She sounds like one of the thousands of active Republicans in the grassroots, who TCR really appreciates, HOWEVER, her experience to date has not prepared her to be State Chair.

This year the choice is easy, there is only one candidate prepared and ready and that is James Dickey. We are proud to endorse James for re-election.

With final primary victories around the state, we now have our 2018 ticket. The Democrats start the campaign season with the newly minted governor candidate, Lupe Valdez, discovered to be delinquent in paying her property taxes for the 5 parcels of real estate she owns. Her response, attack Governor Abbott. The truth here is that Governor Abbott has forgotten more about public policy than Ms. Valdez does at age 70. She is not now and never will be ready to be Governor in Texas.

That's right, our favorite newspaper has been sitting on an important fact regarding the Santa Fe tragedy that goes against the left-wing narrative about the NRA being the bad guys, etc.

The fact they're aware of so far spiked, that the Santa Fe killer's father has eleven prior criminal charges and should be charged with violating Texas law in allowing access to guns to his children.

Houston's police chief, Art Acevedo, jumped in offering his own ideas. And if you happened to think you might offer some advice that could help, but differed from his, you should know that he is not interested in your opinion. It seems the only "rock bottom" the Houston police chief has hit, is respect for others. It would be a welcome change if Houston had a police chief who enforced all laws and didn't pick and choose, as he chooses not to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

A Special Counsel needs to be above the law when accepting an appointment and have no conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest. Robert Mueller should never have accepted this appointment as he has multiple conflicts of interest as outlined:

1) He interviewed with President Trump for the FBI Director's position, and was not offered the position. This alone should have disqualified him from being appointed Special Counsel.

2) His prior relationship with DOJ officials, including the Deputy Attorney General and Former FBI Director.

3) His Special Counsel mandate granting him his authority from DOJ.

4) Robert Mueller's selection of attorneys to his legal team; what process was used and did the DOJ have to approve his legal team representatives?

5) What was the budget given to the special Counsel and the legal team?

For these reasons, and not disclosing this information, he needs to be fired and a committee of outside attorneys needs to be appointed to investigate legal matters outside of the DOJ who have created this internal conflict of interest by playing politics as the motive for the Special Counsel appointment. As an American citizen, I would propose bringing a civil action against Robert Mueller and his legal team, seeking an accounting and breakdown of legal fees and expenses incurred by the U.S. Government, and have them detail their legal service bills for each legal matter they are pursuing.

Robert Mueller and his legal team need to be deposed in this civil lawsuit to justify their actions and be subject to discovery. Mr. Mueller has a lot of explaining to do. He has cost the U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and should be held accountable for his actions as a former U.S. Attorney, former FBI Director and currently as Special Counsel. The damage he has done to the Presidency should be alarming to all U.S. citizens, as future Presidents will be forced to deal with political issues in a legal setting. We need to get rid of the Special Counsel position and replace it with a committee of outside attorneys who have no conflicts of interest with the U.S. government, DOJ, FBI or Intelligence agencies. To allow this process of spying on U.S. citizens involved in a major political presidential campaign, presenting false or misleading information to a grand jury or judge is a very scary situation. Our country is based on the rule of law. The longer this goes on, it is costing American taxpayers public funds and destroying the trust in our justice system.

We have lined up some attorneys who are considering bringing this civil action against the Special Counsel and his legal team and we welcome any additional input. When the media brings up Watergate and the need for a Special Counsel, the situation was not just involving a third rate break-in and cover-up by the President and his senior officials. It was the destruction of a major political party financially by using U.S. governmental agencies for a political agenda and a direct assault on the two party system. It lead to a President resigning and prosecution of senior governmental officials.

It has now happened again. A direct assault on a major presidential campaign by spying, creating a false narrative of Russian collusion and use of governmental agencies (DOJ, FBI and Intel agencies), all for a political agenda.

Last week a Judge, called by many 'a Judge's Judge', Frank C. Price passed away at 79. TCR has a long relationship with Frank. He swore in your editor as a lawyer in 1975.

Judge Price had a remarkable life. A legendary Houston high school track star who matriculated to Rice and then to Baylor University School of Law.

