Everything You Know Is Wrong

I found this on the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network's site (via Atrios) and it's astonishing that the guy in charge of monitoring Colorado's 'Help America Vote Act' compliance is racist swine. You can read the entire article here but I wanted to touch on some of the most egregious allegations (which, according to the author, result from a LexisNexis search from a "legal journal called Texas Lawyer, 1994").

Shortly after Drew T. Durham joined the Texas attorney general's office in September 1991, he and another assistant AG, Ray Buvia, met for a beer after work.
Buvia says as they chatted, a young black lawyer, also new to the AG's office, walked past them.

Durham, says Buvia, asked, "How do you like our newest Sambo?"

Buvia's experience with Durham -- who in three years with AG Dan Morales' office has risen to criminal justice division chief and the lawyer in charge of the state's death-penalty litigation -- wasn't an isolated incident, according to five other lawyers who have worked with Durham inside and outside the agency. They say Durham, a former president of the Texas District & County Attorneys Association who came to Morales' office after 12 years as a county attorney in West Texas, has a history of racist and sexist comments.

Former Travis County Commissioner Jimmy Snell, a non-lawyer who worked for Durham in the AG's intergovernmental affairs division, said Durham routinely told "nigger jokes." Snell, who is black, said Durham has a widespread reputation in the agency for racist comments.

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Buvia, who resigned from the AG's office March 31 and now has a solo private practice in Austin, said he also recalls Durham bragging on several occasions, saying, "I told Dan Morales to his face -- 'Where I come from Mexicans work for white men, not the other way around.'" Another former assistant said he has also heard Durham make this comment.

What a tool - and I'm only taking a couple of examples from the article. The Colorado media flipped out over a couple of poor people using bogus voter registrations to make a few bucks but I haven't heard a single thing about this asshole who is supposed to make sure we don't have any disenfranchised voters. If I was a black or hispanic voter in Colorado, I'd be outraged. Hell, as white voter who's sick to death of people of color getting their voting rights crapped on by Republican Brownshirts, I am outraged.

I sent a copy of this to the Colorado Springs Independent and hopefully, they'll break the story.