An investigation by the Houston Chronicle found that the chief signals engineer told a colleague in September that the change “was a political decision, not a technical decision.” The Red Line wasn’t even part of the city’s original plan to improve traffic flow. In other words, the train delays weren’t the inadvertent result of some broader initiative. It was a boneheaded move that ignored warnings from experts.
I am glad that the Houston Chronicle is finally realizing what a hideous mayor John Whitmire is. I wish they had dug deeper into his background. While I don’t believe the Chronicle’s endorsement was the main reason Whitmire won, it helped.
Whitmire fits no mold. He has charted his own course, from his meteoric rise as a college dropout who at 23 won a newly created state House seat, to to his evolution from Texas House class clown to Senate criminal justice chairman, to his transformation from prison builder to bipartisan criminal justice reformer.
… It’s clear that Whitmire is well-prepared to do the unglamorous work of making this city function. After we considered the ideas, experience and campaign finances of 18 Houston mayoral candidates, only Whitmire …
Oops
With all his time in Austin as a state legislator, it seems Whitmire learned from former Gov. Rick Perry how to acknowledge and undo a mistake. Only we’re still waiting for him to say “oops.”
Don’t hold your breath, Chronicle, waiting for Whitmire to say oops. If you had bothered to dig deeper into his history, you would have known that he is not the type to admit he made a mistake. This is the guy who earned the nickname Quitmire for quickly caving and giving the Republicans what they wanted. He was rewarded for that traitorous act; he became the only Democrat to get a committee chair. He still has his photo hanging in the Mayor’s office of him walking up the Capitol stairs when he betrayed his fellow Democratic Senators.
The only thing that may separate him from the orange man, who considered himself a Democrat, is that he does not have tinted orange skin.