Paul Sadler for U. S. Senate

I was disappointed yesterday to see that the Houston Chronicle had endorsed Rafael “Ted” Cruz in the Texas Senate race. I shouldn’t have been surprised, coming from an editorial board that endorsed Tom DeLay for over twenty years, but this one still stung, coming after endorsements for Paul Sadler from the Dallas Morning News and the San Antonio Express-News.

The Chronicle piece said that they admire Paul Sadler, “a moderate with pro-growth business-friendly views” with a “demonstrated ability to reach across the aisle and work productively with his political opponents for the good of Texas.”

They then add a warning to Cruz from outgoing Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison that “He is going to choose early between being loyal to (Sen.) Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and (Sen.) Mike Lee (R-Utah) and the needs of the people of Texas.”

So the Chronicle Board wants us to ‘just lay back and enjoy it” while a Canadian-born ivy league-educated corporate lawyer who spent millions of out-of-state dollars to win the Republican primary run-off with 630,000 votes from the hard right wing of the party waltzes into the U.S. Senate.

Well, I’d say the Chronicle made a bad call on this one, and that the thirteen million Texans eligible to vote in this election still have a chance to elect Paul Sadler, an experienced legislator acclaimed for his willingness to take on intractable issues and forge the compromises necessary to meet them.