Well, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) is making headlines again. This time, it’s for her spectacular performance in Houston’s mayoral runoff election. And by spectacular, I mean downright abysmal. She ran against Texas Sen. John Whitmire (D-15), who at 74 years young, decided to focus his campaign on reducing crime in the city. A noble effort indeed.
Houston clearly agreed, as Whitmire won by a considerable margin. With 57% of the expected votes counted, Whitmire was leading by a whopping 86,734 votes to Jackson Lee’s 49,075 votes. That’s 63.9% to 36.1% if you’re into numbers.
But let’s rewind a bit, shall we? Because the real kicker in this story is the controversy that surrounded Jackson Lee’s campaign. An audio recording was released back in October where she can be heard berating staffers in a manner that would make Gordon Ramsay blush.
Here’s a little taste of what she allegedly said:
“I don’t want you to do a g**d*** thing. I want you to have a f***ing brain,” she said. “I want you to have read it. I want you to say, ‘Congresswoman, with such and such date.’ That’s what I want. That’s the kind of staff that I want to have. So some stupid other motherf***er did it. And, and I don’t have the information. Nobody sent me the information. I need to, uh, ensure my, um, schedule and, uh, you know, if, if Boo Boo did it, s*** a** did it, f*** face did it. And nobody knows a g**d*** thing in my office. Okay? Nothing. I gave it to you. Your job was to get it on the calendar, imprint it in your brain, or send me the information back saying, ‘Congresswoman, I made sure that the Ovide Duncantell event that you gave me, uh, for a so-and-so date at seven is on the f***ing calendar.’ Not to, ‘oh, Jerome has it.’”
“So when I called Jerome, he only sitting up there like a fat a** stupid idiot talking about, uh, what the f*** he doesn’t know,” she allegedly continued. “He doesn’t know. Okay? Both of y’all are f*** ups [inaudible]. It’s the worst s*** that I could have ever had put together. Two g**d*** big a** children f***ing idiots serve no g**d*** purpose. Ain’t managing nobody. Nobody’s respecting them. Nobody gives a s*** about what you’re doing and you ain’t doing s***. And this is an example of it. I gave it to Jerome. This is not child’s work.”
Ouch. Not exactly the kind of pep talk you’d want from your boss, huh?
In response to the recording, Jackson Lee put out a statement claiming that she “strongly believes that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect,” including her staff. Well, that’s a bit rich coming from someone who was recorded treating her staff anything but respectfully. In the end, it seems that the people of Houston made their voices heard loud and clear. They chose a candidate who focused on the issues, not one who was embroiled in controversy. And you know what? I think they made the right choice.
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