Me, Sugar Land Texas and Tom Delay

I really love Texas. The first time I got off a plane in Houston and asked for directions I clearly remember the girl that smiled after she helped me then said, "you sound like you're from up around Dallas," which was pretty nice to hear for a mountain boy from North Carolina. And as I was leaving to go home as usual I had to change something (always trying to score first class) and the girl at the USAir counter when she looked at my ticket back to Charlotte asked me where I was going which was North Wilkesboro where I lived at the time. She said, "I'm from Miller's Creek and I'll get you home in style! You come see me every trip and I'll take care of you and hear about home." If you don't know NC, Miller's Creek is a "suburb" of North Wilkesboro. Believe me I always found her on every trip to Houston (I love Houston) and we always had a nice talk and I usually had a nice trip back home. I don't know where she is now but I wish her well.

Oh, here's the Tom Delay part:

"Drive down U.S. Highway 59 from downtown Houston, and you take a sociological journey from the city's old, urban center to the picturesque suburbs of neighboring Fort Bend County. You also embark on a political odyssey, from the traditional precincts of the Texas Democratic Party to Sugar Land, the home of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay."
"...for the lion's share of Mr. DeLay's supporters in Texas, the ethical charges against the majority leader amount to little more than a partisan witch-hunt by a Democratic district attorney in Austin, Ronnie Earle, and the Democratic leadership in Washington--the not-so-unexpected result of unseating six congressional incumbents."

"...Like his experience as a foster parent, his advocacy for abused children and his small business roots, Rep. DeLay's down-home ordinariness is at odds with his ominous Capitol Hill reputation as "The Hammer."

I also learned in my many visits to Texas that there is no politics quite like Texas politics - Texas is where I first learned how and why to lobby for changes...