Emma and Jerry Russell's story of physical and mental abuse, and Emma's eventual escape

Posed by models

Spousal Abuse: A Social Phenomenon

A true story 

Emma Russell's introduction to physical abuse did not begin until her marriage to a struggling musician. His name was Jerry Russell, her second husband. Remembering the first time Jerry struck her, Emma recalls it was two years after they were married.

"I can't remember the feelings the first time he hit me. I don't know if I felt shock, hurt, surprise . . . I don't remember. But I do remember it was because he wanted to spend a weekend with some of his friends, and we got into an argument about it."

Emma's short bout with an abusive husband started in the early 1970s, a time when spousal abuse was an issue not discussed--especially by the recipient of the abuse. Emma was not a battered child; therefore, did not view physical abuse as a way life. She did, however, see and hear heated arguments between her parents.

"My father was a military man, and he traveled a lot. When he was away the house was peaceful. When he was home he and my mother were arguing all the time."

Psychiatrists agree that batterers are victims of physical abuse inflicted on them as children. Being early targets of abuse they learn to reverse the role of victim, and become the arrow that inflicts pain on others. Contrary to that psychiatric assessment, Jerry's problem was not caused by direct physical abuse. His actions were more mental, according to Emma.

"I don't know if Jerry was a battered child," Emma says of her now ex-husband. "He was kind of tossed around. His grandmother raised him for a while. He had two grandmothers living in different cities, and he was bounced back and forth to his father, his grandmothers and his mother. He had a real unstable childhood," Emma concluded sadly.

Jerry didn't suffer from two characteristics associated with wife abuse: jealousy and alcoholism. He was not committed to either of these relationship wreckers. Nor did he partake in drugs. "I had freedom to do what I wanted to do, go where I wanted to go. He just wasn't a jealous person. He gave me all the freedom in the world," says Emma.

Emma said when they dating, and during the fist two years of their marriage, there were no signs of Jerry being an abuser. "He was so sweet," she says softly. "He was very supportive and sensitive. He was a nice guy when he wasn't in an angry mood."

A woman living with an abusive mate feels responsible for her husband's explosive behavior. She avoids upsetting him at all costs. She allows her abuser to put the full responsibility of keeping his temper, and the marriage intact on her shoulders. Subsequently, the burden leaves the abused victim feeling as though she is living in a house without a foundation.

"It's like walking around on egg shells. You want to crack them but you never know what is going to set him off. You never know what's going to happen. What's going to cause the bomb to explode," says Emma.

Each year millions of women are seriously injured by their husbands and boyfriends. Those injuries range from black eyes, busted lips, broken arms and legs, bruises all lover the body, even death. Emma said she remembers one such incident. She was badly injured when Jerry punched her in the face. He said he was a boxer in the Army.

"He never hit with anything other than his hands. He fractured my cheek bone. What happened was . . . ," she says, her voice trailing off as she recalled the painful event. "He had promised me on a Friday that he was going to take me out. When I got off work, he told me that he had to practice with the band. I got mad. I had worked all week and he promised to take me out," she repeated, reliving the disappointment.

"So anyway, he went to his band practice, and later on the same night, about three or four o'clock in the morning he came home, getting in bed like nothing was wrong. The room was completely dark, and he wanted to make love. I pulled away, saying 'No.' He was angry. The next thing I knew I saw silver! It was like a flashing light.

"He had hit me in the face with his fist. When I hollered out loud, he got up and turned on the light. I told him that I was hurt and needed to go to the hospital. He didn't want to take me, and kept telling me, 'Ain't nothing wrong with you!' He finally took me to the emergency room," Emma says.  

She said all the way to the hospital Jerry told her there was nothing wrong with her. Upon arriving at the emergency, the nurse on duty immediately suspected a case of spousal abuse.

"How did you do this?" the nurse asked Emma. Jerry, who was in the examining room, said nothing as he watched. Emma refused to answer the nurse's question. Lying on the table, clutching her hands, Emma dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands, drawing blood. She looked at the ceiling as sharp pains consumed her face. The persistent nurse asked her another question about her injury.

"Did your husband do this to you?" Again, neither Emma or Jerry answered the question.

"I don't know why I didn't answer,"  says Emma, a puzzled look on her face. "I don't know why I didn't tell her he broke my jaw."

Emma had to undergo surgery to repair the damage to her face. "They had to shave my head on the side," she says, pointing to where her head was shaved. "They had to go in on the side of it to do surgery, so there wouldn't be a scar on my face. I was studying broadcasting at the time, and I knew that someday I wanted to go into television. The doctors came up with a way to go in through the side of my head to put my cheek back together."

