Outgoing House Speaker Dennis Bonnen (R-Lake Jackson) is trying to rehabilitate his image after spending the summer lying to his colleagues and the public about his unethical activities. In an op-ed in his hometown newspaper, Bonnen whines at being called out for his actions by someone who has never been elected to public office (me!), and then being held publicly accountable.
Mr. Bonnen has chosen to double-down on what got him in trouble in the first place: not – as he claims – his “leadership style” or “direct approach,” but a troubling pattern of deceitfulness and unethical behavior. I would invite Mr. Bonnen to answer these six questions:
(1) Did I invite him to a private meeting, or did he invite me?
(2) Did I try to bribe him, or did he try to entice me into a quid pro quo?
(3) Do I have a history of making false allegations against citizens, or does he?
(4) Was I under House investigation, or was he?
(5) Was I ousted from the legislative leadership by my peers, or was he?
(6) Am I the bad guy here, or is he?
Well, we know how he’ll answer #6!
But let’s be clear about something: It is the people of Texas who rightly possess power in our system of government. Elected officials should be responsive to the taxpayers, not the crony-class of lobbyists and politicians who roam the halls of government devouring liberty for their personal profit.
Any politician who complains about citizens having “power” is betraying their opposition to our very system of self-governance, in which the elected officials are to be servants of the citizenry. They don’t want citizens speaking without the politicians‘ self-serving permission.
