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W K Gordon
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07/01/04 When is betrayal a good
thing?
It would be pretty flattering to be mentioned in Hank Tatum's column, but to have Jim Schutze mention DallasArena.com in his
column on the same day is really something.
Still, it's all so very sad -- too sad to take much pleasure in having two write-ups,
particularly when it's about something as tragic as a friend losing her way.
| Even though he's a screaming liberal, Jim Schutze does have a sense of right and
wrong. Lucky for him, he writes for a paper that allows him to express his
own thoughts and convictions. On the other hand, poor Hank Tatum works
for The Dallas Managed News.
It must have been a bitter pill for him to be told to
defend our Stepford Mayor. |
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James Northrup:
It's also a matter of competence.
When the incompetent fail at job
one, they try to redefine the job.
We did not sign up for suspension
bridges and buried power lines
None of this would be happening
if she actually knew how to get things done.
Stepford Mayor,
indeed. |
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Body-Snatched?
:
Did somebody steal Laura Miller?
06:47 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 29, 2004
By HENRY TATUM / The Dallas Morning News |
Her one-time political ally,
Sharon Boyd, now refers to her as a "Stepford wife."
Her former Dallas Observer
colleagues accuse her of forgetting her roots as a firebrand City Council
member who regularly criticized then-Mayor Ron Kirk for pushing big and
costly projects.
Did someone clone Laura Miller and
reprogram the new version to be in love with the Trinity River improvements
plan, downtown revitalization and a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys at
Fair Park?
The Dallas mayor, once referred to as
the "pothole princess" because of her fixation with street repairs, is
thinking big these days to the consternation of some of her longtime
supporters.
... So was Laura Miller transformed by a mad
scientist hidden away in a lab at City Hall? No. A dose of reality did the
trick.
... The mayor could have continued down the path
of saying it's "the little things that make a big difference." But for
Dallas, that is no longer the case. This city could use something big right
now.
...
The mayor is sorry that some of her supporters
are unhappy with her new thinking about selling Dallas. But she is convinced
they would be more sympathetic if they had seen what she has.
...
Ted Benavides and numerous municipal department heads, who say she
still has her fingers in plenty of the "little things" at City Hall.
... |
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| It's pretty cool
to know Belo pays attention to DallasArena.com reader -- even
more so that Belo felt it necessary to respond to my
efforts to explain changes in
someone I once considered a friend. Laura
Miller and I were not just political allies.
I considered her a friend and thought she was sincere
and the person she represented herself to be.
Apparently, I was wrong about everything when it
comes to Laura Miller. |
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John Willis:
More than once I've seen the Mayor quoted as
saying something like this "But she is convinced they
would be more sympathetic if they had seen what she has."
What has the Mayor seen?
Obviously, not the
potholes pock marking Dallas.
Why doesn't someone ask the Mayor to
describe, in small words, of course, exactly what she has seen that so
drastically changed her point of view? |
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Homeless shelters next to modest income neighborhoods,
diverting billions from needed basic services to build an ego monument in the
middle of a sewer trough and doling out tax abatements to rich-connected City
Hall insiders to fix up their homes are not political
issues to me. They are about right and wrong and
common sense.
Not one to wallow in murky gray areas,
things are black and white for me. It makes
life a lot easier when you tell the truth and stick to
your principles. When you lie, or
act out parts in different plays or switch sides, you forget
which story you told to which group, which persona you
should assume in front of which audience and which cause you are championing.
Lies and false fronts always catch up with you. |
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Rad Field:
All this makes me remember
how shocked I was that soon after a great team
defeated the "2012 Olympic" debacle,
Our Mayor's Husband, Steve Wolens
endorsed Ron Kirk for Senate.
Where is a person to turn?
Then State Senator Royce West tried
(still trying) to grab our money
for a stadium for Jerry Jones.
There just has to be something "real"
bad in the drinking water at City Hall.
Or ... perhaps it's the high voltage
wires over the Trinity that are polarizing
the water. |
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In her
Texas Monthly
article,
How I Learned to Hate the Media And Love
Politics (Well, Sort of),
Laura damned politicians who morph into what
she has become.
 |
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... People who tell lies are evil.
... Why don't they just do
what the citizens who elected them want them to do instead of doing what the
city's business leaders want them to do? Worse, why do they always
insist on doing it in the name of "doing what's best for Dallas?"
... Every city
has its rich and powerful business leaders who want city hall to make them
richer, but only in Dallas is the view so widely held that, yes, of course,
the city should do it.
... City of Dallas gives away far too
much taxpayer money to those who need it the least.
