Wassamatta U. — Or, Guns Up U.?

Kent R. Hance was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from West Texas (1979-1985). After his congressional service, Hance switched to the Republican Party. As a conservative (Blue Dog) Democrat, Hance represented the 19th Congressional District, which then stretched from Midland and Odessa to Lubbock. Hance's finest moment came in the election of 1978 when his Republican opponent was George W. Bush of Midland; during a TV debate prior to the election, Hance alluded to his Connecticut-born opponent's affectation as a Texan: "George was out campaigning for the rural vote. He stopped at a gas station and asked directions to so-and-so's ranch. He was told to take the farm-to-market road to a particular turn-off. After a mile down that lane, Bush was told to 'turn left once he passed the cattle guard.' Hance imitated George W. Bush on live TV: 'What color uniform will the guard be wearing?' " (A cattle guard, in Texas parlance, is an obstacle used to prevent livestock, such as sheep or cattle, from passing along a road which penetrates the fencing surrounding an enclosed piece of land. The guard, implanted in the road, is a transverse grid of metal bars or tubes so that the gaps between the tubes are wide enough for animals' legs to fall through, but sufficiently narrow not to impede a wheeled vehicle.) Hance defeated The Dubster handily; it was the only election George W. Bush ever lost. With the news of the hiring of Gonzo, The Dubster probably shouted "Gotacha!" Kent Hance returned to his alma mater as Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System in 2006 and hired a "cattle guard" to teach political science in 2009. If this is (fair & balanced) Texas nonsense, so be it.

[Vannevar Bush Hyperlink — Bracketed Numbers — Directory]
[1] Ken Herman Introduces Himself As An Austin Fishwrap Editorial Columnist
[2] Ken Herman Grills Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance About Hiring Gonzo

[x Austin Fishwrap]
[1]—Back To Directory
Finally, My Two Cents' Worth (Hey, That's Not For Throwing)
By Ken Herman

Just short of 34 years into my journalism career I find myself being paid good money to have and share opinions. This is similar to getting paid to have a nose.

As the newest member of the American-Statesman's editorial board (been here a week now), I hope to use our pages to inform, delight, annoy and otherwise engage our readers. From contact I've had with readers over the years, it seems that I already had been doing that on the news pages.

I'm always glad to hear from the readers. Nice to know you're out there. Even nicer to know that you can be civil while calling me to task for errors of judgment or fact.

Many of us newspaper geezers fully understand the new world and new challenge in which we are involved. This needs to be a conversation, not a lecture. We have to get that right or about 15 years from now the phrase "I used to be in newspapers" will sound like "I used to be in vaudeville."

We also must find new ways of doing some things we have done the same old way for many years. In the past few years, I've enjoyed dabbling in video, using a small, cheap camera (which would have cost $20,000 if it existed 15 years ago) to let people see what I see on assignment.

We will continue the video experiment here. We gave it a road test with what I call a "videotorial" on the morning after the legislative session ended. Let's see how that format lends itself to the art of editorializing.

And let me take a quarter-inch of your time to express gratitude to lawmakers and others who played along when I, unannounced, stuck the camera in their faces during the session. After viewing some of my early efforts, former Speaker Pete Laney predicted somebody would punch my lights out before session's end.

Never happened. Too bad. Would have made great video.

Here's the short bio: Brooklyn, New York native. Finished high school and earned college degree in South Florida. Entered journalism in 1975 at the Lufkin Daily News in East Texas. Wrote for The Associated Press in Dallas, Harlingen and Austin, 1977-1988. Arrived in Austin (with AP) in 1979. Became Austin Bureau Chief for The Houston Post in 1988. Joined the Statesman when the Post folded (an early adopter of what's become quite a trend) in 1995.

Did a six-month stint as Cox Newspapers White House correspondent in 2001. Did a longer stint in that job from June 2004-January 2009.

I classify my politics as recovering reactionary, largely because I don't really know what that means. Many around me classify my politics as cranky. Some say that's because of my fear that I am a member of the worst generation. We warmed the planet, cooled the economy and now are in danger of becoming the first American generation to leave our kids with lives more challenged than ours have been.

On the plus side, we did come up with HDTV. It's amazing (especially for hockey), but I'm not sure it outweighs the negatives.

Until somebody here at the paper disables my login (sounds like something your doctor says will cause some "discomfort"), I hope to weigh in on weighty topics du jour ("The coming end of days: Should you pay your cable bill?") and life in Austin.

