Oh, it’s gotta suck to be Todd Staples these days. After all, you’ve just had your failure to protect Texans made very public, primarily because of your own embarrassing attempts to cover up the problems. What to do?
Oh, I know…just keep lying!
According to Texas Department of Agriculture online statistics, TDA inspections find 94% of Smith County and statewide Texas gas pumps are accurate.
Oh, my… well, for one, those records are incomplete and don’t contain all the pumps in Smith County. What this should say is that of the pumps they know about AND were inspected before they fell out of the database (no joke, it happens… if you own a gas station and you manage to go past the inspection date on the sticker, you fall out of TDA’s system and functionally cease to exist as far as they are concerned), at least that’s what I think. Because that’s the only way possible for it to even remotely make sense.
TDA’s function of ensuring accuracy with the state’s Weights and Measurements has involved inspection of 379,922 gas pumps since 2007. According to information released by TDA this afternoon, the unlicensed Smith County fuel operator identified in the media this week was found with 6 gas pumps being accurate, 4 pumps dispensing too much fuel, 1 pump dispensing too little fuel, 4 pumps malfunctioning prior to dispensing fuel, and 11 pumps NOT IN OPERATION. This operator has been registered and fines are pending.
What you mean to say, Cody, is that ‘Once Hank Gilbert alerted my boss, Todd Staples to the problem, he tried to cover it up. Unfortunately, the cover up occurred during Gilbert’s press conference, to embarrassing effect. These stats may or may not be accurate, I’m not really sure and I have no documentation on it. Finally, that operator wasn’t really running that many pumps and apparently was cheating people on only one. Of course, others have said that all were operational but this is, after all, the Staples campaign where fact checking ain’t really our thang. The most comical thing in all this is that Hank’s claim, that during Staples’ time in office 49% of the devices inspected in Tyler have had a compliance issue, was verified by KETK. ButStaples is calling Hank a ‘liar’ based on a claim he never made. Which makes Staples one of the most desperate statewide politicians in decades, stupid or some combination of both.
Cody McGregor, Staples intrepid campaign manager, then goes on to rehash the same old mud from more than 10 years ago that they’ve been slinging since before Hank was even the Democratic candidate. He does introduce a new term, Driving While License Inactive which does not, of course exist but does sound a lot like DWI.
What can I say, there’s sleaze and then there’s Todd Staples and his campaign. They’re nothing if not dedicated to making even the nastiest crack whore look classy in comparison.
Despite all the devastating personal information about Staples out there, they continue to sling (and even repackage) the same mud they’ve been slinging all year long. The only problem is that Hank’s only now starting to talk about some of Staples larger job performance issues. He hasn’t even had to resort to personal attacks. And all this makes me wonder what else is out there…
Still no answers on why TDA’s counsel decided to try to silence the media yesterday. What is most shocking is just how stupid Staples and his campaign are on this story… instead of taking their lumps and moving on, they’re running scared in an act of desperation that’s really very remarkable. It’s like watching some mook sitting at the $5 blackjack table who has been drawing bad cards all night, yet is still sucking down the booze and making lousy bets. You know the guy, the asshole who takes the bust card that would have made the entire table.
Everyone hates that guy. And it’s now clear why even Republicans hate Todd Staples. No one likes a dick who doubles down then keeps drawing until they bust at the blackjack table and they certainly don’t like it when they’re insulting everyone at the table for their own disastrous decisions.
I’m honestly proud of Hank for not going personal despite all the mud that’s been thrown at him. However, I also wouldn’t be angry if he lit into Staples over his checked past.
Mostly because I think the son of a bitch deserves it at this point.
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