Aug. 28, 2008, TDMN, Page 15A

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The Dallas Morning News dallasnews.com _ Thursday, August 28, 2008 15A
Elections ’08 Democratic convention
Paul Begala, a Texan,
TV commentator,
consultant and former adviser to
President Bill Clinton, told the
state’s delegates Wednesday
that the election is too important
to sit it out. Noting that Sen.
Edward Kennedy, who is
suffering from brain cancer and
was wheeled to the edge of the
stage before he stood up, walked
to the podium and delivered his
convention speech, Mr. Begala
said, “If Sen. Kennedy can get up
out of a wheelchair, we can all
get up out of our La-Z-Boys.”
What Mr. Begala said on:
I John McCain voting with
President Bush most of the time:
“You’re not a maverick, you’re a
sidekick.”
I Barack Obama going into
public service: “That man walked
in neighborhoods I’ve probably
never been before.”
I On what a McCain win
would mean after two Bush
terms: “The first term, they
messed up the country. The
second term, they messed up the
world. The third term, I fear for
the whole solar system.”
Other speakers included Virginia
Gov. Tim Kaine, Rep. Eddie
Bernice Johnson of Dallas and
state Sen. Kirk Watson of Austin.
Mr. Kaine bashed Karl Rove’s
politics and said Mr. Obama “is a
uniter, down to his very DNA.”
Eyes on Texas
Getty Images
Paul Begala rallied Texas
delegates on Wednesday.
Former San Antonio
Mayor Henry Cisneros,
an ardent Hillary
Rodham Clinton backer
in the Texas primary
fight, says he will
campaign for Barack
Obama, including in
Nevada, New Mexico
and other states with
large blocs of Hispanic
voters.
Mr. Cisneros, a housing
secretary under
President Bill Clinton,
said Mr. Obama will do
well among Hispanics.
“As long as Obama
makes his agenda
visible to Latinos, they
will vote for him,” he
said. “Latinos will see a
clear distinction
between the
Democratic and
Republican strategies.”
Lone Star
notes Barack Obama told veterans in Billings,
Mont., that the country was not “doing
right” by them and vowed to get veterans
better health care when they return from
Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We have a choice in this election,” he
said. “Do we have a president … who gets
that veterans are struggling every day? Or
do we have someone who wants to give
more tax breaks to big corporations
including Exxon Mobil?”
He said John McCain’s service in the Navy
should be honored but that voters should
be concerned about his policies. “He served
in uniform with honor and distinction. We
owe him gratitude for that,” Mr. Obama said.
“But we don’t owe him our vote.”
Meanwhile, Mr. McCain intensified his
foreign policy assault on Mr. Obama,
launching a TV ad that uses a remark his
Democratic rival made about Iran to call him
”dangerously unprepared” for the White
House.
Mr. McCain, who had no public
appearances, has reportedly decided on a
running mate , with former Gov. Mitt
Romney of Massachusetts and Gov. Tim
Pawlenty of Minnesota the apparent
front-runners. A decision could be
announced as soon as today. Mr. McCain is
expected to appear for the first time with
his vice presidential nominee Friday in
Dayton, Ohio.
Campaign roundup
Entertainers at all levels of political seriousness have been
spotted in and around the convention. Among them are Sean
Penn (right), Louis Gossett Jr., Ashley Judd, Spike Lee, Chevy
Chase, Charles Barkley, Angela Bassett and Richard Dreyfuss.
Nearby, at Coors Field, Ben Affleck, Sarah Silverman and
Montel Williams played in a poker tournament that ended
around 4 a.m. local time.
Star power
DENVER — A small moment of
political history occurred Wednesday
on the floor of the Democratic
convention.
T. Boone Pickens, Swift Boat
Veterans funder, bumped into Sen.
John Kerry, Swift Boat Veterans victim.
“Boone, how are you doing?” Mr.
Kerry said awkwardly, taking the
billionaire’s hand.
“I’m doing good, John. How are
you?” Mr. Pickens said easily.
Continuing upstairs for an interview
at the Fox News skybox, the Dallas
oilman shrugged off a question about
the brief — and chilly — encounter.
“Hey, I shook his hand,” Mr. Pickens
said. “If people have a problem, it’s their
problem.”
Four years ago, Mr. Pickens and two
other Texas billionaires bankrolled the
devastatingly effective Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth attack on the
Massachusetts Democrat, helping
squash his hopes for the White House.
This year, he’s crashing the
Democrats’ party. Only this time, he
arrived as savior of America’s energy
crisis and champion of alternative fuels.