And depending on my mood and the bosses' tolerance, we might delve into some notions I have spouted over the years during the boring periods between the outbreak of news.

Here's the short version of some: Public libraries should be closed immediately. We gave up on Prohibition too quickly. For statistical purity, the home team should bat in the bottom of the ninth even if it is ahead. A safety should be called a touchback, and vice versa.

There's more. And now that I've got a very public place in which to bloviate about this stuff, I can't wait to see whether I have the courage to do so. Ω
________________________________________________________
[2]—Back To Directory
Mistakes Were Made — But Not This Time, Hance Says
By Ken Herman

Here's how I opened my chat with Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance about the hiring of ex-A.G. Alberto Gonzales to teach political science at Guns Up U.:

"I wanted your comment on the announcement that Tech also has hired Sarah Palin, Mark Sanford and Jack the Ripper."

Hance didn't hang up, so we talked about the reaction to the controversial hire.

"I've had nine e-mails that were opposed to it. Three of them were Texas Tech grads. One of them has never given any money. One gave $20 in '76 and the big contributor gave $130 in '87," Hance said.

The chancellor remains convinced he's bringing a good man with a good deal of good experience to campus as a visiting professor and recruiter of Hispanic students.

"Who is upset about it? They are all left," said Hance, an ex-congressman who made a political career on the right. "I can tell you this: If Bill Clinton agreed to teach a course at Tech, I would take him."

In Lubbock that would be the more controversial hire.

Hance is a different kind of chancellor who was a different kind of politician. He's a teller of improbable tales, including his swear-its-true story about his Dimmitt High School basketball team playing in an L-shaped gym in Jal, NM.

Some think Hance could have become a Democratic governor had he not switched to the GOP and run headlong into the money of Clayton Williams ("Putting the goober back into gubernatorial") in the 1990 GOP primary.

The historical hypothetic goes like this. If Hance had remained a Democrat, maybe Ann Richards (who barely beat Williams in 1990) never would have been governor. Another version says if Williams had not bought the 1990 nomination, Hance might have defeated Richards.

And then maybe Richards never would have been governor. And then maybe George W. Bush never would have been governor. And then maybe Bush never would have been president.

And then maybe we wouldn't have invaded Iraq. And then maybe worldwide peace and prosperity would have prevailed. And then maybe you wouldn't be fishing around in the toilet for your 401(k).

So maybe it's all Hance's fault.

Maybe not. But if bringing Gonzales to Tech turns out to be a mistake, that will be Hance's fault.

No way it's a mistake, he insists.

"For students to be able to interact with someone who has been in a presidential cabinet is a huge plus. This is an exchange of ideas," he said. "That's what we do at a university. The few I've heard from on Al Gonzales, they don't want someone that disagrees with them.

"It's called freedom of speech. The far left does not like, in fact they hate, people that disagree with them, and they want to shut them up. And I think you have some of the same problems on the extreme right."

Back in January, I had lunch with Gonzales, Bush's attorney general who resigned amid controversy in 2007, in McLean, VA.

Despite expressing confidence in his record and all that Bush had done, Gonzales seemed sad though determined to look forward, not back.

Mistakes, he said, were made, declining to checklist them.

"If people expect that officials at this level, dealing with the kind of issues we deal with, aren't going to make mistakes, they are living in la-la land," he told me. "I mean, you make mistakes and you learn from those mistakes.

"I think there is so much misinformation out there. Not just about me, but about the Bush administration and what we were about. It's important for our side of the story to be told. If it's not told by us, no one is going to tell it," he said.

I saw him in Midland on January 20 after he flew in from Washington with Bush, who had words of advice for him as they left the plane.

"He kissed me on the forehead and he said, 'Just stay strong,' " Gonzales told me.

Here's some more advice for Gonzales: We all can learn from our mistakes. You should try to teach from yours.

And don't use this as a forum for telling "our side of the story."

Any effort to burnish the tarnished legacy would be torture. Ω

[Ken Herman is the latest addition to the Opinion page of the Austin Fishwrap.]

Copyright © 2009 The Austin American-Statesman

Get the Google Reader at no cost from Google. Click on this link to go on a tour of the Google Reader. If you read a lot of blogs, load Reader with your regular sites, then check them all on one page. The Reader's share function lets you publicize your favorite posts.

Copyright © 2009 Sapper's (Fair & Balanced) Rants & Raves