When President George W. Bush turns the Oval Office over to Barack Obama, he might as well dump the Lone Star of Texas into the bed of his pickup and haul it off with him.
The 28th state has loomed large over Washington for much of the past century — think the president, his father, Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn, John Tower, Dick Armey and Tom DeLay.
But at noon on Jan. 20, Texas becomes — please don’t throw things — just another state.
“I guess Washington can finally exhale,” half-jokes former Bush counselor Dan Bartlett, a born-and-bred Texan who escaped to Austin last year.
The past 20 years — a dozen of them with a Texan in the White House — have seen the introduction of Shiner Bock beer to Washington grocery stores, the regular stocking of Dr Pepper at Congressional Liquor, plus the arrivals of both a Capitol Hill Tex-Mex establishment (Tortilla Coast, in 1988) and a centrally located downtown barbecue joint (Nick Fontana’s Capitol Q, in 1997).
Those may be here to stay, but other aspects of Texas’ political and cultural influence are already on the wane.
From 1995 through 2005, Armey and then DeLay held the office of House majority leader. But Armey is now five years removed from power, and DeLay is entangled in a criminal case.
And while The Hammer’s redistricting crusade in 2003 certainly helped Texas Republicans at the time, it has come back to haunt the state under Democratic rule. If not for DeLay’s machinations, three Texas Democrats would likely be sitting pretty these days as chairmen of powerful House committees: former Reps. Jim Turner (Homeland Security), Martin Frost (Rules) and Charlie Stenholm (Agriculture).
Instead, they’re all now exes, living in Texas, having lost their elections in 2004.
“I guess it’s unrealistic for any state to continue to enjoy national influence dating back to the ’20s and ’30s,” says Frost. “Texas has had this unbroken run. And sooner or later, it had to come to an end.”
That the end has come should be clear on the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration, when the Texas State Society hosts its Black Tie & Boots Inaugural Ball at the Gaylord hotel at National Harbor in Maryland.
The last such hoodang, in 2005, drew 12,000 attendees, but there was a recently reelected Texan in the White House then. By contrast, on the night before Bill Clinton’s second inauguration, only about 7,000 people deigned to don their Tony Lamas.
Organizers are braced for another not-exactly-Texas-sized turnout in January.
Still, for those Democratic Texans who will remain in the nation’s capital, there’s a bright side to the changeover.
“I happen to be Republican,” says Jennifer Sarver, historian for the Texas State Society of Washington, D.C. “But most of my social friends are Democrats, and they are sick and tired of everybody assuming that if you’re Texan, you’re a conservative or a Republican.”
Democratic Rep. Gene Green says, “Our influence ebbs and flows, and I think we might lose some influence now.” Nevertheless, Green notes that he recently became the first subcommittee chairman from Texas on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Former Clinton adviser Paul Begala, who cultivated his twang while growing up in DeLay’s old congressional district, crows about this marking the “end of the Texas Republican.”
“When the majority of Texas Republicans voted against a Texas Republican president’s economic package, ... then I don’t know what it means to be a Texas Republican anymore,” he said.
Since at least the 1960s, Texans have been simultaneously admired and loathed by the rest of Washington. Their command, for the most part, has come on account of seniority. Their home districts were so safe that they were able to stay in Washington more or less all of the time and invest wholeheartedly in committee work.
“I think it played well back home. You find a very significant pride in the state, and I think the state was proud of it. I know in the case of my boss, [former Rep.] Bill Archer, when he became chairman of the Committee [on Ways and Means, in 1996], I never got a single complaint about him not being home. They were just happy he was chairman.”
Don Carlson, who spent 35 years as a Hill staffer to Texas Republicans, said that his bosses “left a legacy that the Texas delegation was a very powerful delegation, whether it was true in all the years after that or not. Certainly they left their mark on Texas with what they were able to do in terms of funding.”
Military bases and transportation structures and a space station in Texas stand as testimony to the legacy of might. According to a Houston Chronicle analysis, Texas received $2.2 billion in federal earmarks last year, second only to California.
So who carries on the Lone Star tradition in a Democrat-dominated Congress?
For the moment, the reins fall into the hands of Texas Republican Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn. Both have been known to wear the boots, but neither attracts the cult of personality Washington has come to expect from denizens of the state that calls itself a republic.
Republicans think they have a rising star in Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Democrats think they have one in Rep. Chet Edwards, who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction.
Currently, only two Texas Democrats chair committees in the House — Silvestre Reyes (Intelligence) and Gene Green (Ethics) — and neither of them is standing.
“That’s almost unheard of,” says Carlson.
Without a Texan in the White House or in a top-level leadership spot, members from the state may have to work across the aisle if they hope to bring home the bacon like they did in days of yore.