Jerry did not  visit Emma in the hospital. When she came home, he cried and apologized for hurting her. "He said it hurt him so bad that he just wished he could cut off the hand that hit me." 

The apologies always came after each beating. Emma said she never fully understood what caused Jerry's volcanic, violent outbursts. He never gave her a reason for, or explained his behavior. He was not unhappy that they did not have children. She concluded that he acted out of frustration.

"I think he thought I was smarter, even though the jobs I had were average to me. He wasn't happy in his work. I was doing some of the things I wanted to do. He was out of work for a long time, and we began to have financial problems. He finally got a job but it wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to be a musician. He had studied music, and there was a lot of frustration in him when he couldn't get the job he wanted," Emma said, making excuses for her abusive mate.

Reflecting on more of her past with Jerry, Emma revealed there was another time she was hospitalized when she came close to getting seriously injured by Jerry. "One night I decided that I wasn't going to take anymore of his abuse, and I told  him that I was going to leave him. He told me that I wasn't going anywhere. He wouldn't let me out of the house, and when I did get out, he followed me to the car. He was going to take my portable sewing machine, and throw it through the window so that I couldn't go anywhere. I got out of the car and went inside. We argued." Emma did not leave Jerry.

Another episode occurred when Emma made up her mind to leave. Jerry did not try to stop her. "He told me to go ahead, and that I would probably commit suicide within a year. I believed him!" Emma says, now able to laugh at his assumption that she was weak, and incapable of surviving without him. "He knew that I stayed with him all the times he beat me, and I guess he thought 'well, I got her and she can't leave me.'"

Hesitating, her mood changing, Emma says she did consider suicide as a way out of an abusive situation. "But you know . . . they say your darkest hour is just before dawn and that's when I realized . . . during that time my life meant something to me and my mother. My father was dead." With the constant abuse being interwoven parts of her daily life, Emma found that it began to take a toll on her mentally.

"I would get real depressed for a few days. I tried to figure out what went wrong. What could I do to make it right. I wondered what I was doing wrong. What was I not doing that he needed. I thought it was all my fault," Emma says.

Subconsciously, Emma knew the main dilemma causing element in their marriage was Jerry himself. But he did not agree with her, and repeatedly preached that "Nothing is wrong with me. It's you!" Of course she accepted the blame in the wavering marriage, which was well on the way to falling apart. Emma says her home life was affecting her on her job. She made more threats to leave if the abuse did not stop. Her threats went unheeded. As a final straw she approached Jerry with the idea of going to see a marriage counselor. He refused to listen at first.

"I told him we're going to see a marriage counselor or this is it! He didn't want to but he finally agreed to go. We started going together, and then she split us up. She had him going to one session and me going to another. She helped me realize that sometimes you can't always change a situation. I thought I could save my marriage and make things right by working together. She helped me realize, too, that you can't always make things the way you want them to be."

Emma began to see that talking, pleading, counseling and trying to please her disagreeable husband in every way, was not the solution to her dilemma. She began thinking violence and abuse herself. She says towards the end of the marriage, when she had absolutely made up her mind to leave Jerry, she started fighting back.

"Sometimes I knew there was going to be a fight. I wasn't afraid of him this time. I grabbed a baseball bat, and hit him on the arm. And you know, it was like I was thinking where am I going to hit so that he won't be able to hit me back. And then I hit him in the shins so that he wouldn't be able to chase me. And then I began to him all over. He didn't fight back!" Emma says with a note of innocent surprise in her voice. She outwitted Jerry.

Frightened that she had seriously hurt Jerry, Emma called a friend of his, and told him to come and see about Jerry. That particular confrontation jolted Emma into another realization. Someone could get killed if they both became violent and abusive. Emma left Jerry for good soon after that, seeking refuge in a hostel for battered women. This helped her get through the separation. She found other women in situations similar to her own at the hostel.

Currently working as a news reporter for a Texas radio station, Emma says there is no chance of a reconciliation with Jerry, even if he promised to change his abusive ways. Emma did not emerge from her marriage without lasting scars and bad memories.

"I can talk about it now, but for a long time I didn't. I couldn't. I don't believe I'll never get over it. Once in a while I have flashbacks. I still find it hard to trust anyone . . . a man. I don't know if the effect is over yet."

**The real names in this story were changed to protect their privacy. This story was first printed on my blog 8/13/2011

Gov. George Bush uses minority media as sounding board, hoping to garner presidential support

Texas Gov. George Bush

On September 23, 1998 several African American newspaper editors and reporters were invited to interview Gov. George Bush at the governor’s mansion in Austin, Texas. Bush, who requested the closed press conference, said he wanted to focus on education in Texas, specifically targeting minority children. 

