A “Gaffe” Is When. . . .
It’s the silly season, and up in Dallas, the Texas GOP recently called a press conference to accuse an incumbent Dem state representative of not actually living in the district he represents. Pretty run-of-the-mill politicking, right up to the point where they handed out press fliers citing the relevant portion of the Texas Constitution — with am image of the Texas Constitution from its time as one of the Confederate States.
“No, categorically no,” state GOP spokesman Bryan Preston said today, when asked if a heady atmosphere of secessionist feeling permeates a party headquarters dominated by Gov. Rick Perry. Last year, after appearing at an Austin tea party rally, Perry told reporters that he understood how frustrated Texans were with the federal government and how they might want to secede from the Union.
Heh.
Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog 
That’s funny. But not living in the district is pretty dumb. Austin city employees sometimes fail to live in the city, but council members usually are smart enough not to try it.
I have no idea whether the accusation is true or not. That district’s a couple hundred miles away, so I don’t have a dog in this fight.
Added: But I am surprised how often, true or not, this particular accusation comes up. Some pols do seem to be very careless and/or cynical about this sort of thing, even when they aren’t intentionally trying to put one over on the voters. In my town we have a city council member who’s widely believed to maintain his official (i.e., for mailing address and homestead tax deduction) residence in his very-low-income district, while actually living day-to-day in an upscale neighborhood on the other side of town. Near as I can tell, he seems to be following the strict letter of the law, while giving a big eff-you to the spirit and intent of it. The voters in his own district are well aware of this, but seem mostly uninterested; it’s those from other districts who are angry about it.
And careless Google Image Searching strikes again!
Anyway, I’ve been lurking around here lately. I was exposed to your work at TNC’s blog, excellent stuff. Just wanted to introduce myself and say thanks for your great work, it never fails to fascinate!
Will
Grand Rapids, MI
Will, thanks for lurking, and feel free to comment as well. I hope folks occasionally find something here interesting, or worth thinking about. Or just silly, whatever.
Will do. I’m definitely a dyed-in-the-wool Civil War dork, and I thought I knew what I was talking about, but you and your readers have me outgunned. Hopefully I can find something to contribute now and then. 🙂
@Will: Maybe you’d better run while you still can.