Be a Loyal Foot Soldier - Or Else

This may just be my opinion, but nothing says weak and ineffectual leader like surrounding yourself with sycophants. Today, we read in the Dallas Morning News that Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert doled out committee assignments. Freshman councilmen and women received chairman and vice-chairman appointments. Veteran councilwoman Angela Hunt will helm no committees. None. Not at all. Hunt has made it her business to study diligently the issues surrounding the Trinity River. But not only will she not oversee that committee, she's not even serving on it. Yes, Hunt has opposed Leppert's plans for the Trinit River project, as she also does his plans for the convention center hotel. And now, apparently Hunt is being punished for that, and for having the temerity to not rubber stamp what might be detrimental to the city. Now, Leppert makes the normal noises (for him) that he appointed the best people to these committee leadership positions. But a council person who has just taken the oath was given more weight than a veteran with many miles and many hours logged in the study of what is bad and good for Dallas - and that just doesn't pass the smell test. So maybe these people are completely qualified. But really, it more appears that Leppert is sending a message: Be a loyal foot soldier, because that's far more important than what you do for your constituents.

Is It Just Me, or Is This Misleading?

So I took a real good gander at the Vote No! Web site today - and noticed immediately Angela Hunt's photo on it. Now, let's begin this by saying the Vote No! site is for both Prop 1 and Prop 2, and urges a no vote for both. But that being said, it doesn't do much on the front page to distinguish between the two. So just on first glance, it looks like Angela Hunt is urging people to vote no on both. And we know that's not true. While yes, she does urge people to vote no on the harebrained Prop 2, she's decidedly on the Vote Yes! side of Prop 1. But she's also popular. She's known as being one of the smartest city council members and - to me - it looks as if they're trying to capitalize on that popularity by hinting she's for everything the Vote No! camp stands for. Couldn't they have used a picture of someone else? Update: Angela Hunt responded in the comments, and reports the photo has been removed. And another update: Wilonsky has more at Unfair Park.

Uh...

So today I read a story about a contretemps at the Dallas City Council meeting. It was - surprise - about the Trinity River levees and was - surprise again - involving Angela Hunt and Mitchell Rasansky, who accused Mayor Tom Leppert and City Manager Mary Suhm of flat out not telling the council about the issues with the levees. But the weird part - or rather, the part that gave me pause? Dwaine Caraway's reaction. I can understand defending people you respect. But I dunno - a simple, "I knew about it, maybe you weren't paying attention," might have been a little more on point than what the story says happened. The pause button quote:

I know a bunch of stuff that ought to be out here in the public and that would be most embarrassing and everything else," Caraway said, quickly adding that he wouldn't do so. "If we ... keep on beating them up, then I'm going to start doing some beatin' 'em up. And if I get to beatin' 'em up, it's really going to be something."

So he says he wouldn't use it, but then it sounds like he's reminding Hunt and Rasansky he has dirt on them, and would use it if he needed to. Which sounds like he would use it. Which confuses me. I mean, if it's something that would make them poor public servants, if it's something the voters should know, isn't he duty-bound to say whatever it is? Don't get me wrong, Dwaine Caraway has done a lot of good for his constituents, and you'd be hard-pressed to find another council person so involved in his area of the city. But now it feels like he knows something bad, nefarious, evil, and any/or any other word that connotates that, about these two people. And now it almost sounds like he's willing to keep it hidden - for a price. And that, sadly, is politics as usual. Say it ain't so, Dwaine.

New, Relevant Columnists Needed

As a writer, I know we can be awfully hard on each other sometimes. But we're also the first ones to actually express appreciation for a truly well-written piece, I think, and the first ones to realize just how difficult it may have been to put all the pieces together because, well, we've made the sausage before ourselves. Which is why I can say this: Steve Blow, you just may be a giant ignoramus who violated basic Journalism 101 with your column this week. If what Dallas Councilwoman Angela Hunt says is true, this column is the height of skewed unfairness and smug buffoonery. Not only did you not contact her prior to print, after she took the time to contact you and explain herself, you chose to leave the column as is - both in the print edition and the Web edition, at least, as of 8:45 p.m. You even have the opportunity to make it right in a blog post, but lemme see ... nope. But this is just a drop in the bucket of my discontent with TDMN columnists and opinion writers. My friends and I - all educated, late 20s to mid-30s - frequently talk about the things we like, and the things we detest about the Dallas Morning News. More often than not, the increasingly out-of-touch, irrelevant columnists and opinion writers irk the group. Perhaps there is an audience for people enthralled with the doodads on traffic lights, people frightened by everyone in Dallas (Hi, Rod!) and people who like hard-to-follow babble about DART Man. I don't know. But I do know there's a giant chunk of people out here who are rather disenfranchised by the Metro column offerings of the Dallas Morning News - and these are people who are dedicated readers of the dead-tree version, the kind the TDMN needs. A column or opinion piece that inspires debate is one thing - a column or op-ed piece that inspires disgust or complete disinterest is another.