“If it could get its s--t together as a group of 32,” says one Texas-born Democratic Hill staffer, “there are very few things it can’t get accomplished, even if most of them are in the minority.”
The Bush administration and the Texas delegation have one last chance this year to deliver some love for the folks back home: a new federally funded agricultural biosecurity lab is considering five proposed sites, including one in San Antonio.
Texans or no Texans, real pork will still be served in Washington. Nick Fontana says he’s not too worried about his barbecue business. He says Bush has never darkened his door, and that Washington is probably ready for a break from the stomp, stomp, stomping of big Texas boots, anyway.
“People don’t realize how big and diverse Texas is,” he says. “Europeans and foreigners here think that every Texan is a crazy, redneck cowboy.”
But Bartlett says even Washingtonians will eventually come around. “I won’t be surprised if there is a resurgence after this president rides off into the sunset and all those animosities and short-term issues around George W. Bush fade away,” he says.
The 28th state has loomed large over Washington for much of the past century — think the president, his father, Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn, John Tower, Dick Armey and Tom DeLay.
But at noon on Jan. 20, Texas becomes — please don’t throw things — just another state.
“I guess Washington can finally exhale,” half-jokes former Bush counselor Dan Bartlett, a born-and-bred Texan who escaped to Austin last year.
The past 20 years — a dozen of them with a Texan in the White House — have seen the introduction of Shiner Bock beer to Washington grocery stores, the regular stocking of Dr Pepper at Congressional Liquor, plus the arrivals of both a Capitol Hill Tex-Mex establishment (Tortilla Coast, in 1988) and a centrally located downtown barbecue joint (Nick Fontana’s Capitol Q, in 1997).
Those may be here to stay, but other aspects of Texas’ political and cultural influence are already on the wane.
From 1995 through 2005, Armey and then DeLay held the office of House majority leader. But Armey is now five years removed from power, and DeLay is entangled in a criminal case.
And while The Hammer’s redistricting crusade in 2003 certainly helped Texas Republicans at the time, it has come back to haunt the state under Democratic rule. If not for DeLay’s machinations, three Texas Democrats would likely be sitting pretty these days as chairmen of powerful House committees: former Reps. Jim Turner (Homeland Security), Martin Frost (Rules) and Charlie Stenholm (Agriculture).
Instead, they’re all now exes, living in Texas, having lost their elections in 2004.
“I guess it’s unrealistic for any state to continue to enjoy national influence dating back to the ’20s and ’30s,” says Frost. “Texas has had this unbroken run. And sooner or later, it had to come to an end.”
That the end has come should be clear on the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration, when the Texas State Society hosts its Black Tie & Boots Inaugural Ball at the Gaylord hotel at National Harbor in Maryland.
The last such hoodang, in 2005, drew 12,000 attendees, but there was a recently reelected Texan in the White House then. By contrast, on the night before Bill Clinton’s second inauguration, only about 7,000 people deigned to don their Tony Lamas.
Organizers are braced for another not-exactly-Texas-sized turnout in January.
Still, for those Democratic Texans who will remain in the nation’s capital, there’s a bright side to the changeover.
“I happen to be Republican,” says Jennifer Sarver, historian for the Texas State Society of Washington, D.C. “But most of my social friends are Democrats, and they are sick and tired of everybody assuming that if you’re Texan, you’re a conservative or a Republican.”
Democratic Rep. Gene Green says, “Our influence ebbs and flows, and I think we might lose some influence now.” Nevertheless, Green notes that he recently became the first subcommittee chairman from Texas on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Former Clinton adviser Paul Begala, who cultivated his twang while growing up in DeLay’s old congressional district, crows about this marking the “end of the Texas Republican.”
“When the majority of Texas Republicans voted against a Texas Republican president’s economic package, ... then I don’t know what it means to be a Texas Republican anymore,” he said.
Since at least the 1960s, Texans have been simultaneously admired and loathed by the rest of Washington. Their command, for the most part, has come on account of seniority. Their home districts were so safe that they were able to stay in Washington more or less all of the time and invest wholeheartedly in committee work.
“I think it played well back home. You find a very significant pride in the state, and I think the state was proud of it. I know in the case of my boss, [former Rep.] Bill Archer, when he became chairman of the Committee [on Ways and Means, in 1996], I never got a single complaint about him not being home. They were just happy he was chairman.”
Don Carlson, who spent 35 years as a Hill staffer to Texas Republicans, said that his bosses “left a legacy that the Texas delegation was a very powerful delegation, whether it was true in all the years after that or not. Certainly they left their mark on Texas with what they were able to do in terms of funding.”
