding guns. I know responsible gun owners and I believe that some people need the protection that guns offer. Is this just me getting older and more fearful of this crazy, fucked-up world? Maybe. But I'm not going to draw any conclusions just yet. I'll save that for the next, last installment. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

A History of Guns: Part Seven

This is the seventh in a personal history of guns in my life. Previous entries: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five and Part Six.

I have been trying to write this story about Larry for several weeks now, but the words just haven’t flowed. I sort of thought that the closer I got to present day, the easier it would be to write because my memory would be fresher, but that hasn't been the case. In fact, it has been the opposite. Because there is not as much distance, the events are actually harder to write about. But this story is an important part of my history of guns because it rolls together the themes of God, guns and Americanism. I don't think it is a coincidence that guns, religion and patriotism get all mixed up together. Guns, for better or worse, are like a religion in the U-S-of-A.

Larry was married to my wife’s oldest sister, Roxanne. I first met them after my wife and I had been dating for about a year. We were visiting them in Oklahoma City when we passed through on our way out to New Mexico. Larry and Roxanne wouldn’t let us stay at their house because they didn’t want an unmarried couple shacking up in front of the kids.

Larry and Roxanne belonged to one of those evangelical faiths somewhere to the right of the Baptists –- which is my baseline for how wacko I think any particular denomination is. Quite honestly, since I parted ways with the Baptist church about 20 years ago, I’ve taken a rather dim view of these folks out to the right (which is a whole other post). Snake-handlers and mouth-breathers is how I think of them. I’ve told myself I ought to be more respectful of their beliefs, but I never found these people to be respectful of others, so I didn’t see a need to afford them that courtesy.

I bring this up to explain how Larry and Roxanne viewed the world. Larry was the head of the family, the breadwinner. Roxanne took care of the home and the children. They believed that they were locked in spiritual warfare against Satan. The kids did not celebrate Halloween. Personal problems were moral failings that could be solved by prayer. Gender roles were to be aggressively enforced: boys did boy things and girls did girl things.

Part of what boys did was hunt. If you have been following this series, then you know that isn’t that different than my experience growing up. But Larry took it to a different level. He was an honest-to-goodness gun nut. When it was hunting season, he and his son went hunting. When it wasn’t hunting season, he and his son went to gun shows and worked on their deer lease to get ready for hunting season.

And Larry’s fascination with guns actually led to problems with Roxanne. Time and money went into his hobby rather than his marriage. Inevitably, these tensions led to turmoil with Roxanne. Divorce, of course, was unthinkable. There was a lot of faith-based counseling and prayer – and I actually have nothing against either one of those things – except that they didn’t seem to work in this instance.

Unfortunately, Larry and Roxanne had their marriage problems worsened by another seemingly unrelated factor -- the Y2K problem. Yeah, I know WTF? But, see, I told you Larry was a gun nut and he was also one of those black helicopter guys who believed that all of those crazy UN, one-world-government-conspiracy-to-take-away-your-guns stuff. The Ruby Ridge and Waco stuff didn’t help matters.

So Larry started working on turning his deer lease into a refuge from the impending collapse of society. He started storing food, guns and ammunition so he would be ready.

But one day in the summer of 1999, he realized there was too much left to do. He realized that he would never be ready in time. So he went out to his lease, put a .44 magnum to his head, and shot himself.

I don't believe that his inability to prepare his apocalyptic hidey-hole was the reason he killed himself. I believe he was a very sick man. He suffered from Depression and probably bipolar disorder. But also, he was a true believer. He was one of those All-American guys – football player, Vietnam vet, family man, pillar of the church – who did everything they were supposed to do. Larry always followed the rules, but life doesn't always go by the rules, does it?

And while I feel a lot of empathy for him, I also feel relief that he didn’t kill everyone in his family before he killed himself. That was always my wife’s secret fear, and I always thought there was something to it.

But the real tragedy is seeing the wreckage left behind. Roxanne married again and her new husband seems like an alright guy. But the kids have had a harder time. His son is a very angry, pissed off guy. My wife talks about what a sweet boy he used to be, but I haven’t seen that side of him since before we married. Now he's grown up, and he’s a Marine officer, and that frightens the hell out of me. All I can think of is Neidermeyer -- not a guy I would want to be in a foxhole with.

