|
| |
07/10/06 DMN's Staffers
play the race card.
It's been how many days since Mayor Miller announced
she's not going run for re-election? Seems like yesterday, and seems like weeks
ago. There has been so much written and commented about her announcement
-- the "real" reasons behind her decision, the political results of her
decision, etc., etc.
|
At The Dallas Managed News,
almost every reporter or columnist (except Emily Ramshaw) has either focused on
her personality defects or the racial division in the city caused by her
personality defects. Say what you will, no one (except me here on
DallasArena.com) ever talked about Ron Kirk's personality defects or the racial
division in this city he left behind his 6 years as Mayor Con Jerk. |
|
|
07/13/06 Philip
Leven:
Poor Gromer, he used to do some real reporting.
But, in the last couple of
years, he seems to be moving in ever-smaller circles around just
a few "community leaders".
His columns look more and more like editorials. I
wonder why his bosses at the DMN are OK with that? I would think
there would be serious competition for the
City Hall beat, and as a result we'd get some
really ace reporters on it. |
|
These reporters/columnists are rewriting reality. Dallas has been racially
divided (even worse than now) for 30 years. Remember Diane Ragsdale's
tirade at the white woman who asked the council to do something special as a
memorial for the 3 officers who were killed just days apart? What about
Old Al Lipscomb? That was happening under "make nice" Mayor Annette
Strauss. Steve Bartlett was not able to "heal" the racial divide in this
city, and Ray Hunt told him he could not run again. Ron Kirk/Con Jerk
certainly was not able to "heal" the racial divide.
|
Laura Miller inherited a mess at City Hall
and in the city. She got some of it resolved, and is leaving the
city better than when she took office. |
|
|
07/07 James
Northrup:
The real opportunity now as you pointed
out in
Laura Miller's not
running for re-election! is to change the
composition of the Council. That was the limiting factor all along.
Without a better Council, no new mayor can get anything done.
|
|
Here are some of the
DMN
articles and columns that have appeared since Thursday. All rewrite
reality.
 |
Mayoral vote pitch may be racial
unity;
Visions for healing divide in Dallas could be theme of campaigns
Sunday, July 9,
2006 By GROMER
JEFFERS JR. / The Dallas Morning News |
Many of the potential candidates for
Dallas mayor, in assessing Laura Miller's abrupt departure from the 2007
race, say they plan to make the healing of a racially
fractured city the central theme of their campaigns.
The racial
polarization and City Council discord that have marked Ms. Miller's 4 ?
years in office already were shaping up to be major campaign issues
next year.
... many candidates see a benefit in drawing a
sharp contrast to what they call Ms. Miller's divisive
style.
... three high-profile contenders who say
they are pondering a mayoral run.
... "Certainly the
city would benefit from more unity," Mr. Anchia said. "Moving the
city forward and bringing people together from all backgrounds would be an
exciting opportunity. I'm seriously considering it."
... Bridging Dallas' racial divide is likely to be
a common mantra in the campaign, political analysts say.
... Dallas lawyer Michael Boone, former chairman
of the Dallas Citizens Council. "The southern sector and the northern sector
must work together as a city. It's critical for the future of Dallas."
... the campaign tactics of her potential
opponents were obvious. ...
they had to plan appeals to blacks and Hispanics in the southern sector who
disliked her.
... "If you were an opponent of Laura Miller, you
were guaranteed the southern sector," Mr. Boone said. "Today, nobody is
guaranteed the southern sector. There are no longer any anti-Miller votes.
The whole dynamic has changed, and out of that new coalitions will be
formed."
... SMU political scientist Cal Jillson said the
high number of votes in North Dallas could discourage campaign rhetoric
about a divided city.
"At some point somebody is going to
say, 'I want those northern votes,' " Dr. Jillson said. "Somebody is going
to say: 'You good people in the northern sector of the city have done all
the right things, and you deserve the good things you've earned in life.
Don't be frightened, I'll protect you.' "
But former City Council member
Veletta Forsythe Lill said she did not expect the type
of North Dallas campaign run by Ms. Miller, who all but ignored the southern
sector.
... Ms. Lill said. "Laura staked her reputation on
criticism. Maybe people are looking to move away from that style."
