Republican Attorney General Candidate Barry Smitherman Objects To Identifying Hate Groups

[TexasTowelie]

Barry Smitherman, Texas Railroad Commissioner and Republican candidate for Attorney General, is upset. He's not bothered by the millions current Attorney General Greg Abbott has wasted on lawsuits he can't win, Abbott's dedication to voter disenfranchisement laws, or Abbott's near-release of thousands of Texans' Social Security numbers. No - he's distressed that certain hate groups are being labeled as hate groups.

Last year, Smitherman learned of study material used in his daughter's school to go along with the American classic To Kill A Mockingbird. The study material was provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which Smitherman claimed "has a more radical view of racism, hate, and intolerance." The SPLC is an organization that has fought Southern racism for decades by identifying hate groups, publishing studies into institutional racism, and providing legal assistance to victims of racial discrimination. Rarely do even Republicans bring up complaints about the SPLC - that's reserved for the hate groups SPLC exposes.

Apparently, Smitherman thinks what the historic organization does is "radical" - and he's been working against it for the last year on behalf of some hideous groups.

Smitherman wrote an email to his daughter's teacher laying out his complaints.

"For example," Smitherman wrote in his email, "the group 'Crusaders for Yahweh' is labeled by the SPLC to be a 'Christian identity' group and is placed on the SPLC's 'hate map. The same with the 'Evangelical Latter Day Saints' (mormons), the Jewish Defense League, which SPLC calls 'anti-Arab', and the Border Guardians, which is labeled by the SPLC as "anti-immigration."

More at http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/14219/republican-attorney-general-candidate-barry-smitherman-objects-to-identifying-hate-groups .

[mbperrin]

1. Shouldn't heads of agencies and candidates for AG have SOME education?

Oh, I know, this guy supposedly has multiple degrees from various major universities.

He sure did not let himself be infected with any actual knowledge during that time.

I'd object to identifying hate groups, too, if I belonged to one.

[Downwinder]

2. He is a Republican, what more does he need to be?

[kestrel91316]

3. Probably doesn't want to identify them because he belongs to a few

himself and doesn't want to get outed.

[hobbit709]

4. That's what I first thought of too.

What's he trying to hide?