In digging into Mr.Bohac's voting record, it occurred to me that it makes a pretty good case study in the bankrupt policies that are at the heart of the Rovian Republican Party legacy.
The standard formula goes something like this: cut taxes, rag on public institutions and expenditures, pay off fat cat contributors with public money and contracts, minimize regulation or turn the regulators into lap dogs, oppose same sex unions and demonize homosexuals.
More fundamentally Bohac operates out of the "I got mine, too bad about you" mindset. If you can't get it for yourself (healthcare, jobs, opportunities, education) you don't deserve it. Additionally, the basic assumption of the political script he follows is that the state exists only to further individual economic liberties. Further, , he holds with the presumption that market places are essentially self-regulating and self-adjusting, that interference by government is fundamentally wrong, ineffective, even immoral. To such people there is no common good, no elements of the public sector that must be protected, even enhanced to ensure equity, justice and opportunity for all. If you can't pay for it, you don't deserve it, period.
I don't think he has thought through these presumptions, I see him as simply following the template of the Rovian playbook and applying it here in his district. Its look at just one issue as illustration of some of these points, clear air.
Air quality/Environment
On the issue of fast tracking the of coal-fired electricity plants form Feburary 2007, we find Mr.Bohac voting to slow down the process:
Indeed, this from the web:
Legislators turned 'green' corner
Web Posted: 06/03/2007 10:26 PM CDT
Janet Elliott
Austin Bureau
Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, said he was disappointed that the
Legislature didn't give state and local officials more power to regulate
air quality. He introduced bills to eliminate the tax on ethanol-blended
fuel and provide subsidies for the purchase of hybrid cars and solar
panels. Both were left pending in committee.
He admits he's "ahead of the curve" as a Republican who sees the need
to balance job growth with protecting the environment.
"It just makes sense that people get to breathe clean air," he said. "For
me being a conservative means being a conservative with nature as
well as conserving tax dollars."
Several things about this sound byte. First, his overall grade from Texas League of Conservation Voters 2007 Legislative Scorecard was a D. They proivde a more complete history of his voting record on enviornmental/clean air issues. A sample of these make the point of his hypcrasy. He was on the wrong side of each of the measure below:
3. Dirty Coal Bill, Part II. After the House rejected Rep. Vaught's amendment, Rep. Burnam's introduced a compromise amendment that allowed HB 3732 incentives with more NOx emissions than the Vaught amendment, but less than the sponsors' bill. This attempt to improve the bill was also rejected by a vote of 84-53.
5. Tracking pollution levels. Rep. Ana Hernandez's amendment required TCEQ to install more air quality monitors in Houston and Dallas, the areas in Texas with the most and worse violations of federal health standards. The House voted to remain ignorant 46-79.
6. Dirty Coal Bill, Part III. The final version of HB 3732 emerged from conference committee with unacceptable target levels for NOx; weak provisions for future carbon capture; and without protective language passed in the Senate. The House voted for a bill that had only the worse and none of the good provisions from the House and Senate versions, by 32-110
Global Warming
16. Analyzing global warming's impacts on Texas. Rep. Elliott Naishtat's amendment created a task force to develop a balanced and authoritative assessment of the likely global warming impacts on Texas, and opportunities for strategies and technologies that could reduce global warming in Texas and save money or otherwise benefit the state's economy. Failed 52-88
18. Ignoring evidence of wrong-doing. HB 3780, by Rep. Dennis Bonnen, limited TCEQ's ability to use information of pollution violations gathered by private citizens, even if that information was true and the only source of information about the illegal act. The bill would conflict with requirements in existing federal environmental law. Rep. Burnam's amendment tried to limit the damage by instructing TCEQ to ignore any portion of HB 3780 TCEQ determined to be inconsistent with federal law. The House voted 64-76 against the amendment.
19. See less evil, hear less evil. Rep. Lon Burnam's amendment to HB 3960 required TCEQ to consider 10 years of a company's legal compliance history in any permit hearing, rather than limiting consideration to 5 years as Rep. Wayne Smith wanted. The House voted by 58-76 to have regulators ignore years of illegal action by permit applicants.
20. See less evil, hear less evil, Part II. Rep. Burnam's amendment to HB 3960 required TCEQ to consider important evidence of illegal acts by polluters, including "notices of violation" and "notices of enforcement" when using compliance history during permit reviews that Rep. Wayne Smith wanted to keep from being considered. The House voted with the polluters, 51-84.
21. Trusting the people. Rep. Garnet Coleman's amendment to HB 3960 required TCEQ to publish compliance history on the internet making it avail-able to the public. The House voted to keep the public in dark by 56-74.
26. Municipal landfills. Rep. Dora Olivo's amendment to HB 3960 provided permitting incentives for municipal operated landfills-if they met certain operation requirements. It was voted down 58-75.
That these votes undercut his public proclamations about our right to breathe clean air is obvious. They also illustrate other elements of the Rovian formula that is Bohac's apparent model for governing. Items 5,6,181,19 and 20 are so transparently corporate friendly. Check out his campaign contributors here and you can see why this raises red flags like crazy.
Besides protecting corporations, Mr. Bohac as also adopted or rather, slavishly followed the Rovian formula for neutering public criticism - avoid transprency at all cost. In simple words, if there is no data , they can't nail you. This is the point of items 16,18,19, and 21. At the national level, it is why the Bushies closed down on access to all kinds of data and just stopped collecting other data.
POLITICS-US: Bush's Budget Sidelines Transparency
"Critics of the Bush Administration say they are not surprised at the president's use of the budget to thwart the will of Congress. They see the tactic as part of a pattern of restricting access to information. They cite the growth of public requests for information under the FOIA over the last six years. The total number of FOIA requests received in 2006 was 21,412,736, substantially more than in 2005.
Backlogs in processing requests remain significant, according to an audit conducted in January 2007 by the National Security Archive (NSA), an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University which collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through FOIA. One FOIA request has now been pending for more than 20 years, according to the NSA. The statutory response time is 20 business days.
The Bush Administration has refused to release information on a wide range of subjects, including the secret meetings of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy policy task force. It has ordered federal websites to remove information that the Administration believed could be sensitive. It issued a controversial memo limiting access to records under the Presidential Records Act in November 2001, which allowed former Presidents and Vice-Presidents to prevent access to records. It also refused to disclose the names of those arrested after the attacks of Sep. 11, 2001.
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So, Mr.Bohac the window dressing is too little, too late. The broader pattern of your slavish obedience to the discredited Rovian model are there for all to see. Your representation has been of the corporation, not of your constituents. Your votes to hide the facts are an insult to them, your clean air friendly claim is denied by your voting record. There is a name for people who act thusly. We call them hypocrites.
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