July 24, 2015 4:04 PM

Smith: Tragedy and Tragicomedy in Texas

From the Left: Quorum Report’s liberal columnist Glenn W. Smith argues that the tragedy of Sandra Bland overshadows a tragicomic Texas week that saw Donald Trump in Laredo, an indictment against Rick Perry upheld three Republican judges, and a grand jury investigation of Att. Gen. Ken Paxton.

A grand jury is considering felony charges against sitting Attorney General Ken Paxton. Former Gov. Rick Perry’s one-time general counsel, Bob Pemberton, writes a unanimous opinion upholding one of the felony indictments – abuse of power – against Perry. That brings the total number of Republican judges finding merit in the charges to five, by my count. So much for the “partisan witch hunt” cries of Perry’s $2 million dollar legal team.

The accusations against Perry are obviously serious enough that a battery of Republicans, from the judge who appointed the special prosecutor to the judge who appointed that judge to the judges of the 3rd Court of Appeals, take them seriously, no matter how hard Perry and his team try to persuade malleable pundits in Texas and elsewhere that the charges have no merit.

Since it was unlikely Perry would confess and plead guilty, I guess he and his team had no other route to take, though. So be it.

But that’s not all the post-4th of July fireworks that exploded in Texas this week.

The full column from Glenn W. Smith is available in our R&D Department.

By Glenn W. Smith