Mr. Pickens was a big draw at a
panel, where he sat serene as a Buddha
accepting the applause of a decidedly
un-button-down crowd of political
progressives.
“If you’d asked me a year ago if I’d be
sitting up here with Boone Pickens, I’d
have said no way,” said Carl Pope,
executive director of the Sierra Club.
Mr. Pickens has a plan. He has
vowed to spend $58 million of his own
money to promote a program to slash
U.S. dependence on foreign oil by
tapping wind farms and using natural
gas for automobiles.
“We have got to change what we’re
doing on energy. We have gone 40 years
with no plan,” he told the bloggers. “My
dad said a fool with a plan will beat a
genius with no plan. We are like a fool
with no plan.”
John Podesta, president of the
liberal Center for American Progress
and Wednesday’s conference
moderator, alluded to Mr. Pickens’ long
history as a big-money Republican,
including the $3 million he put into
Swift Boat Veterans.
“That’s history, John,” he said. And
the audience seemed to agree.
This wasn’t the lion’s den. Boone
Pickens was at home in the greenhouse.
In the car to the Pepsi Center for TV
interviews, Mr. Pickens’ wife,
Madeleine, said his green-energy
appeal went over well with the
progressives.
“Eat sprout sandwiches …” she said
“And things start looking up,” he
finished her thought.
At the Pepsi Center, Mr. Pickens was
met by a crew for CBS’s 60 Minutes
and interviewer Charlie Rose, who
pressed him as they walked beneath the
podium’s kaleidoscopic lights about
whether he felt out of place among so
many Democrats.
“Charlie, they are Americans,” Mr.
Pickens said, irritation creeping into his
voice.
NBC’s Tom Brokaw said having Mr.
Pickens here was “like having the
Oklahoma State Cowboys at an
Oklahoma Sooner football game.”
Fox News’ Neil Cavuto was more
breathless: “He helped pay for those
Swift Boat ads against John Kerry and
he came to the Democratic convention
without food-tasters. Is he nuts?”
If some in the media were
flummoxed, delegates on the floor
weren’t. They surrounded him,
snapping photos, shaking his hand.
“This is a zoo,” said aide Jay Rosser.
But Mr. Pickens didn’t mind.
“I’ve got a mission,” said the
billionaire. “I don’t care what it costs.”
wslater@dallasnews.com
DANIEL ACKER/Bloomberg News
Mingling with the Democrats about alternative fuels is no big deal, T. Boone Pickens kept telling journalists.
For Pickens, Denver’s a breeze
DENVER — Three ward-
robe changes, two cities, six
events and then to makeup be-
fore state Sen. Leticia Van de
Putte smacked the gavel by
midafternoon and brought the
Democratic National Conven-
tion to relative order on a his-
toricrollcallnight.
As one of the four conven-
tion co-chairs, the San Antonio
pharmacist blew through a day
that was both a dash and a mar-
athon,culminatingtwodecades
inthepoliticaltrenches.
On Wednesday, Ms. Van de
Puttetookthepodium,20years
after she saw Texan Ann Rich-
ards’ keynote speech, watching
fromtheflooroftheAtlantaare-
naasthewifeofavendor.
Ms. Van de Putte sought of-
fice three years later when a
House seat opened in 1991 and
she, a precinct chairwoman, de-
cided to run on health care is-
sues. She said Texas had man-
dated that all cows be
vaccinated,butnotchildren.
The state paid to cover pre-
mature births, but women who
came into her pharmacy
couldn’taffordthe$1.47forpre-
natalvitamins.
“I thought, ‘Who’s making
thesedecisions?’ ”shesaid.
More and more, it is her
now: the immediate past presi-
dentoftheNationalConference
ofStateLegislatures,fourterms
intheTexasSenate.
And on this day, the woman
who gaveled in the convention
session.
Her mother, Belle Ortiz, was
there—ateacher,whowhenshe
first registered to vote in San
Antonio faced a poll tax and a
readingexam.
Two of her six children came
to Denver. She called another
daughter at Texas A&M, telling
her to watch TV: “I’ll be the one
withthegavelwearingwhite.”
She had the use of a VIP box,
whereshewasapplaudedbyher
husband Pete, who has started
each of their days for 30 years
with a new joke. “Early in the
week, they’re a little corny and
by Friday, they get a little raun-
chy,”shesaid.
Ms. Van de Putte, 53,
brought that message of family
and unity in morning delega-
tions meetings with Colorado
andNewMexico,keystates.
She told them how Hillary
Rodham Clinton took her hand
andtoldhertoworkjustashard
for Barack Obama as she would
have for her. Mrs. Clinton in-
vokedMs.VandePutte’s1-year-
oldgrandson.
