By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
Special to The Herald-Tribune
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, TX - Shades of the wacky 1980s! Not since a horrible, psyche-sapping stomping at the polls suffered by the editor of ElRocinante.com has a Gringo been whipped as viciously as Tad Hasse was in the recent Cameron County Treasurer election. The final vote was not kind: David A. Betancourt 11,462; Hasse 3,118.
Welcome to the Loser's Gulag, Tad. Those images will be on you for weeks, lad.
We would wonder what Hasse is thinking after his public mauling, but we'd guess he's taking a week off from his I.T. job for the city municipal court. It was a resounding defeat for Hasse (shown in photo), one any first-semester political science student would have predicted. Basing campaigns on gimmicks never works, and Tad's idea of eliminating the very position he sought rang stupid to the city's Mexican-American crowd. Eliminating anything in this culture is a black sword.
Mexicans would rather hoard than discard, Tad.
You never caught-on to the culture's way of voting. You never had a chance. When he sought the mayor's job back in the What-A-Time-It-Was Era, Dr. G.F. McHale-Scully at least had a winning slogan ("No Contributions, No Compromises"). You never got beyond saying you'd get rid of the job. The Mexican brain rightly asked: Then what, Tad? Then what!!! For that question, you had no answer.
McHale-Scully headquartered his doomed campaign at La Palma Lounge, where every drunken Mexican ambling in got a free beer and an earful from the good doctor. You took refuge who knows where. A litany of anonymous postings authored by you and posted in local Blogs is the sorry legacy of a campaign better suited for a Freshman Class popularity contest.
In the end, this was Foreman-Frazier, and all of us remember Joltin' Joe going down six times as George hammered killer jab after killer jab at Joe's bloody, blown-out face and head. David Betancourt will never again have as pliant a punching bag as you were, Tad. That, I'd say, is what likely pissed off the local Mexicans. The thing is they like to see all-out brawls, fights where blood springs in the first round and doesn't stop until one or the other humiliated fighter is carted comatose out of the ring.
In politics, you have to know the geography. You have to know that nothing pisses-off the Mexicans more than a guy storming into the ring like some bully and then merely taking a beating like a chump. Remember the words of Roberto "Manos de Piedra" Duran. On the night he was frustrated beyond belief by Ray "Sugar Ray" Leonard's better boxing skills, Duran turned his back on the kid and uttered his now-famous: "No más...No más."
Suggestion: Get a pair of boxing gloves. Put them on. And take a drive over to Southmost. There, honk the horn as you move down every block and wave those gloves at the luckless citizenry. But if you have any ideas of ever running for office again, well, do remember the words of noted novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald: "There are no Second Acts in America."
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16 comments:
Hey, you guys sure know how to kick a guy when the chips are down. With DP-M initials, I wouldn't be critical of no-one, someone could think you just don't like Mr. Tad H.
Okay, so he lost, "big deal," there were a bunch of loosers. I don't see you wirting comments about a dentist from p.I. that lost a race. Or Juan Angel Guerra who ran for custodian oops!!, "I mean dist judge." Come on how about a more fair and balance reporting.
That "kicking a guy when he's down" never has applied to politics. Someone has to lose, and analyzing a loss is as much a part of news coverage as covering the winners. We write about Mssr. Hasse as we write about every other Pol or would-be Pol in town. DP-M has a genuine interest in Brownsville. Keep that thought in mind...- Editor
What!!!!!!!!!!!! "You must be kidding," that is what politics is all about, get serious, Patrick!!!, Hasse, has been the butt of all jokes and now he is been rediculed because of the one sided victory.
Sometimes, your writers are so far out, I just can't figure them out.
We ridicule no one. We merely offer our looksee at the race. Nothing more, nothing less. We shall allow Mssr. Hasse opportunity and space to respond, should he feel the need. All we are saying has already been resoundingly offered by the voters...- Editor
Now that Ted Hasse has been laughed at, joked at, and hissed at. May I ask a question?? Why was that horrible picture of a goofy looking guy dancing with a heavy set woman. By her looks one can surmise, She doesn't know the meaning of a sit up.
And the goofy looking guy, is he one of the patrons of the 1-2-3 bar.
Let me guess,or better still why next to the Tad H. pictures, inquiring mind wants to know????
Must we explain everything we post on this Blog? We can, but much of it also requires full use of your brain. That is not a lecture, but we must admit that we are perplexed. Still, our work endures the many, many obstacles of the open road...- Editor
Even Juan Montoya, speaks about the run down bars in downtown Brownsville. Is this the new fad for writers?
I wouldn't step in those bars even if they gave free beer. The 1-2-3 lounge that is frequently cited by bloggers, is a health hazard. And some of the other watering holes mentioned here are just as bad. I know the City of Brownsville is notorious for these type of establishments. But with your high salaries, you all can do better. And please, no more culture stuff.
We should note that the 1-2-3 Lounge is fast becoming an attraction for the college crowd. On Friday and Saturday nights, it is full of UT-B and TSC scholars. Weekends were made for Bohemia. Juan Montoya's response has been to move to the Siete Mares Bar across the street...- Editor
I just can't believe the 1-2-3 watering hole is going anywhere, but than the Brownsville crowd is in a class of their own. Juan Montoaya Siete Mares Bar should and ought be condemned by the city code enforcement officers.
In fact, all of the bars in Brownsville lack class. Well, enjoy your evenings at those places. I am not.
As The Eagles sang in that one song: every form of refuge has its price. Montoya is a man living the life of the city's parallel worlds. He takes the good with the bad, as do we. What's the point of being high-falluting in South Texas? Would you look down on the pyramids of Egypt just because they look beat-up and decaying? Of course they are, but that's what makes them a "place to be," isn't it? I once went to an out-of-the-way, claptrap beer joint in Managua and, well, I had the time of my life. Geography is funny that way, lad...- Editor
Mr. Editor, after a few cold ones every place feels good and looks good. It is a mental illusion. After the party, it's like I was drinking at that place?? what was I doing there??
I wish you writers well, at the 1-2-3, the siete Mares, el dime, and all those bars of ill repute. What I don't understand, well on second thoughts, there aren't too many classy places in Brownsville. It is mostly comprised of old worn out buildins.
Mr. Editor I hope you are not serious about joining el Rocinante, the blog is full of foul language, full of nasty pictures and outright grotesque comments, I notice the picture on your blog is the same on el Rocinante, Tara Rios is picture that is. I have visited the site, and once is enough.
I think as screwed as the political systems is, it deserves some civility. You as writers know that as I do.
I hear through the grapevine, the moon godess, has skipped town and moved to San Antonio. What a pity, her friends are going to miss her.
Scorpio, we are aware of what you posted on RrunRrun about our leader, DP-M, and we are not amused. The Most Interesting Man in Town is not fictional. We have posted his photograph not simply to educate you, but because he is in town through the end of the weekend. He can live with criticism, just don't yell at him from across the street. He's tired of that Dog Act....- Editor
By the picture he sure is putting some cornships away. Not to worry, I would never yelled at another human being, I leave that to the readers of el rosinante.
No harm meant to the: Most interesting man in town. The way the moon godess was attacked by viscious supporters of one of the candidates was un-called for.
You know Patrick, that on one in their right mind wears formal attire to the 1-2-3, and a night with dp-m would have been a disaster for moon godess, that girl can party, kind of wicked, but she is okay.
Besides, she hangs with Lizzy, Liz.
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