It’s All Those Democrats at the Pentagon

You really have to hand it to Congressman Mike McCaul (R –TX-10). When one of the largest manufacturing plants in his district loses its $3 billion army contract to build trucks for Iraq and Afghanistan, to a plant in Wisconsin (a Blue state), he knows what to do right away.

Blame Obama.

Because that’s exactly what he did.

Never mind that McCaul was asleep in his leather-covered chair in Congress while the Army perfectly appropriately put out for bid a recontinuation contract for FMTV manufacture, FMTVs are trucks built to be used in combat zones. Never mind that when Oshkosh Corp significantly underbid the Sealy, Texas company that had been producing the trucks for 18 years, McCaul wasn’t aware of it.

Never mind that BAE, the company that lost the bid to Oshkosh Corp. is a British-owned conglomerate – like BP. Oshkosh is a US-owned company.

Never mind that when McCaul was finally shaken awake about the fact that one of the largest plants in his district had lost a huge federal government contract, he and others went to the Government Accounting Office and whined, and the GAO actually told the Army to rebid the contract.

Never mind that the brass at the Pentagon sniffed at the GAO’s request, and then went with the low bid – Oshkosh’s – anyway (memories of $100 hammers having something to do with it I’ll bet).

Never mind all of that.

It’s Obama’s fault that BAE Systems lost the bid. It’s Obama’s fault that BAE, a heartless British multinational conglomerate has to lay off up to 1,300 employees at their Sealy plant.

Because Oshkosh, a company that resides in the Blue state of Wisconsin just took advantage of the fact that all politics is local. I kid you not. Here is what McCaul said as quoted in Fort Bend Now:

“When you see jobs being taken out of a red state to a blue state, that’s a concern,” McCaul said. “Policies of (the Obama) administration are impacting Texas in a negative way.”

It’s kind of odd, in a way, seeing Mike McCaul, who was always so full of what can only be called Texas bluster, taking on this new role of victim. Odd, because when you have a huge plant in your district whose sole purpose is to make trucks for use in combat zones, and have no Plan B in case peace breaks out, other than laying off your American workforce that is, it really doesn’t look like he is very believable.

I don’t think he can pull off this new victim role.

DCCC Says Larry Joe Doherty Has Got Game

There is something about Larry Joe Doherty that you have to like. First, this is a guy who has spent his career as a lawyer filing legal malpractice suits against other lawyers. I like the idea of having someone keeping the legal playing field level because when someone like me goes to court, it isn’t for an everyday occasion, but a life-changing one.

I like it that there is someone who makes sure his colleagues are treating their clients thoughtfully and fairly.

So imagine my delight today when I read that the DCCC has added Larry Joe’s race against Tom DeLay’s star pupil, Mike McCaul in Texas CD 10 to its “Emerging Races List.”

The DCCC thinks this one is winnable. From the press release:

“The polls, our fundraising numbers, and the word spreading through the streets of Austin, Katy, Elgin and Brenham all show the same thing – we are going to win this race. It will be no surprise to my supporters that our campaign is now generating interest and support across the nation to help turn this district blue again.”

Doherty’s campaign is currently performing well in fundraising, with total contributions surpassing McCaul’s campaign in the last quarterly filing. Indeed, with Tom DeLay out of the picture, McCaul has continued to have trouble attracting campaign lucre. Lucre it is if you look at the CD 10 comparison page at OpenSecrets.Org. McCaul’s PAC contributions account for 36% of his total campaign donations compared to Doherty’s 3%. Total individual contributions to Doherty’s campaign actually exceed McCaul’s by nearly $90,000.

Larry Joe Doherty’s campaign is being powered by individual contributions, not contributions from the special interest groups that feed McCaul’s kitty. Just take a look here, for instance, at a new website called “What DeLay Taught McCaul” for some fun facts on what altar McCaul prays to for campaign cash.

If you want to be one of these individual contributors, even if you don’t live within CD 10, you might want to make a visit here and then to their “Contributions page” to drop a few dead presidents in their campaign war chest. A campaign war chest that now funds an “Emerging Race.”

You know, the talking heads on TV are all expecting “business as usual” from the voters in Texas this year.

I think that they are all in for a big surprise.