And Larry’s daughters are even sadder. His older daughter doesn’t seem to miss him at all, but she's already in a marriage that looks oddly like the one her mother and father had. And Larry's younger daughter was had a pretty tough life because of her father's absence. She's already had a pretty rough time with men who take advantage of her insecurity and need for love.

So how did all this shape my opinions about guns? In Larry's case, guns became kind of a religion to him that ended up feeding his sickness and paranoia. And, in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, we realize more than ever how dangerous guns can be in the hands of sick and fearful people. Now everyone feels that we need to take steps to keep guns out of the hands of unstable, mentally ill people. But how do you identify those people? Larry certainly looked like an upstanding citizen. The darkness inside of him was hard to see, except for a few people closest to him.

When I look back on this still-unfolding tragedy, it's hard not to think it would be better to live in a world without guns. There. I've said it.

A History of Guns: Part Six

This is the sixth in a personal history of guns in my life. Previous entries: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five.

The Working Years
When I started working full-time at the Startlegram, I did sports agate -- that's the little type like box scores, standings, leaders. It's a Sisyphean task. Do well at it and you can set yourself apart -- one guy who did it before me went on to become sport editor at the San Jose Mercury-News and another went on to win awards for writing about the Iditarod sled dog race. One of the people I supervised went on to cover the UN for The Associated Press and another guy is now a sports editor in North Carolina. But the one guy I remember the most was Brian Shults.

Brian was a funny guy with a big smile and an easy way about him. His dream was to be the beat writer covering the San Jose Sharks. And he could have done it, too. He won two Gold Circle Awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association -- there’s future Pultizer winners on that list. He was that good.

But Brian was also troubled. He was in recovery for his alcoholism when I met him at age 22. I used to hang with Brian and his other AA buddies Skip and Big Ron at Ol South Pancake House even though I wasn’t a Friend of Bill W. I’d sit and smoke cigarettes and drink coffee with the boys until the wee hours. In fact, I was with those guys at Ol South the first time I met my wife. Brian was neurotic as hell but poked fun at his misery. He even tried his hand at standup and did pretty well.

One Saturday night, I was finishing up some agate real late -- like 1 a.m. -- when Brian stopped by my desk. He had just filed a review of a standup performance by a comedian I had never heard of named Ellen Degeneres. We shot the breeze for 10 minutes. We talked about him doing standup. He made me laugh.

I was the last person to see Brian alive. The police found him the next afternoon in a field by his apartment complex. He shot himself with a pistol he bought from a pawn shop on Division Street in Arlington earlier that week. Because I was his supervisor, I got to tell his roommate.

I think about Brian from time to time. I wonder what he would be doing if he were alive. Mostly, I get angry because I believe he might still be alive if he hadn’t gotten his hands on a gun. But there are lots of ways to kill yourself, and who’s to say Brian wouldn’t have found another one. The experts say men are usually successful when they attempt suicide because they don’t grab a fistful of pills, they grab a gun. They get it right the first time.

Why do people do these things? What was so wrong in Brian's life that this was the answer? Could I have done anything to help Brian? Those are questions without answers. I accepted that a long time ago. Another question apparently without answer is why guns are a fact of American life?

Working at a newspaper, you get to hear all the stuff that doesn’t get in the paper and read all of the little three paragraph items that make up the never-ending onslaught of tragedy in urban life. Gang shootings, robberies, kids killed by their father’s guns -- I always read more of those kind of stories than stories where someone used a gun to stop a crime. Those are the things that formed most of my feelings about guns. Go ahead and blame the media. Blame Brian. But it seemed to me then, and still seems to me now, that many gun deaths are needless, stupid and preventable.

A History of Guns: Part Five

This is the fifth in a personal history of guns in my life. Previous entries: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four

The College Years
I didn’t spend a lot of time hunting or shooting in college. My dad was busy running his business and I was busy trying to stay as far away from home as possible. There was this one quail hunt down near San Saba on one of those December days with a battleship gray sky and a chill in the air. We went with the electrical contractor my dad knew who seemed to kill everything that flew. Later in the day when we were following a covey through a grove of mesquite trees, I thought I accidentally shot my dad, but I didn’t (insert Dick Cheney joke here). And later, when instructing me in the art of cleaning quail, the electric contractor, in an effort to add to the description, asked me, “You ever stick your finger in some ol’ gal’s twat?” Uh, no, sir. Not with my dad standing right there. The awkward moment passed with a lot of laughter at my expense.

