Beto O'Rourke's outburst at Abbott's news conference shows the spine Democrats need

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Americans witnessed something rare in Texas on Wednesday: a Democrat with a spine.

Gubernatorial candidate and former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke showed up at news conference about the horrific Robb Elementary School shooting and confronted Gov. Greg Abbott. He busted right into the middle of the briefing – decorum be damned – and said what a whole lot of Americans would like to say: “You’re doing nothing. You’re offering us nothing.”

-snip-

One man on the stage angrily hollered: “I can’t believe you’re a sick son of a bitch who would come to a deal like this to make a political issue.”

He was whisked away with urgency, but not before creating a moment that resonated with those of us who know full well that politicians at that press conference – like Abbott and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz – have bent over backward to loosen or block gun regulations and fight against things like Medicaid expansion, which would give people greater access to mental health care. Politicians who themselves routinely pull outrageous political stunts – like Cruz cooking bacon on a hot rifle or Abbott putting migrants on buses to Washington, D.C. – to make a point.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/beto-orourkes-outburst-abbott-press-212335577.html

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. O'Rourke's standoff with Gov. Abbott over Uvalde mass shooting marks the new era in Texas politics

I love the way that Beto took it to Greg and the GOP. Beto was a little passive against Carnival Cruz until the end of that campaign in 2018. I love the way that Beto stood up to Greg and the gun nuts.

Link to tweet

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/legislature/article/O-Rourke-s-standoff-with-Gov-Abbott-over-Uvalde-17199329.php?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=referral

The rawness of a new era of Texas politics was on full display on Wednesday in Uvalde as Gov. Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke were

eye-to-eye in a high school auditorium in the aftermath of one of the state’s worst gun violence tragedies.....

It got even more heated as Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, standing onstage behind Abbott, shouted at O’Rourke, “Sir, you’re out of line,” later calling him a “sick son of a (expletive).“

It was yet another public display of the hostility that has been brewing in Texas politics for the past six years, as Democrats make gains in the Texas Legislature and battles for statewide office, while the Republicans in power push further and more aggressively right on guns, abortion and gay rights.

Just in the last two years, Republicans in the Legislature have changed rules in the Texas Senate to squelch out already outnumbered Democratic resistance and wielded redistricting as a partisan tool to end careers of Democratic lawmakers......

That’s not the case this time. O’Rourke hammered Abbott earlier this year for the failures of the power grid during the 2021 winter storms that killed more than 700 people and left millions without electricity. O’Rourke went so far as to accuse Abbott of essentially accepting bribes from oil and gas company executives to assure he wouldn’t regulate them.

Now one of Abbott’s biggest donors is suing O’Rourke for libel and defamation. Kelcy Warren, chairman of the board at the gas pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners, filed suit against O’Rourke in San Saba County seeking more than $1 million in damages in a case filed in March.

I need to check on the Kelcy Warren lawsuit. The case was filed in a county other than where Kelcy Warren is registered to vote and was a very weak case attacking Beto for having opinions that are different from what Wareen and Greg want the facts to be.

This is going to be a nasty and fun race.

[Crowman2009]

2. Such christ-like language from that asshole mayor.

[lees1975]

3. ORourke points to the real solution to the problem

STOP ELECTING REPUBLICANS LIKE ABBOTT.
STOP ELECTING REPUBLICANS PERIOD

Then the problem will get solved.

[2naSalit]

4. +1