Emily:
We’ve already brought you many, many highlights from Wendy Davis’s poorly-considered run for Texas governor, starting with her decision to run on gun control in a state where even the livestock is heavily armed, her claim to be “pro-life” in her first campaign speech, the incredible compassion she shows to those less fortunate than her, and her stellar decision to call the state of Texas toxic while standing in SoHo art loft with a cadre of Yankee millionaires. We missed that one where she had trouble with basic math, but you get the picture.
Anyway, the Dallas Morning News finally caught on this weekend that Wendy Davis might be less of a fantastic role model for women everywhere, doing an expose of Wendy’s carefully-crafted background story about how she was a struggling single mother who put herself through school while living in a trailer park, only to carry herself to unprecedented heights, lifting herself up by her own stilettos until she finally achieved every little girls dream: a fake filibuster on the floor of a state legislature designed to preserve a woman’s right to have a procedure that even Europeans find barbaric. Turns out, Wendy Davis is only a brilliant, self-motivated up-and-comer, if you don’t dig too deeply into Wendy Davis.
Wendy Davis has made her personal story of struggle and success a centerpiece of her campaign to become the first Democrat elected governor of Texas in almost a quarter-century.
While her state Senate filibuster last year captured national attention, it is her biography — a divorced teenage mother living in a trailer who earned her way to Harvard and political achievement — that her team is using to attract voters and boost fundraising.
The basic elements of the narrative are true, but the full story of Davis’ life is more complicated, as often happens when public figures aim to define themselves. In the shorthand version that has developed, some facts have been blurred.
By “some facts,” the Dallas Morning News actually means, “basically everything.” The bones of the story are still intact, but when considering how to portray them to the media, Wendy glosses over some important details. A few highlights:
- Wendy was actually 21, not 19, when she got a divorce from her first husband and had to move back into her parent’s trailer park home, where she lived only a few months before finding an apartment of her own for herself and her daughter. Now that might not seem like a big deal, but Wendy testified under oath, in a federal lawsuit regarding redistricting, that she was 19 when she got divorced. She’s lucky that wasn’t material to the case at hand, but she might want to think twice about volunteering incorrect information after she’s sworn to uphold the truth.
- Jeff Davis, Wendy’s second husband, paid her way through Texas Christian University and then through Harvard Law School and cared for her first daughter and a second daughter they had shortly after they were married. He took out loans and cashed in his 401(K) to pay her way through school. They divorced in 2005, literally the day after Jeff Davis wrote his final check paying off her student loan:
Jeff Davis said that was right around the time the final payment on their Harvard Law School loan was due. “It was ironic,” he said. “I made the last payment, and it was the next day she left.
- When she and Davis got a divorce (the court documents cite adultery on Wendy’s part but the final divorce decree makes no mention of any infidelity), she handed full custody of their daughter to her now ex-husband, stating that he was a “nurturing father” and that it was just “not a good time” for her. Because when you have shared children, the very first thing you think about when deciding on their future, is whether they fit in to your busy schedule. A future colleague would put Wendy’s priorities in perspective to the DMN:
“Wendy is tremendously ambitious,” he said, speaking only on condition of anonymity in order to give what he called an honest assessment. “She’s not going to let family or raising children or anything else get in her way.”
Basically, every country music song that’s ever come out of Texas was written about Wendy Davis.
She looks like TT in her bio. photo’s. bleached blond bimbo who would sleep with anyone to move up the ladder. Wonder how she got into Harvard? Wonder if she smokes “grass” like the pres? Has she shared her law school grades or is the fool’s legal group keeping them private?
Remember it is not hard to become a lawyer. Queston, is she barred in any state? The fool never passed the bar in any state. Yet he was allegedly a full professor of Constitution law at the University of Chicago at 28, right.
The fact that Abortion Barbie is being vetted like this in a leftwing newspaper tends to indicate the dems realize she cannot win the governorship, and they are “encouraging” her in leftist fashion to get out of the race now to pave the way for a different wolf-in-sheep’s clothing leftist candidate to go up against Abbot.
The fact that someone like Davis – who used evil men to pay her bills and care for her children – was ever hailed as a feminist hero and an example cor women everywhere says much about the leftist feminist movement.
I seem to recall Hillary riding all over Billy’s coattails to bamboozle idiots into voting for her….not to mention putting up with AND covering for his extramarital activities.
Such great role models for young women, aren’t they?
The left showed us how to lay into a woman that has been sprung into the limelight. However, with Windy, we are learning that, like many liberals, she is a phony human being with a facade of humanity. I only wish this data would not have come out until after she was the nominee.
@Pete:
Let me bring a few things to your attention: Wendy Davis claims that she, after her first divorce, lived in a mobile home for a couple of months. But chances are that it was the same mobile home that was purchased by her and her first husband, Frank Underwood, jointly. He was awarded the mobile home, and the responsibility for the mortgage on it, by the divorce court. Chances are that the judge gave Abortion Barbie 60-90 days to vacate the marital mobile home and find new quarters.
