The Twinkie In The Mix: How Harlingen Turned Its Back On Its Sweetheart...No Rodeo At The Rodeo...Yep, It's Marra Again...

"In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: Not necessarily to Win, but mainly to keep from Losing Completely..." - Hunter S. Thompson 

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Editor

HARLINGEN, Texas - In the vernacular of the breakfast cafes, City Commissioner Kori is toast - as in the band has played and the crowd has left the building. Local politics, they say, is cruel and heartless. One day you're in and the next day you're out. For  female politicians, it is nothing short of a marriage going sour. Every dress and business suit hanging in the closet looks like ancient rags from a second-hand store. You don't want to go out; you don't want to see anyone.

Is that where Ms. Marra is mentally these days?

That is the question of the day here. That long, long year of controversy never did abate. Marra tried her best to traipse softly through the glass shards of her pathway, trying like crazy to ignore the string of controversy that had consumed her days as commissioner. Guns and booze entered the conversation when citizens here spoke about her. Unexplained absences and weird alliances fueled the fire. It never has been a pretty picture. It never segued from election night celebration into accomplishment. It went south quickly and the reins of the wagon settled somewhere down by the front wheels. Saying nothing, the woman headed for the cliff.

Then came an admission that her company had fudged on payment of payroll taxes to the federal government. That brought additional derision, jokes at the cafes and loud laughter at the bars, only to be followed by a complete abandonment by one of her supporters - the influential Harlingen Blogger Jerry Deal. He dismissed her and called for her resignation, noting that Ms. Marra had lied to him. That drew another rain of jokes, especially on the point made by the commissioner that an office employee of the real estate company she co-owns was to blame for the IRS snafu.

Can Humpty Dumpty be put together again is the essence of a children's book. Is that where Ms. Marra sits these days, atop a fence, looking at the ground below and wondering if the fall is survivable?

The electorate will forgive. Perhaps that is something the commissioner never did understand. If only she'd come out and been contrite, admitted her faults and errors and promised better public service. But, no, that hasn't been to date any part of her style. Indeed, there are those who say she is wont to look down at the residents of Harlingen. And that's the sadness of the entire mess. The Tribune is on record as supporting any and all female politicians in the Rio Grande Valley. We subscribe to the assessement that it is the Macho politician who keeps the region sluggish and not any racism. we have said it and we have written it. Indeed, we have often shined the bright light on Brownsville City Commissioner Melissa Zamora for that very reason. She's let us down, but she's still there.

So what becomes of Commissioner Marra here?

We think it's all up to her. We think she needs to be a bit more human, to make public mention of her foibles, to acknowledge criticism and to speak to those she has long ignored. Anything short of that and she will be toast...

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