No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

Ever Find that Everything You Say digs the Hole Deeper? See the Texas DPS for an Example.

Josh Marshal points out the idiocy of the explanation the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has offered for destroying the records of the search for the Democratic Legislators.

The DPS appears to have violated Texas state law by destroying the records. To justify this, they point to a federal regulation which a legal expert says is plainly inapplicable. And the very regulation they're trying to hang their hat on seems to bar the original conduct itself.

So how does the DPS argue it's way out of this? Well, you can't say they aren't creative. According to DPS spokesman Tom Vinger, it was a criminal investigation. So they were entitled to conduct it. But only for a while! When they discovered that the legislators were out of state and couldn't be arrested, then it stopped being a criminal investigation. As Vinger told the Austin American-Statesman, "That's when this (federal code) kicked in, because clearly we had records now that were of a noncriminal variety."

Since the flight of the Democrats to Oklahoma was NOT a violation of any law, the search for them was clearly not a criminal investigation. To be criminal, there must be at least a suspected violation of law. No law - No crime. It's that simple The DPS was merely acting as a sergeant-at-arms for the Speaker of the House, Republican Tom Craddick. It is clear, however, that they should retain the records of their activities so that those activities can be properly audited and evaluated! Destruction of those records is extremely suspicious, and in fact nothing short of idiocy.

OK. So the Texas DPS shouldn't have called the feds to locate Pete Laney's plane, and they REALLY shouldn't have destroyed the records of what they had done.

Now, far be it from me to provide an excuse for what appears to be inappropriate use of the government by Republicans, especially Tom Delay. But let me speculate as to what probably really happened.

The last time the DPS had to perform this sergeant-at-arms function was about a quarter of a century ago. The DPS is a crime-fighting organization. They normally investigate crimes, including a lot of drug and immigrant smuggling since Texas is a border state next to Mexico. Most of what any organization does is routine. That is, what you do today will normally be very much like what you did yesterday. They were told to bring in the Democratic Lawmakers. What I am sure they heard was "Apprehend those Scofflaws." I seriously doubt that the DPS has prominent procedures for this function, and I am certain that the supervisors are not trained in how to handle it.

Also, Tom Craddick has just been elected Speaker of the House for the first time. The Republicans have not been in the majority in the Texas House of representatives since the end of Reconstruction in the 1870's. Both Tom Craddick and the Republicans are new at the job and are learning it as they go along. Craddick should have made it clear to the DPS that they were simply to bring the errant lawmakers to the House Chambers, but that they were NOT to treat them as criminals. I seriously doubt that it ever occurred to him that the DPS would not have established procedures and training in that function.

So Tom Craddick told the DPS to bring in the Democratic Lawmakers, and the DPS treated the job as they normally would, as apprehending fugitives. Then someone called the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to track Pete Laney's plane. When that reached the news, someone in the DPS suddenly realized - oops. That was a real no - no. Then someone panicked and told the troopers to destroy all records of what they had done. It comes down to a DPS error in contacting the DHS as would have been routine in apprehending fugitives, then a clearly criminal effort to cover up the mistake by destroying the records so that the mistake would be more difficult to audit.

While I would personally prefer for the actions to be pinned on a Republican politician somehow, I really doubt they were directly to blame. But someone in the DPS should be fired, not for the error of contacting the DHS about the aircraft, but for the decision to destroy the records.
posted by Richard at 3:48 PM