... |
Apparently, the
DMN
talking points are fairly limited, and concise: racial division, divisive
style and unity.
|
This city was racially polarized long before Laura
Miller ran for the city council, much less for Mayor. Every time
Ron Kirk/Con Jerk got criticized, he played the race card. He
played South Dallas against North Dallas to get a new taxpayer funded
arena for Ross Perot, Jr. and Tom Hicks and the Trinity Bonddoogle
approved. Ron Kirk/Con Jerk treated Council members Donna Blumer,
Laura Miller and Larry Duncan as if they didn't exist. |
|
|
07/07 Jay
Narey:
Heard about Laura Miller, and I am
disappointed because she could have been
something more. She's certainly better than
that damn Kay Granger over in Fort Worth who I don't
care for at all.
|
|
Despite Princess Velveeta's
lstatements to the contrary, Laura Miller did not ignore the southern sector in
her mayoral race. We had tons of volunteers going door-to-door in the
southern sector. There was a lot of money spent in the southern sector.
There were several campaign events in the southern sector. We tried to get
her to focus on North Dallas, and ignore the southern sector. Laura Miller
was convinced she could prevail in the southern sector and spent a lot of money
trying. Princess Velveeta was too busy campaigning for the Mayor's
opponent and making nasty comments to have known what was happening in Laura's
campaign.
|
|
For mayor, split
image intact;
As Miller bows out, the southern sector still
sees her as distant, the north as gutsy
Saturday, July 8, 2006
By SCOTT FARWELL and DAVID FLICK / The Dallas
Morning News |
... as Ms. Miller's political engine flamed out
Thursday, residents began to survey her scorched-earth legacy ? a metropolis
many believe is as economically and racially divided
as it was the day she was sworn into office as mayor.
... in North Dallas, others said they admired Ms.
Miller's strength.
... "I trust her because she doesn't care who gets
mad ? she's going to do the job," said Neil Kieran, 51, of North Dallas.
Nearby, Julie Noel, 51, a
speech pathologist from Lake Highlands, said she admires Ms. Miller's
opposition to tax incentives to lure businesses to the city.
... Cal Jillson, a political scientist at SMU, said Ms. Miller's
problem with black voters is more a question of personality than policy.
... Alan Walne, a former Dallas City Council
member from Lake Highlands, said the mayor's failure to bring the Dallas
Cowboys back to the city cut both ways in the city's northern precincts.
Some fans were angered by her reluctance to use tax incentives to lure the
team, while budget hawks among her core supporters were further endeared.
... |
At least Farwell and Flick
acknowledge that the city was economically and racially divided before she
took office. That means they acknowledge Ron Kirk did not heal the racial
division in Dallas while he was in office. Con Jerk exacerbated the city's
problems. Con Jerk lied to people in the southern sector who believed in
him.
|
|
Sherry Jacobson:
She fought but didn't lead
Sherry Jacobson:
Miller was too hard for soft politicking
07:45 AM CDT on Saturday, July 8, 2006 |
... The city did not seem to be grieving the
impending loss of Mayor Laura Miller, even as the news sunk in that she
would not seek re-election next year.
I'm sure the mayor's supporters must
have been upset that she decided to limit her mayoral tenure to five years.
But I'm also certain that many others are feeling something closer to
relief.
Count me among the relieved.
... But as mayor of the ninth-largest city in the
country, Ms. Miller never figured out how to actually take the city's reins
and win support for much beyond a few pet projects.
She never figured out how to get
along with her colleagues on the City Council well enough to sway a majority
to her point of view on major issues, ...
Too often, it was enough for her just to make grand
statements ? even give lectures ? to her colleagues and win one, maybe two,
votes for her position.
She's always
been more of a fighter than a leader.
... everybody remembered the
critical things she had written about them in the past,
... Ms. Miller's propensity to speak strongly and
take verbal shots at people might have made good reading in a newspaper or
magazine column, but they were bad form for a politician who must lead by
persuasion.
... the mayor didn't know
how to make nice when it might have helped her at City Hall.
... In the case of the recent Wright amendment
compromise, however, Ms. Miller managed to keep a much
broader cast of characters at the table until the issue was resolved.
... It never bothered her that she voted in the
minority on almost every high-profile issue then.