He covered other subjects of interest to him, and what he perceived to be important to Texans. The topics Bush covered were specifically slanted toward African Americans. During his time in office Bush had never requested press time with minority newspapers. 

Bush deliberately excluded the larger media. He wanted to dialogue with various community weeklies. Hispanic reporters and editors did not participate in the press conference. I assumed they were scheduled at a later time to discuss particular topics of interest to their community. Had both Hispanic and African American papers been scheduled simultaneously, Bush would have had a difficult time talking nonstop without interruptions.

The Governor was playful and cordial. He went from serious and semi-serious throughout the interview. Actually, Bush was quite likable, to my surprise. When he spilled coffee on the carpet, he laughed and said, “Laura is going to kill me" as he pretended to clean the coffee stain.

Questions asked of Bush were more like statements than relevant questions. The setting was not a hard-hitting press conference, where those present were pushing aside each other to get their questions answered. It was a perfect setup for Bush, who did ninety-nine percent of the talking. Few questions were asked due to the time constraint, which was probably the plan all along.

Not all African American newspaper owners in Texas attended the press conference, nor did they send reporters. No more than 10 publishers and reporters attended. The absent publishers had made it clear among themselves that they had no desire to attend, declaring it nothing more than Bush playing politics to garner support in minority communities.

One local publisher echoed the sentiment of his fellow publishers when he said, “I already know what he’s going to say. I don't see a reason to go.” 

The African American media knew that Bush was getting ready to run for president, even though he had not publicly expressed an interest. These editors were not interested in giving Bush free publicity, because his campaign did not purchase ad space in any Black owned newspapers in Texas when he ran for governor. Candidate's running for governor of Texas had always purchased ad space in larger papers as well as community weeklies.

Without knowledge of the editor’s attitudes, Bush refuted their claim when he said he ran for governor govern, not to run for president. That confession from Bush was in dispute, given the fact that Karl Rove and strategists connected to Bush were regularly coming to Austin to prepare him for a presidential campaign. 

Al Gore and Joe Lieberman ended up being the candidates to beat. They won the popular vote; Bush and Dick Cheney won the electoral vote by five votes. This was the presidential election that he said he was not running for.

Gov. George Bush became "a passionate conservative" while campaigning for his father, presidential candidate George H. W. Bush. He learned that religion was key to winning a presidential election. A born again Christian, Bush pulled the right cards out of deck. He had religious leaders eating out of his hands, and preaching politics from the pull pit.

During the 2000 campaign Bush said, "I feel like God wants me to run for president. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen. I know it won't be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it."

Then came the re-election. Again, Bush used religion and God as a base. And again, with the help of Karl Rove, fat cat Texas money, and a legion of loyal supporters calling themselves the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth--they successfully swift boated Kerry's candidacy, demolishing his Vietnam record. 

Bush did not step in to disavow or disown the falsified rhetoric until it had served its purpose of discrediting Kerry as a certified soldier who fought in Vietnam. At a press conference Bush said he had no control of outside groups, or the ads they purchased for his re-election bid. He won the 2004 election. The lies told by the swift boat veterans were discredited in 2006 by one of its own members, who said he had no regrets lying about Kerry's military record.

"I told Texans, if you elect me . . ."

Bush on Compassionate Conservatism and Education in Texas: When you attach the word "conservative" to a person it doesn’t necessarily have a negative connotation. I have worked hard to show that there is such a thing as a compassionate conservative. Because I don't believe you can have a peaceful, hopeful future unless you have compassion in your heart for your fellow man. I worked hard to unite the State of Texas rather than divide the State of Texas. I’ve resisted the politics of putting people in camps; pitting one group of people against another. I don’t see how as a leader you can lead unless people are united toward a common goal.

I set these goals for the State of Texas. I want every child educated. I have been successful to this extent that public education is now a number one priority in the State of Texas. It wasn’t prior to my arrival. You can play like it was, but it wasn’t. It was to the point to where the state’s share of education funding had dropped so low, that we were on the verge of a property tax revolt, which would affect the capacity of education to be funded in the long run.

So, I told Texans, if you elected me, I’ll make public education my number one funding priority, and I did for two sessions. We took the lion share of new money that was coming into state treasures and dedicated it to public schools; $4.7 million went into the school system. When I got elected there were something like 30 goals in education. There were so many goals. How could you possibly measure people when you don’t have any clear goals? So now we’ve got four: English, Math, Science and Social Science. When I discovered that one-in-five kids couldn’t read I set a new goal. Now think about that. Your businesses depend upon people being literate. If people can’t read, you’re out of business. The sad thing is, so is Texas.

