Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Bunch of Guys

Texans for Lawsuit "Reform," a Lieninger front group dedicated to slamming the courthouse door in the faces of anyone who dares to sue their corporate overlords, was dissolved by the Secretary of State for failing to keep up with their paperwork. No doubt some unscrupulous liberal activist judge or socialistic rich trial lawyer is behind it.

Vouchers Dead, Dead, Dead

If a Right-Wing Republican dominated Legislature, cowering under the stiletto bootheel of Tom Craddick, can't pass vouchers (or stop a pay raise, however modest, for the liberal, secular humanist, Islamo-fascist teachers), then I think it's safe to say the issue is deader'n a doornail for the forseeable future.
Somewhere, Dr. James Leininger is crying in his bottled organic milk.

Leininger Holds Children Hostage

"Give me vouchers or it's bye bye kiddies!" vows multi-millionaire.

This is easily one of the most despicable, cynical ploys I have ever seen in the sick, sorry world of Texas politics. And it is proof positive that this arrogant blowhole never really gave a crap about poor children in the first place; it was nothing but a political bargaining chip from the start. I wonder how many people at the pro-voucher rally in Austin realize how badly they are being used?

I Reckon They Showed Me

From the Cleburne Times-Review:

Dear Editor:
Guest columnist Patrick Barkman is flat wrong when he writes that Dr. Jim Leininger is “anti-public school.” Most school choice advocates, including Dr. Leininger, believe that competition will help inspire accelerated improvements in public schools, especially in the big cities where generations of children have already been lost. As for Mr. Barkman’s harsh criticism of Dr. Leininger’s politics, the truth is he became passionately involved in helping poor children escape the poverty cycle after having worked as an emergency room physician treating the gunshot wounds of too many children. Dr. Leininger went on to found a medical device company that made him a very successful businessman. He has since devoted a good share of his wealth to what has now become his life-long determination to help children. To date he has personally funded more than $50 million of scholarships to private schools for low-income children in San Antonio and other Texas cities. All but a few of those who have graduated have gone on to self-financed college educations.That Dr. Leininger believes Texas public policy should side with parents who don’t feel that they can wait for “eventual” improvements in public schools is less the political philosophy so clearly disdained by Mr. Barkman as it is simple human compassion and a willingness to stake part of his wealth — and his own reputation — on efforts to make the future better for the parents of promising children desperate to have at least some of the educational choices now only enjoyed by the wealthy.
Ken Hoagland
Houston

This is, one supposes, the same Ken Hoagland who is well-known as the "Mouth of Sauron," the official spokesperson for Leininger's Texans for School Choice, something he chose not to indicate in his boiler-plate press-release. Here's a quick question for you, Ken: if, as you say, Dr. Leininger is motivated solely by his love for poor children, how many scholarships to private schools could he have paid for with the funds he has lavished on his pet candidates over the years?

Together Again For the First Time!

A match made in heaven, Arlene Wohlgemuth and James Leininger team up to put the beat-down on those whiny sick children with their constant moaning and crying about "health care" and uppity teachers who are all secular humanists and devil-worshippers anyway.

My Infamy Spreads

I can't begin to tell y'all how moving it is to know that Dr. James Leininger was so profoundly disturbed by my April 16, 2006 Cleburne Times-Review column (in which he was mentioned in passing in one sentence) that he had a press monkey shoot off a generic press release of the same sort that's been running in papers all over the state. Of course, this spam statement completely missed my point: I will grant the benefit of the doubt and assume that Leininger is sincerely motivated by the desire to help children through public school vouchers. And he is well within his rights to donote money to candidates who share his beliefs, just like you and I are. The difference, of course, is that the good doctor is a multi-millionaire and we aren't. And, thanks to the Supreme Court, that means he gets more free speech rights than we do. And that, regardless of what cause he champions, is wrong. It's not democracy; it's plutocracy.

The Puppet Master

People are starting to notice the secretive political sugar daddy of the Far Right, Dr. James Leininger and his efforts to punish a handful of House Republicans who had the unmittigated gall to vote against his private school voucher plan.