Travis County Goes After Texas Governor shortly after strong border position

Truth is stranger than fiction -> Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent the National Guard to help defend the border between Texas and Mexico yesterday. Today, an Austin area grand jury indicted the Governor for having pressured a drunk D.A. to resign.

District Attorney Rosemary Lehmburg was arrested for drunken driving while Perry was governor and the governor felt that such dangerous actions were subject to loss of job. Afterall, if you can’t follow the law, how could you prosecute it?

Many in the community disagreed and decided to create the case against the governor.

After the drunken driving arrest, Perry requested that Lehmburg step down after having failed a basic test of voter trust. Lehmburg refused and Perry pressured further by saying that he would refuse funds to Lehmburg’s office unless she resigned – a promise he carried out by carrying out a line veto against a state appropriations bill.

In Texas, line item veto is a tool the Governor uses to check off-the-hook officials and offices. While the Governor isn’t as strong as the Lieutenant Governor in Texas politics, he still has tools to use when officials abuse the public trust. In the case of Gov. Perry,did he over-step his authority or is he taking heat for his decision to defend the border President Obama has chosen to abandon?