I know this isn’t fancy. I know it’s not grandiose or unachievable. It’s the most important goal a governor can set, and that is to insist that every single child learn to read. I started focusing the power of this office by telling school districts failure is unacceptable to me. I said we are going to dedicate the time and money to focus on the problem. We’ve rewritten our curriculum. Most of us older people in this room was educated by the use of phonics. It has become out of fashion in the State of Texas. I believe there’s a direct correlation with people not being able to read, and the failure to use phonics in the classrooms.

We rewrote the curriculum to insist upon phonics. For the first time in the state's history, kindergarten teachers and young kids have the capacity to say ‘this child is going to need a little special attention coming up.’ We never had that before. I want to end social promotion. I want to explain why this is the most compassionate approach to a literate tomorrow. Last year in the State of Texas 40,000 kids failed the third grade reading test. I read the third grade reading test. It is a simple comprehension exam that determines whether a child has the basic building blocks for learning. Forty thousand students failed. You know what happened to them? The system just shoveled them through. I don’t know what percentage of African American kids were among the 40,000 or Hispanic kids, but I guarantee its predominately minority students.

"Education is my passion"

Somebody said, 'Hey, I don’t have any hope for these kids. I’m moving them through.’ And you know if you don’t get it in the third grade and you go to the fourth grade, there’s a very good chance you’re not going to get it in the fourth grade, in the fifth grade, in the sixth grade. This is unacceptable practice in the State of Texas. And so, I’m blowing the whistle on them. I’m blowing the whistle on a system that in some people have said, 'I’ve got low hopes and low standards for the children in our state.' That's opposite of me. I’ve got just the opposite point of view. And so I’m going to dedicate $203 million out the next coming budget to send back to local districts for a child who can’t read and say stop shoveling them through. 

We’re going to give them special help, special attention, special focus. A literate tomorrow is going to lead to a more hopeful tomorrow, and a more decent tomorrow. Education is my passion. I’ve got $3.6 billion in my budget that is not always a balanced budget. Now I want you all in the course of this campaign to add up the amount of money being promised by people who campaign. You see, it’s an easy thing to do, to over promises in a campaign. In my surplus, of $3.6 billion is going to go to public education; $2 billion of which is going to relieve property taxes at the local business level. 

Bush on 'Affirmative Access': I believe in affirmative access. That’s what I believe. I don’t believe in quotas. I believe in a system where everything is powered to provide access. I gladly signed a bill that’s involved in the bill . . . it says if you are in the top ten percent of your class in any high school in the State of Texas you’re automatically admitted to a university in the State of Texas. It’s up to these universities to make themselves desirous for people to attend.

Bush on the Advanced Placement Program: One of my goals is to expand the Advance Program in the State of Texas. In the State of Texas 23,000 children passed the AP exam. The AP Program in Texas is the Advanced Placement Program. You got a kid who passed the AP exam, you’ve got a woman or man where everybody is going to be knocking down your door trying to get them to go to college. You just mark my words. You got kids passing the AP and they are going to be the most desirous, particularly African American kids, young Hispanic kids.

You pass the AP you’re on the most wanted list to the college of their choice in America. We had 23,000 pass the AP last year. That’s not enough. My goal is 100,000 kids passing. If we have 100,000 kids passing the AP across Texas, we’re going to bring in a few kids from all walks of life. Here’s what we need to do. I’ve got $18 million in the budget. I want to train teachers on how to teach AP. The governor has the power to set goals. I’m going to start traveling states, saying I want to see how many AP Programs you've got in your districts.

I think the state ought to pay half the cost of an AP kid. An AP exam is about $57. That’s a lot of money to some families. I’m going to line up corporate Texas to pay bonuses to teachers whose children pass AP. If the kids pass the AP, it’s like a college scholarship, if they pass the college freshman courses. The State of Texas affirmatively provide access to kids from all walks of life. The best way to do so in my judgment is through an education system that refuses to leave any child behind and challenges the best and brightest to do the best they can. 

Dallas publisher: Education is the key priority. I've been in education for 15 years. The Independent School District is one of the most arrogant in the State of Texas. African Americans have been very creative in taking the TAKS tests. But African American children are not being educated in Texas. Accountability is not there, and the educational gap is widening.

Bush: Let me stop you there. What he is saying is that there are some gaming the accountability system. By cheating the accountability system you're cheating the children. What accountability is meant to do is to make sure your child is not left behind. It is to make sure we are doing the job. What he is referring to is that in some schools they are giving exemptions; basically, exempting kids from the accountability system. And that's been the opposite of my approach. The accountability system is not meant to punish teachers and principals. It's meant to help children. That's the key. 