I slept on the most uncomfortable couch in the world that night while my father played poker all night. When we drove off in the foggy morning, my Dad was several thousand dollars richer and earned a hefty “commission” not to say anything to mom. Not 100 yards down the road, we stopped as 100 or so deer silently bounded out of the fog, across the road and disappeared again into the mist. The moment was one of those magic, time stops kind of moments. We never went hunting again.

A History of Guns: Part Four

This is the fourth in a personal history of guns in my life. Previous entries: Part One, Part Two, Part Three

The High School Years
Let's talk about Dave, a trailer-park dweller who was slow and smelled kind of bad. I know he smelled bad because I always got paired up to wrestle him in ninth-grade gym class. I didn’t like him, not so much because of anything he did -- he was one of those sort-of invisible people you knew in school who never made an impression on anyone. I disliked him because I hated wrestling him.

After ninth grade, my wrestling days were over and I didn't think about him at all until the day an announcement came over the loudspeaker at my high school saying that Dave had been killed in an accidental shooting. He was working at pizza place and one of Dave’s co-workers decided to show him his gun. Blam! Lights out. Just like at Freddie’s house, except the gun didn’t go off when Freddie pointed it at me.

But, that didn't change my desire to have a gun. And I finally did get a gun of my own on my 16th birthday. My father bought me a Charles Daly over-and-under 20-gauge -- a nice gun. My dad took me skeet shooting and -- occasionally -- quail hunting. I enjoyed spending time with my father. There is kind of a macho big dick thing about shooting a gun.

I remember one day we went skeet shooting at this old gun club out on on Northwest Highway between Dallas and Irving. We ran into an old friend of his who hit every clay that came out of the tower. The only reason I remember this guy is my dad asked him about hunting and he replied that he never went hunting anymore because “he didn’t want to kill anything.” I always thought that was an odd answer. I didn’t understand it at the time.

Breakfast with Burnham Update

I wanted to give you an update on the Breakfast with Lon Burnham event from Saturday, and I'll need to start off with an apology. I don't have my notes with me so I'll have to do this off the top of my head.

I joked with my wife before I left that I was going to have breakfast with the three other liberals in Fort Worth, but actually, the turnout was about fifty people -- many of the them the usual suspects (Democratic Party faithful, activists, labor organizers). When I met Lon on the way in, I thanked him for his efforts to prevent further infrigements on civil liberties in the state. I also thanked him for his work in a hostile environment. "It wasn't hard at all," he said. "In fact, it's a lot of fun."

He then went on to answer my burning question coming in to the breakfast was this: how can you hope to get anything done for your district when you probably the least favorite House member of the autocratic Speaker, Tom Craddick?

Lon has long since accepted life in the wilderness. If Tom Craddick could "disappear" one person in the House, it would probably be Lon. So Lon has gotten used to life wearing a bull's eye. His bills will rarely -- if ever -- get out of committee. His life is one of not so much trying to get bills passed to help his constituents as it is trying to stop legislation that would hurt those in his district. And there is plenty of bad legislation to deflect. He used a point of order to derail a bill allowing the state broad use of wiretapping. He also help defeat the Voter ID law -- a 21st Century version of the poll tax -- that would have successfully disenfranchised many poor and minority (read Democratic) voters.

But his work wasn't all defensive. He managed to get the state to divest from companies doing business in Sudan and pass a law approving a sales tax holiday on environmentally friendly household items like longer-life light bulbs and insulation.

But he was most upbeat about the possibilities of having a new speaker in the House. Craddick's act has worn thin with Republicans. Lon hinted that the Craddick D's -- the House Democrats that have sold out to Craddick -- will all face tough primary fights in the next election. The foundations that Craddick has built his leadership on are looking a little thin.

And there was even strong evidence of bi-partisanship with Lon having more than a few positive comments about a couple of House Republicans from Fort Worth -- Todd Smith and Charlie Geren.

I really left with a sense that there is some sunshine in Texas for those of us on the left side of the political spectrum. Sure, this is still the reddest of the red states. But if we engage and get involved in this next election cycle, maybe we can begin to turn some things around here in the Lone Star State.