Clear Lake Area Republicans host candidate forums Thursday - Houston Chronicle

If you are a Republican in Harris County, you need to mark your calendars and be on hand this Thursday for three candidate forums to be held by the Clear Lake Area Republicans.

The Clear Lake Area Republicans are hosting a candidate forum for the Republican primary races for the Harris County District Attorney, Tax Assessor, and Republican Party Chairman on Thursday evening, March 1, 2012 at the Bay Oaks Country Club (14545 Bay Oaks Blvd., Houston, 77059) . The event will start at 6:30 p.m., and the forums will start promptly at 7:00 p.m.

I really don’t care much about the Tax Assessor/Collector race. I mean, by all accounts, incumbent Don Sumners has done a decent job and hasn’t done anything that would typically warrant a primary challenge. I don’t like the fact that Houston City Councilman Mike Sullivan ran for reelection this past November knowing full well he didn’t want that job – and will have to resign early if he defeats Mr. Sumners. This just plays into the charge in recent years that R’s run not to govern but to move to other offices. A charge that unfortunately rings with some truth. Regardless, either man would do a decent job as Tax Assessor/Collector.

And then we have the race generating the most headlines, with incumbent District Attorney Pat Lykos being challenged by Mike Anderson. Once again, we find that DA Lykos hasn’t done anything would typically warrant a primary challenge unless you count being mean or not being a debutante, choosing instead to work in a man’s world. But there is a challenger and he does have a different vision for that office, a vision that many Republicans have traditionally preferred, so come on out and let the chips fall where they may.

And last but not least, we have what could be the most important race on the ballot, the one for party chair. I’m finding it hard to be too enthused about it this year after the disappointment of failing in an all out effort in 2010 but perhaps a forum is just the thing to get me pumped up about the possibility of replacing decade long officeholder Jared Woodfill. Jared is a very nice person and is a devoted spokesperson for the party – but he isn’t chairman material, no matter how many times he gets elected. The party is broke, not only financially but it is void of new ideas and energy. Committees have zero input, there is no outreach to the middle or to minorities, candidates are shaken down for money, and precinct chair positions remain unfilled with no effort to fill them because the ones applying might not be the “right kind” of Republicans. Can Paul Simpson address all or some of these issues? Frankly, I don’t know. That is why I need to be there to listen and try to figure it out. I do know that he has put in a lot of time as a volunteer trying to recruit precinct chairs and setting up precinct information databases, stuff that the party should have been doing.

So come on out and together we’ll figure out who is best to carry the Republican banner in November.

Click here for a map and directions.

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Obama, GOP to meet Thursday on debt limit (The Ticket)

(Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

Following a public breakdown in debt limit talks on Capitol Hill, President Obama reports he will meet with congressional Republicans to continue the discussion Thursday at a closed-door meeting.

"I've asked leaders of both parties and both houses of Congress to come here to the White House on Thursday so we can build on the work that's already been done and drive towards a final agreement," the president said at a Tuesday night press briefing.

Obama slammed talk of a short-term deal to raise the government's debt ceiling to avoid default before the Aug. 2 deadline. He insisted that such an agreement would simply "kick the can down the road" and would achieve no long-term accord on the country's deficit problems. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is among those lawmakers who've publicly floated that idea.

Talks with congressional leaders appeared to stall two weeks ago when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), walked out of discussions headed by Vice President Joe Biden over Democratic demands for an increase in tax revenue--a move Cantor and other critics say would just translate into tax hikes. Republicans say any deal to increase the debt limit must include offsets via spending cuts.

Obama chose to publicly scold members of Congress at a press conference last week, accusing Republicans of an unwillingness to cut their "sacred cows" and suggesting all members have procrastinated on the debt ceiling issue, comparing their work ethic--unfavorably--to that of his two young daughters.

Republicans quickly pushed back on the accusations, including the president's claim that he's been more available to work on this issue than have members of Congress, who have been in and out of recess.

"I think the best way to get an appointment with the president is to set up a tee time," Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said on Fox News last week, referencing Obama's enthusiasm for golf.

McConnell (who has invited the president to talks and been refused in recent days) and other GOP lawmakers have confirmed that they have accepted the president's invitation, but they note that they have yet to see what will be proposed.

McConnell expressed hope, but also doubts about the talks during a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday morning:

We're eager to meet with the president to see if he is really willing to do something big for the country. We don't think it's absolutist to oppose more stimulus spending. We don't think it's Maximalist to oppose hundreds of billions of dollars of tax hikes in the middle of a job crisis. We have a better term for it: common sense. So we're ready to meet with the president on Thursday. Maybe he will have changed his mind and returned to his commonsense approach just back in December when he said that preventing tax hikes means -- quote -- 'freeing up other money to hire new workers.'

Indeed, amid all the partisan charges and counter-charges, leaders on both sides of the aisle remain doubtful about the odds for a final accord on a deal to raise the debt ceiling.

Even as he announced the scheduled Thursday meeting, the president made a point of tamping down expectations. "I don't want to fool anybody," he said, "we still have to work through some real differences."

The Treasury Department says the government will run out of available tools to pay its bills as of Aug. 2. The White House set July 22 as the target date for Congress to reach an agreement to avoid default.

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