Hugh Price, from the National Urban League, said I want to come and see you, because of the progress you have made. I want you to know that African Americans test scores on math for the 4th and 8th grades are off charts in the nation. The reason is because we're holding the districts accountable.  There is nothing stronger than accountability. Your advertising revenues must exceed your expenses. That's called accountability.

"Government can do a few things"

Bush on The Economy in Texas: I believe this, and I'm gonna shut up in a minute. I believe economic empowerment is freedom in America. One of my goals is making it easy to own something. I can’t make people want to own something. I do want to make entrepreneurship easier. One of the real challenges in America in the future is how to encourage Black entrepreneurship. I believe we need more ownership in the process. I want people to own their homes.  I know a person's home is sacred. That is what a lot of property tax debate is about. We have renters, and we will always have renters, and that their choice. Over time if people own something they will have bigger a future in the State of Texas. That's where my heart lies right now.

Dallas publisher: Education parallels class. Blacks are on the bottom, and Hispanics are next to the bottom. What we need as African Americans is build good feelings about ourselves. We need to a systematic way of pulling up the masses, socially and economically. There has to be a way to reach out. We need a system of government to reach out. That's why I'm here today . . .

Bush (interrupting):  Yeah. I appreciate that. In my judgment government can’t make people love one another. Government is not the do all to end all. Government ought to try and educate. My judgment is economic freedom is what you’re referring to.

Publisher, Dallas: You can’t pull yourself up by bootstraps when you don’t have straps. Oftentimes we start at this point and expect to compete with people who started at the other point.

Bush: I understand that. That's what I'm talking about.  See, I happen to believe that education is the bootstrap, and let me say something right now . . . you realize that if a young African American kid gets out of high school and go to a community college and take an 18-month associate degree course in high tech manufacturing, there is an incredibly high paying quality job available for that kid.

I convinced Intel to create the curriculum to put in community colleges. Staying in school is the right choice. I understand there are some who aren’t going to accept somebody in our state because of their color, and they are wrong. But I will tell you this . . . I will tell you that a young, educated African American can be knocking down doors if he stays in school. They don't believe it, but the jobs are out there, but they are. To me that’s the bootstrap. 

Houston publisher: The other priority you touched on is affirmative action. We have to have some access in this arena of development. When you speak of revenues for minorities, we are not getting that . . . 

Bush: Let me stop you there for a minute. I'm glad you brought that up. I've got a good record, and I'm going to stand on it. It may not be as good as my predecessor's, but it's as good as any other Democrat governor in this state's history. 

Let me tell you what I've done. I've appointed strong African Americans to strong roles, and in many cases I have put them in leadership roles. I'm for full representation for all the people, from all walks of life. I believe in empowering people that can do the job. I've got a good record, and I'm going to stand on it in this campaign. I'm not going to shy away from it. I have a damn good record. A darn good record. (laughter)

Bush on Teen Pregnancy---I think there is another message that we as a society must give, and that is, we must say to our kids don’t have babies out of wedlock. I just saw some recent statistics, and 30 percent of babies were born out of wedlock this year. Ten percent of teenagers, 10 percent of the 30 percent, a third of the babies–are born to teenage moms. The lowest percentage of teenage moms were African Americans girls, much lower than Anglo, and much lower than Hispanics. So, the message is getting out somewhere in this state to a particular group of teenage girls.  

We need to get the message out. Why? Because if you have a baby out of wedlock it incredibly difficult on the mom. Generally, it’s some guy that's not willing to pay. The guy says 'Hey man, they’re not my problem. They’re your state problem.' That is a mentality that we all need to work on in order to provide strings for the bootstraps. I don’t care how big your boots are, if you get a baby out of wedlock, you’re behind the eight ball. It’s a very difficult assignment.

Bush on risking capital in the African American community: I believe government is to create an environment in which people are willing to risk capital. The tax policy in Texas is great. How can we encourage Black enterprise is something I would like to know more about.  How to encourage Black capitalism is going to be the question to determine America’s future in the 21st century. I believe that’s the fundamental issue in the African American community. Texas is a great place to do business. What can a governor do except in a micro sense? I think there is a legitimate role to encourage state businesses to reach out on a mentoring basis to encourage entrepreneurs, if they so choose to produce the services the state needs. I think Texas is the best place in the nation to so business. I know there is racism, but if an African American build a product that is needed, this is a great place to sell your product. 

Austin publisher: You might have to look at micro-government. Once you allocate a lot of money to local regions that money does not get to where it is supposed to get to in local communities. Your two key things that I like is economic empowerment and education.

