The Texas Monthly Best & Worst lists are little more than a front for a left-wing ideological agendas. Remember who chooses the Best and Worst: liberal reporters anchored by editor Paul Burka. One of his lead writers, Patricia Kilday Hart, even wrote that the ten-best slots were open for anyone pushing liberal causes. I snidely suggested conservatives would find more friends on the “ten worst” list.
Turns out I wasn’t too far off.
TMs “Ten Best” includes six Republicans versus four Democrats. See how bipartisan they are; Texas Monthly (hearts) Republicans! The Ten Worst? Five Republicans and five Democrats. Bipartisanship blooms!
Ah, but not where it counts. Texas Monthly peppered their “Ten Best” with big-taxers and spenders. The “Ten Worst” with fiscal heroes.
Let’s look at the Republicans on the lists.
The average rating on the Fiscal Responsibility Index of the Texas Monthly “Ten Best” Republicans is a 56.25%. Big-time failing. Among TMs heroes is State Sen. John Carona, who distinguished himself this Session by pushing for higher taxes and fees to fund boondoggle transportation projects without any accountability or transparency.
TM, of course, specifically praised Carona for seeking to impose new taxes and fees.
Seven of the “Ten Best” legislators had failing scores on the Fiscal Responsibility Index.
The average rating for the Texas Monthly “Ten Worst” Republicans is 82.43%. TM scolded stalwart taxpayer heroes like Sen. Troy Fraser and Reps. Debbie Riddle and Wayne Christian.
The magazine’s bias against conservatives runs deeper; their “honorable” and “dishonorable” mentions make for an even stronger case of their bias. In issue after issue, the magazine does little to reflect the common-sense conservativism that runs deep in the state whose name they varry.
With their corporate owners in Indiana, Texas Monthly has become little more than a barely entertaining style magazine, catering to liberal “sensibilities” with a slight Texas twang. In the upside down world of politics, read Texas Monthly in a mirror. The best tend to be the worst. The worst, the best friends of taxpayers.