The Dallas Morning News today withdrew its endorsement of Stephen Broden in the Texas 30th District congressional race, after Eddie Bernice Johnson's Republican challenger told WFAA-Channel 8 reporter Brad Watson that violent revolution is one of his "options" for changing the regime in Washington. "The Editorial Board has too many concerns about his judgment," says the do-over. "We plan to offer more details in the days ahead." Now, the paper recommends ... no one.
I love to say I told you so, and I did here the day The News first endorsed Broden. I had been working for some weeks on a Broden profile, and I was quite sure the Ladies Bountiful on The News's editorial board were unaware exactly whom and what they were endorsing. My story on Broden runs in next week's paper.
There is some small irony here for me. The more I got to know Broden, who attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor a few years after I did, the more I liked him. I especially liked the bit about violent revolution, since it mirrored sentiments I carried in my own heart during the first 25 years of what was supposed to have been my adulthood. I and my ilk from Ann Arbor eventually outgrew all that stuff, when we found out that during a revolution you have to live outdoors, you could get shot, and there is absolutely no good Provencal wine with meals.
But it tickles me now no end to see the Republican Party -- in Dallas, of all places -- coming around to the same positions we lefties held back during our hippie heyday. Goes around, comes around, I guess.
I suspect the violent overthrow remark just gave the News the excuse it needed to back out of a very naïve endorsement. Meanwhile, I'm still thinking about joining the Tea Party, as soon as I get a peak at the menu.