Bush: I'm open to suggestions on how to encourage Black entrepreneurs. I never really understood why there isn't a Black Tom Thumb (supermarket). I don’t know who the laundry, the dry-cleaning people are within the neighborhood. You see, my job is to say to people, 'Texas belongs to you as much as to anybody else.  The future belongs to you. Seize it. The government can’t make people be entrepreneurs. There is not a magic formula for that. We tried socialism in the world. I’m not suggesting that . . .

Dallas publisher: I am suggesting it (interrupts Bush). I think the government and corporate America is financing socialism in the Black community, because they finance one side of the gate. They give all the money to social organizations that talk about more government.

Bush: If your vote is taken for granted, it’s not very competitive, you know why?  You have a governor who cares. You may believe me, or you may not believe me. But when 95 percent-- I’m just gonna put it in political terms, I don’t care who is running, there is not much bargaining powder politically. That’s why I started my comment by saying I’m the governor for everybody. I didn’t care whether I got five percent of the African American vote, 10 percent or one percent. I’ve done my best to be a fair governor to everybody who is a Texas. And I have.

Austin publisher: As a Black publisher for the Black Publishers Association, what we need is accountability. Accountability is not trickling down to our community. Corporations are not accountable to us; government is not accountable to us. We need a governor who will make sure that business is accountable to our community.

Bush: Let me stop you there so I can make sure I understand. My first reaction to what you said is that the marketplace, free enterprise, makes you pretty accountable. Accountability is achieved  . . . you’re accountable by where you shop. You create accountability in free enterprise. Enterprise makes you accountable. You're accountable by where you shop. You create accountability in free enterprise, by where you spend your money.

"I never ran for governor to be 

president of the United States"

Houston publisher: There is talk that you are thinking about running for president. In light of what has happened in the White House lately, do you think you’re up to that, the exposure, the . . .

Bush (interrupting): You are talking about two aspects of that. One, my life has been personally scrutinized. You don’t run for governor, or your dad for president without having your life scrutinized. I have been a faithful father, a loving husband. I’m a baby boomer, and I’d be the to admit to you, as a kid, a young irresponsible person, I did some things that . . . but the question you’ve got to ask of people my age is: Did you learn from your mistakes? Have you grown up? Are you ready to be a good dad when you have a child? Are you ready to bring honor to the job you do, regardless of what it is? And the answer to those questions is you bet.

Houston publisher (repeating the question): Are you going to run for president?

Bush: That I don’t know yet. Let me say this. I never ran for governor to be president of the United States. I’ve never been one of these guys that said I’m going to run for the 8th grade president, and if I get that, I’m going to be the 9th grade this or some kind of senior home coming king. I ran for governor of the state I love. I know all the speculation’s been going on. I’m just as surprised as you are. I can’t believe these polls. I haven’t been to Iowa or New Hampshire. I’ve been doing my job.

But I’ll tell you what I’m going to base my decision on. Do I want to put my wife and two kids I love the most, through an incredible grind. You see, I know what it’s like. Not one person in this room knows what I know, and what it’s like to be the son of a president. There are great moments and there are lousy moments. And I gotta make up my if I want my wife . . . by the way she would make a fabulous First Lady—if this is something I want to do. It is much harder to be the son of the person than to be the person.

"This is an embarrassment"

Dallas publisher: Do you think the Senate should go on with the impeachment process?

Bush: I think that is really important for people to keep in mind. They ask for my comment on this all the time, and I say this is embarrassing. You turn on the TV, it’s embarrassing. I think it’s too late to stop the process. I think once the process started Congress has the responsibility of doing it in a sober, serious and hopefully, expeditious way. I don’t know whether the president ought to resign or not. That’s up to his judgment to make. It’s up to the president to decide if he is still an effective president. 

I’m not going to make a judgment on impeachment. I take no joy in what’s going on. I recognize this is a guy that beat my father. This is a sad time in America. Any time you mention the word impeachment and president in the same voice it is a sad time. Because one of the things we have been as a nation is a stable nation. We have been a stable democracy. This is an embarrassment.

***Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998. He was charged with two counts perjury and obstruction of justice. He was acquitted in 1999 of both charges after a long and contentious congressional hearing, spearheaded by independent council Ken Starr.

The more Republicans pretend to change, the more they stay the same for their own benefit

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas)

The more things change the more they stay the same, so goes the old adage. This 1994 interview with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), confirms the adage is true. Doggett began his political career in 1973 when he was elected to the Texas State Senate. He served until 1985. In 1989 he became a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, and an adjutant professor at the University of Texas School of Law. He served both positions until he was elected to Congress.
 

Doggett gained national attention in 1979 when he and 12 Texas Democrats, dubbed the “Killer Bees” walked out of Chamber, leaving the Senate two members short of a quorum to pass legislation that would have changed the date of the Texas primary to March 11.

