Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison suggested that she’s still on track to retire later this year, but she warned that she’s done talking about her timeline for quitting the Senate while she runs for governor.
“I’m just not going to talk about it anymore – right now,” Hutchison said when asked if she’s open to continuing to serve as she pursues the governor’s mansion. “Every time I say one word it gets taken out of context. I’ve had enough news on that issue. Thank you very much.”
It seemed like a fairly innocuous question. Fair, anyway.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison invited reporters to a news conference earlier today at which she and Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., raised alarms about Democrat-backed "cap and trade" legislation. Short version: it won't do much to curb pollution and it will drive up costs for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, harming families, farmers, truckers, airlines and the economy in general.
Hutchison arrived 10 minutes late, leaving Bond to work the crowd. It was a lovely fall day; no torrential rain here. The senators and two guests -- a woman who owns a Maryland trucking company and serves on the board of the American Trucking Association, and Richard Cortese, a board member of the Texas Farm Bureau (which endorsed Hutchison for governor) -- spoke for 10 minutes and took a few questions about cap-and-trade.
Then Hutchison posed for some pictures, and stepped over to a scrum of a dozen or so reporters to take more questions. One asked about net neutrality, a rather complex issue of special to Texas-based AT&T. Hutchison turned to me for the next topic. She really did seem open to taking more questions.
I offered a toss-away to the effect that she has already said she'll leave the Senate soon, any hints yet about timing. No she said. Then, apparently, I crossed a line. Basically, I asked why she feels a need to stay in the Senate while running for governor.
GILLMAN: "Do you have some qualms that a replacement for you will not have essentially the same positions on important issues, to Texas, like cap and trade, like net neutrality, for instance?"HUTCHISON: "Ok, thank you."
And then, dear readers, she turned abruptly and walked away, leaving a gaggle of journalists dumbstruck.
And then, dear readers, she turned abruptly and walked away,...
ReplyDeleteSounds like Kay Bailey has been taking instruction from Madame Pelosi these days regarding her refusal to answer questions? Nice going Kay Bailey. How D.C. Beltway elite of ya!
My first year of voting in Texas ('05) I voted for Kay Bailey. To say that Kay Bailey since then has been to me a huge disappointment would be an understatement. Willingly voting for expensive issues like shamnesty and pork to name just two made me realize that Kay Bailey was far more Big Gummit Beltway than Texas conservative in her leanings. Like I said. Big disappointment!