More "Opportunities in the Private Sector"

Harris County Judge Robert Eckels announced today that he’s leaving his post saying “the time is right to leave.”

It seems to me that the right time to leave would have been last year, before he ran for re-election...

But I like Robert Eckels; he might be the first republican I’ve voted for since Bob Dole. I was proud of the way he worked with Mayor Bill White through Katrina and Rita. I went so far as to imagine that those two could work together to bring about a metro government, eliminating redundant government entities to serve us better at less cost.

Yeah, the County Commissioners and the City Council members are going to give up their fiefs. In what century?

I can understand Eckels wanting to leave the family business and strike out on his own. But he doesn’t have to quit to take on other employment, just ask Steve Radack. No conflict there.

And now there’s the question of who is to be his replacement. Word is that they will put in a caretaker who will not run for election at the end of the term. How they would ensure that I don’t know. A piece of furniture like Jerry Eversole might fit the bill. I shudder when I hear the name Addie Wiseman; all I see her doing is practicing “dog whistle politics” or else obstructing any useful work before the council. And then there’s Paul Bettincourt, but you just know that a self-promoter like that would never step down.

At least Eckels is leaving the office unsullied, which is more than his father or John Lindsey did.