To make a long story short, the "Killer Bees" skipped town and hid out until the proposed legislation failed to pass after five days. The GOP’s goal was to help former governor of Texas John Connally get the nomination for president in 1980. The "Killer Bees" wanted a closed primary. Their suggestion was rejected by Republicans.

The following interview is just as relevant today as was it was 17 years ago. Although there was no Tea Party Republicans, those who were newly elected or won re-election took plenty of attitude to Washington. They immediately began playing dirty politics in the name of the "American people."

Dorothy Banks: Returning to Austin to keep contact with your constituents. Is this going to be a regular thing with you?

Doggett: Well, I’m sure gonna try. What brought me to Austin this time was the Martin Luther King celebration. So I think being actively involved in that, and in addition, to use time to meet with Police Chief Elizabeth Watson, and her staff to talk about some crime problems. I met last night with the Hispanic Contractors Association. I’ll be going to Wesley United Methodist and to David Chapel on Sunday. The key of what Jake Pickle (his predecessor) did was to be assessable and available to people. And I want to let people know that I am there for them, not for me.

Dorothy: Do you think you will be politically strong in Washington as you have been here in Austin? What is the political climate there right now?

Doggett: Well, it’s very unsettled. You got a lot of guys up there that’s been in power so long they don’t quite know how to adjust to being in the minority. It’s not a big adjustment for me because, even though I’ve been able to have some influence in Austin, usually I’ve been in the minority. By the time I was in the kind of Democrats who run it were not people that necessarily agreed with me on things. On the Supreme Court I did more descending that I did being in the majority.

I’m already equipped to take on Newt Gingrich if that’s what we have to do. Some of the things Republicans have done to shake up Congress are not bad. I think it needed shaking up. There were some things that might never have gotten changed had we not had this shake up. It created some opportunities for newcomers. That’s why I got a chance to get up on the floor, and join in the debate within an hour of being sworn in.

While I expect to be in Washington again this next week on some matters that will be coming up in Congress, I feel the leadership in the Democratic party is much more receptive to me as a newcomer, letting me come in and have a role. I was also real fortunate in getting the committee assignment of my choice-- the House Budget Committee. It was really one of the committees I campaigned to get on. I think that is where a lot of the action is gonna be if they start talking about balancing the budget. I think we have to give high priority to these federal deficits. I don’t want to see all the burden placed on the backs of the people who didn’t get the budget out of balance in the first place. They don’t have a lobbyist up there in Washington. I’m afraid that’s where some of the Republicans are headed. I don’t want to see huge cutbacks in Medicare. There are enough people out there who don’t have health care coverage, much less getting cut back some more.

The second committee I sought and was able to get on was the Science Committee. It used to be Science and Technology. I think with the University of Texas and the Pickle Research Center which we need to defend, as well as Motorola putting this lab up on Ed Bluestein. That’s kind of where our economic future lies, and I want to be there shaping that policy.

Dorothy: I’ve been looking at C-Span to see how they are going to fix the budget, but no one has come up with anything. Is this just a lot of Republican posturing, giving all kinds of excuses? I say okay, put it on the table and tell us what you’re going to do. They just keep going around and around.

Doggett: I think we have to hold them accountable for that. It was within the week that Dick Armey, the congressman from up in Arlington, Texas, the Majority Leader there, said 'Well, you know, if we go on and spell out where all these cuts are gonna be, some of these members of Congress . . . their knees are gonna buckle.' If their program is not good enough to put on the table and let everybody know who is gonna get hit by this, maybe they ought to rethink it. I think Republicans are trying to keep us in the dark about this, because if everybody knows what the changes are they may not want to make some of them.

The other side is the budget balance amendment I don’t support. As much as I would like to see our budget more balanced, it is really a way of deferring the problem to the future. Instead of doing something right now, they said, 'Well, you know let Joe do it in the year 2002, maybe we won’t be here. He’ll have to make the painful choices.' That’s why we keep saying, lay out the plan; show us over the next several years what the cuts are gonna be, and they keep saying, 'Oh, no. We don’t want to do that.'

Dorothy: Do you think when they authored the Contract with America, Republicans actually had no idea they would be in power?

Doggett: Well, there is a little bit of that. You know the way they did that Contract with America is, they first got some campaign consultants to sit around with people and focus groups and tried out different phrases, and different promises to see which ones sounded the best. Then they put it all together, announced it on the Capital steps, and printed it in TV Guide. Now they’re kind of stuck with that. Some of the things in there are not very practical. Some of them are more talk than anything else. I just don’t think you can govern the country strictly based on campaign gimmicks.

