Jun
11
Written by:
Mark Lavergne
6/11/2010 3:14 PM
DALLAS -- The following coverage of Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott’s speech to the Republican Party of Texas convention comes courtesy of LSR contributing editor William Murchison --
If an embattled President Obama ever feels short of adversaries, he might want to look up Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott.
Abbott Friday roused a vast roomful of Republican delegates to the state party convention with a slashing attack on an administration he accused of abridging Americans’ basic freedoms.
“We have lost liberty to a federal government takeover,” said Abbott, who has joined a dozen other state attorneys general in challenging the constitutionality of the health care reformed enacted earlier this year by Congress. “… To regain our liberty we must take back our country.”
The rhetorical fist that Abbott right off the bat shook in Obama’s face he kept there throughout, denouncing administration excesses on the environment and health care. Supportive booing accompanied his criticism of Obama for Obama’s criticism of Arizona’s new immigration law even as Mexican President Felipe Calderon joined the attack.
Congress came in for it own share of licks, due, said Abbott, to “forgetting it has limited powers. “ “Washington liberals,” he said, “have trampled the Constitution in a quest to grow government.”
It was red meat for delegates indignant already at the new federal health care reform act – AKA Obamacare - and more recently at the Environmental Protection Agency for plans to bring air pollution policies at Texas refineries under direct federal control.
Of the new health care reform, Abbott said, “If you think this is un-American, you’re right.” He pledged as attorney general to “put a stop to it.” “We’re sending a message to Washington,” Abbott declared. “Don’t mess with Texas!”
The Texas-Mexico border, Abbott said, would be secure if the federal government devoted as much energy to the project as to the control of health care.