Eddie Bernice Johnson: Yet Another Shoe Drops

Letters with her signature ask that scholarship money to be directed to her grandsons.

Which leads me to a question: Would you have more respect for Johnson – or any other politician caught in the act of something hinky – if she had said from the outset: “I’m sorry, this was a mistake, and I take full responsibility for it,” than one who says, “I didn’t know it was wrong, I didn’t know the money went to them,” and then piece of proof after piece of proof emerges to refute that?

Lawrence Wright’s “Al-Qaeda” on HBO Tonight

Woodrow Wilson graduate (and Hall-of-Famer) Wright won the Pulitzer for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 – which was a fascinating read. He then did a one-man, off-Broadwayshow, My Trip to Al-Qaeda, about the dilemmas he faced in writing the book and trying to stay neutral in interviewing his subjects. Now, adding to the multimedia mix, HBO is airing a documentary based on the play tonight.

Leading Off (9/7/10)

1. City officials are discussing what to do about police chases after the crazy one in August that ended at Love Field. I hope the discussion is how they can make them all that awesome. (But safe, of course — like one in, say, TJ Hooker.)

2. We’re getting a bit of precipitation thanks to Tropical Storm Hermine. Oh, had you already noticed? No disrespect, but if we’re down “Hermine” as a storm name, I think it’s finally time to let me take over. Ask around. I’m awesome.

3. Awesome: “Kids hold bake sale to help neighbor who needs kidney transplant.”

Eddie Bernice Johnson Takes to the Airwaves for PR Blitz — What’s Next?

She started the day Thursday on a Dallas radio station and ended it on national TV, where Anderson Cooper of  CNN’s 360 not only grilled Eddie Bernice Johnson, he seared her.  If you haven’t seen, do watch. I cannot pick my favorite part. Is it when EBJ told Anderson that “the rules (of the scholarship program) have been ambiguous” or when she said she didn’t even know the rules were in print?

“I know,” she told Anderson, “you are trying to make a scandal out of this, how do you want me to answer?”

She said her chief of staff, Murat Gokcigdem, had the responsibility for administering the scholarship program.

Then off came the gloves: Anderson asked if it was her staff who instructed her grandchildren and staff children to lie about their relationship to her on the CBC forms.

EBJ said she didn’t even know if her grandchildren had seen the scholarship forms they SIGNED.

How could this be? Did someone else fill them out?

EBJ says she was negligent, made a mistake , and just wants to move forward. And just how do you think she will start moving this story forward after the Labor Day weekend?