DA Craig Watkins Stumbles
It’s a small thing, really. Channel 4’s Paul Adrian reported Monday that the DA’s office solicited gifts for door prizes at an office Christmas party. Stupid, stupid. You can’t do that. Wrists should be slapped. Watkins should apologize, take action to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again. Instead, he has compounded the problem with this quote in the Houston Chronicle:
“It is unfortunate, that of all the real news being generated out of the DA’s office … that the media would waste time reporting on our office’s holiday event that occurred five and half months ago.”
That’s like getting pulled over for speeding and telling the cop, “With all the real crime going on right now, you’re going to waste time giving me a ticket?” Bad move. Now the cop is going to ask if you’ve been drinking. He’s going to ask you to step out of the car. And it doesn’t matter that the Christmas party happened five months ago. If it was wrong, it was wrong.
Mister District Attorney, you’re doing some good work down there. But when mistakes are made, acknowledge them and move on. Because there’s still lots more work to be done.
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If this was former Sheriff Bowles, Adrian’s good buddy, he would have ignored this story.
I’ve come to the realization that the DA’s office, no matter what county it is, is about as organized and upstanding as the government of a country located directly south of us and sharing a border with this wonderful state!
Small incident, not a huge deal but agree with Tim and don’t agree with Sway. Apologize, issue an order, move on.
Sway, I disagree. There are several DA’s offices around the state (Collin, for one) that are extremely well organized. And they often use that organizational prowess to ensure that liberty and freedom are compromised in the name of enforcing the law. There used to be a writer around here who focused on these issues, but he’s allegedly not dead. Just “freelancing”.
WM, I apologize if I have offended you. I have never had the pleasure of dealing with Collin County so I can’t bundle them in the group. But I have had the pleasure of working with Tarrant Co., Dallas Co., Harris Co., and Travis Co. and I do bundle them in the group. Perhaps I should have stated that the bigger the county to more disorganized and shall I say “lost” the DA’s office. I tire of their general attitude of control and their ignorance as to how they got and remain in office, by vote of the public.
No offense taken, Sway. I agree that the attitude of control and overall imperiousness is unwelcome and undeserved.
I’m thinking Michael Blair isn’t so high on the CC DA…
I think the DA is doing great work, but he needs to stop using that as the template response to everything. At the country democratic convention, he said nearly the same thing verbatim, except it was about his dismal driving record and the number of county cars he’d crashed already. He’s a good guy, doing good things, but the chip on his shoulder will eventually be what trips him.
Yes, public officials do need to take accountability for their actions. If you make a mistake, acknowledge it and move on. I would also expect the public, and the media, to live by that same mantra. We’re all human, we all make mistakes (how cliche). It’s very easy to tear someone down for any mistake they make. But, it is important to look at those mistakes in the big picture context of that person’s character.
I think he’s under a lot of pressure to perform, and expectations have been set high for him: a lot of people are expecting him to succeed, and a lot of people are expecting him to fail. At the end of the day, Craig Watkins is probably the biggest critic of “DA Craig Watkins.” Because of that, the media gets canned responses to indiscretions they bring to light; in an attempt to downplay what are–in the grand scheme of things–mistakes he has made (errors in judgement etc). It really is hard to say “I was wrong” or “I made a mistake” and acknowledge that you did not act perfectly, especially when you are in the spotlight. It’s got to be embarrassing, and feel like you are letting everyone (including yourself) down.
In time, I think he’ll accept that even though he is acting with the best of intentions, even though he is in a position of great importance and power, that he might actually mess up every now and then. And when he does, as long as he is honest and forthcoming about it, the general public will be willing to forgive and move on.
He’s a guy who has a lot of respect for his position as the District Attorney; he wants to make the most of his time as an elected official, and he really wants to really effect a change in his office. I wouldn’t ask anyone to just step back and let him do his job unchecked. But, monitoring a public official, and holding them accountable for the duties of their office, is different from digging for mistakes to throw out in the public sphere for a “gotcha” moment.
Oh, c’mon, C.R.! Awww…poor me….poor Mr. DA…I’m under so much pressure…sob, sob. Now, let’s go see how much people will barter for a few minutes of my time now that I’m a “big shot.” Give me a break! I don’t care if he’s embarrassed. He ought to be!
I’m sorry, but any time you have an office holder who, instead of offering up an apology when appropriate, would rather whine about how the media should have something better to do than point out his obvious improprieties, you’ve got a snake in the grass. If you’re running a clean office and behaving yourself, you’ve nothing to fear from the press or the public. I suspect this latest incident is just another brief glimpse into the way this guy is running his ship, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
This is not a little deal as you say. The disturbing part of this story is the DA’s wriiten statment. The lies in it are obvious. If he will lie about this sort of thing then he will lie about anything. Of course this conduct is only a continuation of his previous conduct. Not paying taxes, not paying the county thousands of dollars. Using county cars for his own use and double dipping with his car allowance. Every time he gets caught he says the media is out to get him and they ignore all the good he does.
As a partisan Democrat who voted against Watkins in the primary (and the general election? not saying), I was happy to see our DA acquit himself well (pun intended) in office. But this “minor” incident worries me. It makes me ask: Did Watkins just “luck” into being right on one big, important issue? Does he have breadth and depth? Is he a one trick pony?
Yes, he now and always deserves credit for righting past wrongs and pursuing real justice. That is far, far from nothing. Still…
Come on Mr. DA, maintain high standards across the board.
All I have to say is you will NEVER see Tim Curry do anything like this. The Dallas County DA’s office has to be the most corrupt DA’s office in the area.
Mind you, that Mr. Watkins has never been a prosectuor. Sorry but criminal defense is nothing like being a prosecutor. In MY OPINION, he is not fit for the position.
Once anyone runs for a position such as Mr. Watkins has, your life is put out there for people to monitor. Every step you make, every word you speak up, will be monitored. You ask to be in the limelight, well accepted the consequences. You are suppose to be a role model. ACT like one!
To Mr. Watkins, You sir, did not win because you were fit for the position. All you did was rent a big bus and load people on who had no idea where they were going and dropped them off at a local polling stations and said “circle my name.”
FOX 4 News, I commend you on stepping out and doing a story of this magnitude so the public can see first hand who Craig Watkin’s really is.