Also, the terms of her second divorce required her to pay $1,200/month in child support for one child under the age of 18. Her child support payments would represent 20% of her income at the time, giving her a 2003 salary of around $72,000/yr. Clearly enough money for her to hire a nanny, or a sitter, for a school aged child. She opted to pay the support instead of taking custody of her child. Even her first daughter remained with her step father, Jeff Davis, because Abortion Barbie was on the move politically and didn’t seem to have the time to play mommy.
All the DNC saw was stars in their eyes thinking that a first time Texas state senator was going to repeat history on a state level. The truth of the matter is they did not vet her and just immediately started singing her praises and raising big bucks from New York and D.C. for her, teaming her up with a Hispanic woman for Lt. Governor. She has been a flawed candidate from the git-go, barely winning her senate seat, 51-49% against a really weak opposition candidate.
It is too late for someone else to throw their hat in the ring in the Democratic primaries in Texas, which will be held in March. That light flashing in Wendy Davis’ eyes? Her career dissipation light.
@Bill Burris:
Wendy Davis will be the Democrat nominee for Governor in the State of Texas. The primary is in early March, so they are stuck with her and the filing period has long passed.
@retire05: So much the better. I live near Dallas and am active on the DMN letters blogs. It is swarming with liberal sycophants that would cause Ronald to blush. But, due to their weak positions, they are easy pickings. Windy is one of my favorite battlegrounds. Since liberals suckle on the personality cult, they clung instantly to Windy and take great umbrage at any questioning of her ability to do anything but waste time in support of late term abortion and dangerous abortion clinics. She is the flagship of the liberal dream of a blue Texas and I look forward to seeing their sad faces.
@retire05:
Wendy Davis then appears to be the best gift possible for Abbott.
Keep Texas RED!
@Pete:
Pete, Abortion Barbie’s little stunt on the floor of the Texas Senate was pre-arranged with the national DNC. Before she even started speaking, catheter attached, she received calls from both Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.
The 20 week ban on abortions was supported by a huge majority of Texans, Democrat and Republican. But the DNC elite decided to roll the dice, and put up a fairly nice looking bottle blond with a great education as their standard bearer, thinking that the liberals in Texas would run to her like she was free bar-b-que. But you see, the Washington DNC, and its minions, don’t understand Texas, or even Texas Democrats.
Planned Parenthood hired a lot of out of staters to protest the abortion legislation, and they were a truly unpleasant bunch. Even Texas Dems resented that action. And Abortion Barbie, once she threw her hat in the ring for the governor’s spot, decided to campaign out of state in D.C. and New York. Not a good move. Davis is a back bencher that even the left here started to look at, and although the Dallas Morning News writer tried to soft peddle the reality of Davis as much as he could, it was pretty scathing.
But hey, if the DNC, and the money boys, want to throw money at Davis for a losing campaign, I say “Have at it.” since it will be money wasted. Now Davis is on the defense, and it is only going to be downhill for her from now on. When you have a left wing publication doing a “let’s examine the real facts”, you know that Secretariat just turned into Francis.
Wow, the pictures of her show her to be a real air-head. Uh, that’s not racist, is it?
Looks like Abortion Barbie will be run over by Abbott’s wheelchair. You should see amessNBC circle the wagons for her. Their 6 viewers must be howling by now. I must be the 7th. Anyway, I was getting tired of the story of an apparent fat guy, or an apparent video of a fat guy, putting traffic cones on the entrance to a bridge in New Jersey.
It should be an interesting governor’s race. Both sides are apparently going to attempt to tarnish the image of the opposing candidate.
Abbott facing questions about how his settlement squares with his views on lawsuit reform
@Greg:
Wendy’s side can’t be tarnished so the right(correct) side won’t need to hire any tarnishers.
@Greg: @Greg: You do know, don’t you, that tort reform does not mean negligence cannot be sued.
@Redteam, #12:
This article seems like in might be an attempt to tarnish her image: Wendy Davis’s Campaign Mocks Greg Abbott for Being Paralyzed
@Bill Burris, #13:
Of course. Everyone knows that. This is why it’s important for Texas homeowners to have all apparently healthy trees on their property periodically x-rayed, to check for hidden signs of structural instability. Failure to perform this routine test would represent a clear case of negligence.
@Greg:
it made a statement but supplied no details. I think the title to that article should have focused on fund raising.
@Greg: “This is why it’s important for Texas homeowners to have all apparently healthy trees on their property periodically x-rayed” Possibly. However, if YOUR tree falls on someone, you are most likely going to be held liable, so it is best to be prepared with homeowners insurance, as this owner was. But, no doubt, a kind, forgiving liberal would simply say, after being dragged from under the tree, “Dang. Too bad I’m crippled for life, but certainly no one can blame the Republican property owner. I guess I’ll just get along somehow.”