... as a reporter, I'd seen plenty of
candidates go from being passionate populists on the campaign trail to
indistinguishable pulp in office. "Just shoot me when it happens,"
... |
Of course, Mayor Miller no longer
associates with people who would see her change into "indistinguishable pulp in
office" as a bad thing. Our Downtown Betters (her new friends) think their
Stepford Mayor is an improvement over a passionate populist.
Most of us who originally
supported Laura asked for nothing from her but
that she keep her campaign
promises. Now we know she holds
us in the same disdain as do the
ODB.
We had every right to expect her to keep her word.
It's a sad day in Dallas when we can't expect faithfulness
from elected officials. It's a sadder day for me
when someone like Hank Tatum condones
Laura Miller's betrayal of the people
who supported her.
How did the bright, articulate, poised mayoral candidate who
stayed focused on the "little things" turn into an ODB suck up who suddenly is a
helpless housewife dependent on her Handsome Hubby for guidance and decision
making?
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Mayor: Trinity work key for city's future
Dallas' prospects
also hinge on downtown development, she says
Thursday, June 24, 2004 By DAVE
LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News |
Dallas' future is promising, but its
present is troubled ? and only a revitalized downtown and a transformed
Trinity River greenbelt can save it, Mayor Laura Miller told a North Dallas
business group Thursday. .
... The mayor said she now considers the
Trinity River project as Dallas' vehicle to a secure future.
... As a journalist
and City Council member, she decried the project as unneeded fantasy.
Instead, she said, Dallas should provide its residents with basic
governmental services ? public safety, clean parks, smooth streets. That
stance helped her win the mayorship in a 2002 special election and again in
2003.
Ultimately, she said, "my
husband told me I was stupid. He's a lot more mature than me."
... |
This is from a 40+ year old
mother of three, who thinks she's smarter than all the rabble and rabble rousers
who got her elected. By the way, the correct grammatical term is "more
mature than I". Maybe she is not smarter than the rabble who got her
elected.
In Laura Miller's current role as starring
Housewife Extraordinare at the Horse Show, she thinks the only people who got
her elected as Mayor were her Gorgeous Guru, Her Handsome Hubby, her new ODB
friends she pulled from Tom Dunning's camp and herself, of course.
Have you noticed the new Mayor Miller seems to be patterned after the late
Mayor Annette Strauss? Whoever programs our Stepford Mayor has her assuming Strauss mannerisms. Perfectly groomed at
all times, arriving late for meetings and constantly watching her watch --
particularly when asked questions she doesn't want to answer.
Referring to Annette Strauss dates me and may be lost on some of my readers.
It's been almost 12 years since she was our Mayor (followed by 4 lost years
under Steve Bartlett, 6+ under Con Jerk's tyranny, then these last couple of
years under Our Stepford Mayor.
Until Miller, we had only one elected female Mayor, Annette Strauss.
Adelene Harrison filled out the unexpired term of Wes Wise, but she was not
elected Mayor in her own right. As Lorlee Bartos correctly reminded me,
the ODB supported Fred Meyer over Annette Strauss. Once she was elected,
the ODB decided she was the
perfect woman to their Mayor. She was married to a rich and powerful man who "instructed"
and "guided" her decision making process. She looked great all the time --
perfect hair, perfect designer suits, perfect makeup -- perfect. I was
talking about Strauss, but it describes Miller, too.
Old Al Lipscomb was also mean to
Mayor Strauss, and she gave him money!
Activists used to say Mayor Strauss followed the guidance of whoever talked
with her last. Former councilczarina Lordi Palmer learned to always
schedule herself as the last person to see Mayor Strauss before a big vote.
That was back in the days when council members actually weighed zoning cases and
decided individually how they would vote. That was back in the days of a 2 at-large and 10 single member district council members.
All those liberals who thought 14 single member districts would give more "power
to the people" were as wrong then as Miller is now promoting a Strong Mayor
government for Dallas.
The ODB learned to love Mayor Strauss. They got so much done while she was Mayor.
She championed all of their causes. The ODB wanted Tom Dunning to be Mayor.
They did not want Mary Poss to be Mayor. A short, chubby guy would be an
endearing Mayor. A woman with a serious weight problem would not fit the
Dallas image and could not have the presence of Annette Strauss. So, they
decided to let us elect Laura Miller because they apparently already had
something worked out with her Gorgeous Guru and her Handsome Hubby.
You may scoff, but this creature performing as Mayor Miller is not the real
Laura Miller.