***The Contract with America was written by Larry Hunter and passed with the help of Newt Gingrich, Robert Walker, Richard Armey, Bill Paxon, Tom DeLay, John Boehner and Jim Mussle. The Contract was introduced six weeks before the 1994 congressional election. It was the first mid-term election of President Bill Clinton, in which Republicans scored a victory similar to the 2010 mid-terms election.

Dorothy: I see Newt Gingrich is backing down on some of the things in the Contract. I personally think he wants to be president. Is he a lot of fluff or is there substance to him? Where does he want to take the United States?

Doggett: Well, I think he is very smart, just in terms of intelligence. I think he is very committed; very hard working, bordering on ruthless in his approach. He made some conciliatory comments on the opening day. I would like to work with him if he wants to work together. And then he turns around appoints a woman as House Historian, who said Congress didn’t give enough attention to the views of the KKK and Nazis. One of her associates said Newt knew all about that before he appointed her. I’m glad he unappointed her.

It’s like the book deal. He backed down on that too, getting this $4 million from this guy from Australia, but only after it was brought to light. I think you can see on both the House Historian and on the book deal, that unless we’re up there being very vocal and holding him accountable for some of this stuff, he’s gonna go off to benefit himself personally, and on a really far right tangent. Even on these orphanage comments, which I think is outrageous. He said we would pull children away from their mothers and put them in an orphanage. I think he is committed to a far-right agenda that is out of the mainstream. And in fact, they keep trying to move the mainstream farther to the right. People like Bob Dole, who is kind of an old fashioned conservative, was being viewed as a moderate, because Republican take it so far to one side. You can’t get to the right side of them.

Dorothy: What kind of changes would you like to see take place?

Doggett: I believe changes to our welfare system, for example. It’s not inappropriate to focus on the need for change. I don’t believe that system is serving the taxpayer, or the people it’s designed to help. It is, perhaps, cheaper to keep them on a subsistence level, where they just barely get by, than it is to go in and spend the money to provide quality child care, training and the skills they need to get ahead. 

I am all for reforming welfare, for putting some incentives against welfare usage, but only if we go the first half of the way. And that’s to get people the assistance they need to get a job. I can see that as a real battle with the Republicans, who don’t believe their own campaign speeches. Sometimes they are caught up in their own speeches--the welfare stuff--they can’t quite translate it back into the real world.

Dorothy: The problem with people on welfare is jobs. It’s up to the people to educate themselves and not depend on the government to educate them. Where will the jobs come from?

Doggett: I think individual responsibility is very important, and the government can’t take the place of that. But if we really want to solve the problem now, we’ve got to go back and do something. I think the first step to jobs is people having the skills that are needed.

Dorothy: What about some kind of discount for people wanting to go to college but can’t afford it because it’s so expensive.

Doggett: My battle this time is to prevent them from eliminating what we’ve already got. No cuts in the Pell grants program to give people the opportunity to go to Houston Tillotson College or Austin Community College or University of Texas. Those programs are very much in jeopardy under the Contract with America. I am very determined to see that those opportunities are not denied. How can you talk about people having personal initiative, taking personal responsibility for themselves, and then cut out the key to them being able to exercise that responsibility.

Dorothy: What about the brouhaha about raising the minimum up another dollar?

Doggett: I think Congress will look at that later on in the year. The question is whether it has any real chance for approval. The Republican leadership have already come out with a over my dead body position. I will say now as I did back during the campaign, I would have rather see if there are going to be some additional employer participation; that it first be on health care. The problems with getting off of welfare is, if you take a minimum wage job, and then you lose all your health care benefits, that doesn’t get you anywhere. You’re working harder and getting less. I am concerned about many of the minimum wage jobs. Whether it’s a dollar more than we get right now--is there going to be any health care benefits for many of those jobs? That would be my first preference. If we can’t make any headway there, then I think we should look at the minimum wage as a sub-minimum wage.

Dorothy: I saw some Republicans on C-Span talking about a meeting that was taking place, but they shut out the Democrats. Are you beginning to feel ostracized?

Doggett: There is no doubt that Republicans are enjoying their victory. They are trying to run the show. I think when these 100 days are over, there is going to be a recognition that it takes two parties to govern the country. There has to be some shared participation here. In some of the meetings with Republicans I have been encouraged, particularly with some of those from the mid-west and northeast, that there are some people with open minds. On the other hand, I have met some from California and from the south that I think are lost causes. It’s like talking to the wall. They are not going to be willing to change.  They have a whole different view of the world. So I have to offer them respect but vigorous disagreement.


***This article was initially posted July 19, 2011