"I have a very strong sense of right
and wrong and fair and unfair," she explained to a Dallas Morning News
reporter that year. "And I speak my mind. And maybe that's a bad
combination. I don't know."
Yes, it's a bad combination in a
politician who's actually trying to get something done.
And I don't know why a woman as smart
as Laura Miller couldn't figure that out. |
Can you believe the
DMN
would print a column like Jacobson's 7/8/6? This toad has a jealous streak
a mile wide. She's not writing for a website, she's a paid employee of our
only daily paper. Laura Miller would never lower her standards to "go
along to get along". Neither did Ron Kirk/Con Jerk. If a council
member didn't get along with him, they were removed from their committee
assignments and denied any chair or vice chair appointments. He was a
bully, not a leader. A politician who leads by persuasion, is a politician
who puts consensus ahead
of integrity. Male mayors have not been expected to
"make nice". It's pretty disappointing for a female journalist to let her
jealousy make a statement that would be labeled sexist if made by a make
journalist.
An elected official with integrity should never be bothered to vote "in the
minority on almost every high-profile issue". Laura Miller was right to
oppose the Hunt tax abatement. She would have been a sellout had she gone
along with it to "get a long".
|
|
Steve Blow: A
little more subtlety would've served Miller
Thursday, July 6, 2006 |
... Now that the prospect of civic life without
Laura Miller is upon us, I'm already missing her. Love or loathe her, she
definitely made things interesting around here.
... Of course, those of us in the news business
got to see that side of our former colleague long before the public did. You
wouldn't believe how "interesting" Ms. Miller made this very newsroom.
... Focus, tenacity, ferocity ? whatever you want
to call it ? that pit-bull streak was her strength as a journalist.
It's also what made her an editor's
nightmare. Subtlety, nuance, perspective ? whatever you want to call it ?
that kind of deftness was her weakness as a journalist.
... Building coalitions, quiet persuasion, sharing
the spotlight ? that's not what Laura Miller is about. She's a diva. And
that horseshoe table at City Hall was an uneasy stage.
... She was the darling of the North Dallas
angry-old-coot contingent with her promise to stick to the basics: streets
and crime, crime and streets. But she never succeeded in broadening that
base. Minorities especially never warmed up to her.
... |
Doesn't this wimp make you
tired? He is so ate up with being mellow and politically correct that
anyone who takes a strong stand on anything is someone to be feared and loathed.
Building coalitions with crooks and morons is no great achievement. Quiet
persuasion might work on someone with intelligence and integrity, but try it on
Brain-Dead Thornton-Reese.
When you take a losing stand for something that you know is right, it is never a
lost cause. Angela Hunt was incredible when she fought to get the Plan
Commission's version of the Comprehensive Plan passed instead of the staff's
version. Angela Hunt knew she only had Mitch Rasansky's vote, but she did the
right thing for the right reason. She had tried "quiet persuasion" on her
colleagues, but that got her nowhere. Angela Hunt could have just thrown
in the towel and done the old "go along to get along" tango, but she took a stand
and she wasn't nice or subtle about it.
Just because Steve Blow doesn't know many minorities and those few he does all
toe the hate-Laura-Miller party line does not make it true that "Minorities
especially never warmed up to her." For the past 10-15 years, a dozen or
so "minority leaders" are the only ones the media ever quote. That does
not mean they speak for a majority of "minorities".
The big Downtown march that was supposed to change everything was started by a
suburban kid, and of all those OVER-ESTIMATED people in the march, a big
percentage, if not a majority, were not City of Dallas residents. Of the
City of Dallas residents, probably a majority were not registered or even
eligible to vote.
A lot of the "Southern Sector" vote that carried the day for Tommy Hicks and
Ross, Jr. didn't live in Dallas anymore and had not changed their voter
registration. New cards have gone out several times since then, and
non-Dallas residents have been purged from the list of eligible voters.
 |
|
Laura Miller would have won re-election, regardless of who challenged her.
Current and future candidates who plan to run in the 2007 mayoral race need to
stop criticizing Mayor Laura Miller and focus on what they want to do as mayor.
If their only platform is to be a consensus builder, then you know who NOT to
support. |
I want a mayor who does the right thing, even when he or she must stand alone.
sb
| |
|
