The story so far:
- Rumors accusing everyone (well, not us, but everyone else) of attempting to sell Texas Panhandle water to T. Boone Pickens
- Amarillo Globe-Republican endorses City Commission challengers Jerry Hodge, Jimm Simms, and Paul Harpole
- Amarillo City Commissioners give "preliminary approval" to an ordinance that would require the voters to approve such a sale, or any sale of Panhandle water to anyone from outside the area.
- Former City Commissioner John McKissack, a member of the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District and supporter of Hodge and Simms, calls this ordinance a "kneejerk reaction."
- Globe-Republican loses it in this editorial, throwing up more smoke and mirrors than are ordinarily seen in a Vegas magic show. Among other hysterical accusations, the AG-R hisses that
someone in our community has started a whisper campaign attempting to link Hodge to Pickens and intimating that Hodge or some other commission challenger would sell Amarillo water to someone else There are no facts to back this up and no one on the record stating this. It's wrong - even in politics.
6. AG-R demands that ordinance allowing voter control over water sales be tabled.
Let's make two things clear. First, the rumors about Hodge and Pickens have been floating around this city for decades, not weeks. Yes, they are just rumors, but they are rumors that the Globe-Republican has the resources to prove or disprove; something they have thus far declined to do. We, along with other voters, would like to know the truth- one way or the other- before, not after, May 7.
Second, smoke and mirrors aside, there is one question that has not been answered: Why, exactly, do Hodge, Simms, McKissack, and the Amarillo Globe-Republican think it's a bad idea for voters to have the right to approve or decline to approve any water sale?
SPACEDARK
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