Endorsements for Noriega, a beef promoter, a higher ed appointment, and Cornyn on Gonzalez...
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega picked up endorsements from former Gov. Dolph Briscoe, former Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and state Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston (and reiterated endorsements from state Sens. Mario Gallegos and John Whitmire, both of Houston). Briscoe was ill and couldn't make the event, sending a written statement instead. Briscoe included a salute to Noriega's military experience that also amounted to a swat at his Democratic opponent, Mikal Watts, and at the incumbent, Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn: "I think in these times an essential criteria for representing Texas in the United States Senate is service in the military, a person who has walked the walk."
• Jason Skaggs joins the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association as executive director of government affairs and public relations. That's a new position there; he'll oversee lobby efforts in Austin and in Washington, D.C. Skaggs was until recently the executive assistant to Kathleen White, who was on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. He worked for state Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, and for former U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm, D-Abilene, before that.
• Gov. Rick Perry appointed Fred Heldenfels IV of Austin to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. He's the president and CEO of Heldenfels Enterprises, a company that makes precast and pre-stressed concrete.
• Cornyn's reaction to Alberto Gonzales' resignation included a reference to which cabinet officers are most important: "Alberto Gonzales, the highest ranking Hispanic to serve in a President's Administration, is a decent and honorable man who has served his country at a difficult time when we are engaged in a global war on terror. His resignation marks another casualty of the hyper-partisan atmosphere in Washington that does not serve the best interests of the American People.
Hispanics have been secretaries of Commerce (Carlos Gutierrez) Housing and Urban Development (Henry Cisneros), of Education (Lauro Cavazos), and of Transportation (Federico Peña). But an attorney general's peers on the cabinet are at State, Defense and Treasury, and Gonzales was the first Latino to break into the top tier.
Talking about Gonzales a couple of weeks ago, Cornyn expressed some doubts about his fellow Texan, saying, "He's a good person, but I look at his jobs he's held, and I wonder what has prepared him for being the head of the Department of Justice and 110,000 employees in a highly partisan and difficult political environment."