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Stepford Mayor:
Laura Miller's husband orders a shift for City Hall
BY JIM SCHUTZE
dallasobserver.com | originally published: July 1, 2004 |
I'm all for Wizard of Oz voyages of self-discovery. I'm just not sure
it's fair to do them when you're the mayor.
But say this for Dallas Mayor Laura
Miller. In recent weeks she has been candid about her change of heart since
getting elected to her first full term as mayor 16 months ago.
She took office as a firebrand
populist hell-raiser focused on potholes and bulk trash pickup, with a long
history of attack on "the boys downtown" and their big-ticket projects.
Now she's a boy.
She was quoted in The Dallas Morning
News last week as crediting her husband, asbestos lawyer and veteran
political broker Steve Wolens, with her extreme makeover.
"My husband told me I was stupid. He's a lot more mature than me."
I'm not sure the voters understood
she was still growing.
Miller told D magazine recently she
no longer sees conspiracies. Of course, nobody sees a
conspiracy after joining it. Then it's a project.
... In her recent state of the city address,
she waxed lustful about efforts to bring three "designer bridges" by Spanish
architect Santiago Calatrava to the Trinity River downtown.
With long dramatic pauses to
emphasize the sexy wonder of it all, she told a hushed council chamber: "In
16 short months we will break ground on the 40-story
[pause] gleaming white
[pause] Woodall Rodgers extension
[long pause] Santiago Calatrava signature
bridge over the Trinity River, one of three that will be built at the foot
of downtown...
I was holding my breath, too, while
she spoke. This is a breathtaking change of perspective for
Miller--breathtaking. Don't take my word for it. Visit
Sharon Boyd's Web site at
www.dallasarena.com
and look for the item "In her own words."
Boyd, a former Miller supporter turned disenchanted critic, has
published a collection of Miller's campaign materials.
... "I have a big vision of the little things that
make a big difference in people's lives. A world-class system of roads,
where potholes aren't deeper than the Trinity. Improving education, because
signature schools matter more than signature bridges."
Chuck that.
... Miller was championing a proposed "limited
government corporation" for downtown.
... It's a product of the mayor's "Inside the Loop" committee of
downtown "stakeholders" headed by Belo Corp. (Dallas Morning News) CEO and
Chairman Robert Decherd.
... Other members were piqued that the Inside the
Loop proposal seemed to be coming to them full-blown, with details already
worked out, even though half the council had been told little about it
beforehand.
... More eager to defend Biegler than to assuage
the council, Miller scolded them that it had been her idea and her
instruction for Biegler not to continue talking to them in the weeks before
the briefing.
... And there we have the underlying problem that
always dogs the attempts of Dallas' boys downtown to exert leadership. It's
always closed-door and slam-dunk.
... While the mayor's husband is helping her
become more mature, he might want to help the mayor learn to count to eight.
... ("Dear, you did great, but I think
you forgot the 'pick your moment' part again.")
... As far
as I can tell, the Inside the Loop Committee, chaired by Decherd of Belo,
has a very detailed vision of what it wants done downtown, almost on a
parcel-by-parcel basis.
... this limited government (read: limited
democracy) corporation downtown need to share some stuff with the council.
... Back to Miller. With all this major
maneuvering going on at City Hall right now, who is there to protect the
people in the church hall, the neighborhood ladies, the guys like me in the
cheap suits? Not her. I hate to tell you, Toto, but I think Laura Miller's
not in Kansas anymore.
Hey, Toto. You and I are still here,
right? That's the problem. |
Schutze is right to note how
much more "suited" Mayor Miller is to mixing with the ODB than she is to
slumming with the people who believed in her and supported her.
Dr. Bill Gordon has
some poignant observations that pretty much mirror my own and others who bought
Miller's act as Candidate Miller. For many people that campaign was their
first and last effort to change this city. Other former Miller supporters
have given up and moved out of the city limits. I know of one business
that is relocating their corporate headquarters from the City of Dallas to
Denton County and another business with several hundred employees has picked Ft.
Worth over Dallas for their relocation.
If Mayor Miller is not a Stepford creature, then she certainly is an actress in
a new role in a new play. Her former supporters were part of a play that
ran it's course, and it's leading lady has a more high profile role in a more
high dollar play, and we now have to pay admission.
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Laura Miller: "... as a reporter, I'd seen plenty of candidates go from being passionate
populists on the campaign trail to indistinguishable pulp in office. Just
shoot me when it happens."
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As heady as it is to have my
name in a DMN editorial and in a Jim Schutze column, it does not compensate for
the sadness of watching a friend morph into everything she once eschewed.
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