“It’s not about you and me.
It’s about him,” she recalled
Mrs.Clintonsaying.
Ms. Van de Putte planted a
Texas sage bush in a Colorado
stateparkincommemorationof
Lyndon Johnson’s 100th birth-
dayandforLadyBirdJohnson.
And then she rushed to
spreadherunitymessagebefore
the Hispanic Caucus, only to be
told it was running late because
Michelle Obama had exceeded
herallotmentby15minutes.
“Well, that’s good,” Ms. Van
de Putte deadpanned. “She has
a little more convincing to do
withthatgroup.”
Afterward, she was whisked
to the Pepsi Center for speech
prep and hair and makeup styl-
ing for the brief speech that
cappedonedayandmanyyears.
But Ms. Van de Putte
brushed aside all the hubbub. “I
asked if they had somebody to
takeoff20poundsand10years,
but they said they didn’t have
anyonelikethat,”shesaid.
Legislator finds order in a whirlwind day
SONYA N. HEBERT/Staff Photographer
State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte’s busy day included
speeches, sage bush planting and gavel duty.
By CHRISTY HOPPE
Austin Bureau
choppe@dallasnews.com
TEXAS PRESENCE
DENVER — It’s not easy not
beinggreen.
In what organizers hoped would
bethemostenvironmentallyfriend-
ly convention ever, Texas failed to
win the green lollipop. They were
lickedbyabout29otherstates.
Delegates from each state were
asked to donate about $25 each to
produce wind energy and cancel
outthecarbonpollutioncreatedby
flying to Denver. States with 100
percent participation received the
green circle above their delegation
signontheconventionfloor.
“We just figured out the other
day why we did not have a lolli-
pop,” said Austin delegate Glen
Maxey, who said he never saw the
e-mail about the green challenge.
“It’s so like Texas: We don’t get the
message. Like Juneteenth and the
EmancipationProclamation.”
Shannon Bledsoe of Houston
also said she never got the mes-
sage. “I’m definitely about conser-
vation,” she said, pointing to her
sweater.“I’mwearinggreen.”
Throughout convention ven-
ues, and especially in the Pepsi
Center, recycling bins are every-
where. Thousand of free bicycles
are available for use and return.
Styrofoamhasbeenbanned.
State Sen. Kirk Watson of Aus-
tin proudly proclaimed he is car-
bon-neutral. He sent money to the
wind energy nonprofit to offset his
carbonexistingways.
But then he came to the con-
vention, where he made the mis-
take of getting hungry at the Pepsi
Center. “I bought a pizza and was
stuffing it in my mouth and threw
away the pizza box,” Mr. Watson
said.
“A woman grabbed it out of the
canandstartedyelling,‘Compost!’
“Ijuststaredather,”hesaid.
He finally discerned that his
boxbelongedinadifferentbin.
But for a very long minute, “I
couldn’t tell if she was calling me
compost,orwhat,”hesaid.
Texas blue
that it’s
not green
By CHRISTY HOPPE
Austin Bureau
choppe@dallasnews.comDENVER — John F.
Kennedy’s acceptance of
the1960Democraticnomi-
nation for president didn’t
bowl over some Texans
gathered that night at the
Los Angeles Memorial Col-
iseum.
The outdoor speech,
made by a new-generation
candidate at the dawn of
one of the nation’s most
turbulentdecades,issureto
be compared to Barack
Obama’s appearance today
before a football stadium
crowd of possibly 80,000.
It “was very eloquent
and had a lot of passion,”
said Gilbert Adams, chair-
man of the Jefferson Coun-
ty Democratic Party.
But some Texans were
still smarting that favorite
son Lyndon B. Johnson fell
short in the presidential
contest, instead getting
picked as Mr. Kennedy’s
running mate.
“It really wasn’t a big
deal for us,” he said.
Mr. Adams was 18 when
he worked the convention
as a page, taking orders
from Texan Sam Rayburn,
the legendary House speak-
er.
Mr. Adams, 66, came
from a family that loved
politics and public service.
“We would all get
dressed up and go to the
polls to vote,” he said. “They
allowed my parents to take
me behind the curtain to
watch them vote.”
The Beaumont lawyer
and rancher has been a sta-
ple on the political scene for
years. He’s not in Denver
but is watching.
“There’s nothing like be-
ing present when one of the
great speeches is given,” he
said.
JFK’s
address
on minds
By GROMER JEFFERS JR.
Staff Writer
gjeffers@dallasnews.com