His legal career began as a prosecutor in Harris County. He was the youngest appointee to a criminal bench in 1974. He met and exceeded expectations proving a judge can be fair, gracious, and can give proper justice.

Your editor recalls Judge Price's comments when a lower bail bond was requested because the client had no prior arrests. Judge Price's response was simple and elegant, "So did Ronald Clark O'Brian (The Candy Man)".

From the District Court he was elevated to the Court of Appeals in 1981, where he continued his outstanding legal career.

His last 20 years he served as a mediator.

As an aside, Judge Price was also an outstanding magician, performing professionally for years. What an amazing Judge, husband, father and citizen. You know they don't make them like him anymore. All who came in contact with him will have an emptiness in their life with his passing.

The earth-shattering story that the MSM has attempted in all regards to ignore that then-existing Administration was spying on a presidential campaign broke a couple weeks ago and the spy has now been identified. The logical end question has now been asked -- Did President Obama know that his spying agencies had infiltrated the Trump campaign? The unequivocal answer is YES.

Do I have definitive proof that Obama knew? No. And we never will because Valerie Jarrett kept him away from the parties at hand. But I base my conclusion on 40 years of doing this and eight years of studying the Obama Administration and their disregard for the norms that had been established before them due to their thirst to thrust their ideological platform on the American people.

There are four principle reasons why the Obama team thought they could get away with spying on Trump:

1. The fawning press would never question them. They had gone through more than eight years of the press tripping over each other lauding their actions, so why would the press question them now?

2. Their prior actions (which are delineated below) went by with meager questioning and virtually no accusations of impropriety.

3. They assumed Hillary was going to win and thus the improper actions would never be reviewed. They had to go to Plan B on this once she lost and accuse Trump and his people of gross negligence and then their spying on Trump would be buried in the hysteria regarding Russian Collusion.

4. The biggest, boldest reason was the Black Card. The Obama Administration had used this so many times it became de rigueur. The whimpering press would never question the Black President, the Black Attorney General nor the Black White House Adviser because of their white guilt. This is a form of reverse racism. If you did question them you would automatically be branded a racist. In fact, me just pointing this out opens me up to being branded by the Obama acolytes as a racist.

By the time 2016 came around, Obama was already emboldened by the factors above and they had tested it on:

1. The IRS/Tea Party scandal.

2. Benghazi where four Americans were killed, and no one was ever held accountable despite the lies.

3. The Veteran's Administration Scandal where our soldiers died with no responsibility.

4. Fast and Furious where Obama/Holder gave guns to Mexican gangs.

5. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was established as separately funded from Congress and then went off and did illegal activities such as pursuing car dealer loans despite being specifically precluded from that.

6. Bill Clinton meeting on the tarmac with Attorney General Lynch that was clearly improper over which someone should have resigned.

7. The fact that the number two person at the FBI could not figure out that his wife taking $700,000 from a high-level Democratic operative was the definition of conflict of interest.

8. More and More and More.

When did the press ever bring these people to task? Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress and now he is thinking of running for president. President Obama stated there was "not a smidgen of corruption" with the IRS scandal, but if you asked all the people who were never able to form their entities they might think differently.

On the way out the door, Valerie Jarrett stated about President Obama: "He prides himself on the fact that his administration hasn't had a scandal and he hasn't done something to embarrass himself." When there are assertions like this that largely go undisputed by the press, you really wonder what planet everybody was on during these eight years. Yet Jake Tapper can question the current president as to his lies.

Obama kept himself, on the face of it, insulated from any of the misdeeds of his administration, but does anyone believe he did not know Holder was illegally selling those guns in Fast and Furious? Yet, Holder did not resign. Does anyone believe Obama did not know Lynch was meeting Clinton on the tarmac? Yet she did not resign.

There was virtually nothing the Obama team could say or do that got them in trouble for eight years. Obviously, they knew what was going on with the invasion of the Trump campaign. What is to question except for once again they will be let off the hook?

Red, White & Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland and liberal commentator David Jones on Fridays at 7:30 pm on PBS Houston Channel 8, replaying Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8, Monday at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.

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Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his twenty-first year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last seventeen years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 15 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his 17th year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on PBS Houston, longest running political talk show in Texas history. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.