Buzzkill: Senate Keeps Burleson Sex-Toy Crusader Off Pardons and Paroles Board

Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast sent Unfair Park a note to point out this "amazing" development from yesterday: Burleson's Shanda Perkins bid to become a member of the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles was killed dead in the Senate yesterday. Happened just a week after the Senate Committee on Nominations gave her the 4-1 okee-doke, with senators John Whitmire (D, Houston), John Carona (R, Dallas) and Eliot Shapleigh (D, El Paso) on Wednesday voicing their opposition during a brief debate. Said Whitmire, "This person is not qualified to serve on the board of pardon and paroles"; he also insisted that his motion in opposition to Governoe Rick Perry's appointment was "not partisan, not personal." The board position is a full-time job that pays $95,000 a year.

The Austin American-Statesman's video from the debate can be found after the jump. But among the reasons cited for the Senate's rejection: Perkins's involvement in the dildo dust-up about which we wrote in '04, which led to the arrest of a woman who sold sex toys -- an arrest that ultimately led to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision last year that it's perfectly legal to sell sex toys in the state of Texas, so there. Flower Mound's Jane Nelson still approves the appointment and insists, look, this was solely about the sex-toy issue and not about actual qualifications. Perkins tells the Star-Telegram she'll take any other position the governor would like: "Whatever I can do for the state of Texas, I'm certainly willing to do that."