After endorsing Bush on Sunday--to placate advertisers and right-wing subscribers, no doubt--the
Dallas Morning News gave the nod to Martin Frost, who's clearly the stronger of the two candidates.
The endorsement let Pete Sessions down easy, pinning the blame on Tom DeLay for "a choice we shouldn't have to make."
This is a choice we shouldn't have to make. Yet at House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's insistence, the Texas Legislature drew 13-term Democratic veteran Martin Frost out of his longtime congressional district and into the district represented by four-term GOP Rep. Pete Sessions.
After Sessions' performance at Sunday's League of Women Voter's debate (hosted by Mountain View College in Oak Cliff), there's no way the Dallas Morning News could have endorsed him without looking like total shills for the Republican Party. Pete Sessions looks more like a nutcase with each debate. Sunday, he kept going on about the flat tax and abolishing the IRS; Martin Frost reminded the audience that Pete Sessions is one of 9 or so who propose abolishing the IRS every year. Pete Sessions' retort--he said something like, "My name's on the bill, but it will never pass. Congressman Frost is just trying to scare you." What th--? So he's admitting he wastes his time on scary ideas that will never pass? How does that help North Texas?
Sessions' also stated that he was against the war in Kosovo because he didn't want our troops under U.N. command. He was really adamant on that point. Then came Martin's turn--"Pete, you're confused. They were under NATO control in Kosovo, not the U.N." It must have been an embarrassing night for the Sessions camp, though they'll never admit it.
To top it all off, every time Pete Sessions would get stuck for a response, he would tell the audience--live on local cable and CSPAN--to go to his website CostOfMartinFrost.Com. He said it time and time again. Thing is, that's not the name of his anti-Frost website! CostofMartinFrost.com was still available when he said it, and the Frost team purchased the domain name DURING THE DEBATE and used it to point out flaws in Pete's crazy tax plan! And Pete Sessions thinks he can solve our problems in cyber-security? I don't think so.
Afterwards, there was a reception for the candidates, but Sessions didn't show up. Martin Frost came in and worked the crowd, while Sessions apparently hit the road. For those non-Texan readers, Oak Cliff is considered by the Sessions crowd as being the "wrong side of the tracks" and we speculated that Sessions & company were afraid to be there after dark! When asked during the debate if he was familiar with Oak Cliff, he said that the Chamber of Commerce once took him on a "drive through." That comment won't get him any votes here. Despite conventional wisdom that the area is a festering cesspool of crime, the neighborhoods are quite lovely and we have our share of grand estates (the old kind, not the over-priced modern "McMansions" so prevalent in North Dallas). Martin Frost lives in Oak Cliff and has always made sure our tax dollars come back here in the form of highway interchanges, light rail stations, and new business parks.
Those of us in District 32 hope that the Dallas Morning News endorsement will give the Frost campaign the boost it needs for a win in November.