Military bases and transportation structures and a space station in Texas stand as testimony to the legacy of might. According to a Houston Chronicle analysis, Texas received $2.2 billion in federal earmarks last year, second only to California.
So who carries on the Lone Star tradition in a Democrat-dominated Congress?
For the moment, the reins fall into the hands of Texas Republican Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn. Both have been known to wear the boots, but neither attracts the cult of personality Washington has come to expect from denizens of the state that calls itself a republic.
Republicans think they have a rising star in Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Democrats think they have one in Rep. Chet Edwards, who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction.
Currently, only two Texas Democrats chair committees in the House — Silvestre Reyes (Intelligence) and Gene Green (Ethics) — and neither of them is standing.
“That’s almost unheard of,” says Carlson.
Without a Texan in the White House or in a top-level leadership spot, members from the state may have to work across the aisle if they hope to bring home the bacon like they did in days of yore.
“If it could get its s--t together as a group of 32,” says one Texas-born Democratic Hill staffer, “there are very few things it can’t get accomplished, even if most of them are in the minority.”
The Bush administration and the Texas delegation have one last chance this year to deliver some love for the folks back home: a new federally funded agricultural biosecurity lab is considering five proposed sites, including one in San Antonio.
Texans or no Texans, real pork will still be served in Washington. Nick Fontana says he’s not too worried about his barbecue business. He says Bush has never darkened his door, and that Washington is probably ready for a break from the stomp, stomp, stomping of big Texas boots, anyway.
“People don’t realize how big and diverse Texas is,” he says. “Europeans and foreigners here think that every Texan is a crazy, redneck cowboy.”
But Bartlett says even Washingtonians will eventually come around. “I won’t be surprised if there is a resurgence after this president rides off into the sunset and all those animosities and short-term issues around George W. Bush fade away,” he says.
8 comments:
Although the shift in power has reduced Texan influence in Washington, it is a change that represents the American value of working with a plethora of ideas. With the emergence of the Democratic party in the state of Texas, we can now hope that the best candidate wins, regardless of his or her political party. It may result in more conflicts and blood-boiling bickering, but it will also work to the advantage of the people. I don't think Texans need to be alarmed at all because of the lack of representation in DC. Instead, it should be seen as a transition toward the greater good.
i dont not think on jan. 20th that texas will just just become "another state" because for everythig that texas has to offer. we have a decent economy, more agaculture, more cotton, and more land(besids alaska) than any other state here in the US. but i also think that there will be a shift in political partys here within a the next 2 elections.
oo.comSo still texans are still believed to wear boots and cowboy hats. Well it seems that only some texans are getting credit for being in washington working at political standard it may seem. We get our places there yet get very little word into it. My believe is that most presidents from here gave their best shot, but it wasn't good enough. So could texas still hold another pres for the near future?Good or Bad? Who knows.
Just because Texas isn't dominating the White House anymore doesn't mean that we'll lose all repesentation, just the same as just because there's a young Democrat in the White House and the government of Texas is becoming more democratic doesn't mean that Republicans will lose all representation. We're moving on, the country is expanding by enlisting the ideas of new diverse people, and everyone will benefit in some way. People should stop being so pessimistic about change. Change is good! Without it, America would still be living in the past many centuries ago. Everyone still has a say in government, we still have our freedoms, we're all equal here and right now, new people in government may mean we're moving in a different direction. Allow it, see where it goes. Whatever happens, we'll learn and experience something new, hopefully something better than we have now.
Texas politicians have had a good run, and I don't think Bush's reign will hamper this. However, when we have elected officials like John Cornyn and Randy Neugebauer who represent that trend of old-fashioned Texas big-timin' rootin' tootin' politics, we will continue to look like a skewed "county"-state dominated by a strict belief system. Texas is one of the most diverse states in the country, but our officials don't show that.
this could be a good thing in that now texas can shine on its own, instead of saying, oh, it's just because bush was in office. texas has a plenty of things to offer to the rest of the states and should use that to help it get out there. and on the political side, this may help introduce new ideas into different political parties. like shabab said, it should be a transition for the greater good.
It doesn't really matter if Texas can exert influence on Washington anymore, considering how intensely conservative Texas usually is.
I'm probably not the first person from Texas who has been suspected by others to ride their horse to school. The friends I've made in other states were shocked to learn that I was a fairly normal guy, not a cowboy. I've also had to argue against people who thought I was an idiot simply because I'm from Texas, even going so far as to say that no wonder Bush is from Texas (which is stupid anyway because he was born in Connecticut).
Regardless, I do hope that maybe a few of the stereotypes will die out once Bush leaves. But I doubt it. Goofy Western movies are still popular, so there will always be some guy who thinks that Texas is nothing but ranch land and rednecks.
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