Vileness

Man, Kim Ogg had to be missing her some Dudegoggles today.  

Ever since former Harris County District Attorney's Office spokesperson Dane Schiller left the Office (and the country!) following his disastrous appearance as a witness in the Guajuardo hearing last year, it looks like Boss Ogg has been managing her own Twitter account.

And if today's events are any indicator, suffice it to say that things are not going well.

It started off with a seemingly non-Ogg-related tweet from June 6th by a Twitter account called "Urban Reform" that had made note of a recent heated exchange between County Judge Lina Hidalgo and County Commissioner Adrien Garcia.  The original tweet seemed to be more of an observation that the event had happened and did not appear to cast judgment on Hidalgo.

However, as we all know, one cannot say the words "Lina Hidalgo" without awakening the hordes of Lina-haters that seem to cruise the waters of Twitter like a killer whale looking for a wounded seal.  This post was no exception as many pearl-clutching, anti-Hidalgo tweeters came out to illustrate that never in their ENTIRE LIVES had they heard someone drop a (gasp) "F-Bomb" in public, and certainly not a  (swoon) woman!  One of the ultra-sheltered tweeters was a lady whom I have met (and actually enjoyed talking to in person) who posted under the handle of "Michelle GCR."

Now, Michelle is not a big fan of Judge Hidalgo and never has been.  So, it was no surprise to me that Michelle's tweet in response to Urban Reform's tweet was short and sweet:  "She is vile."

What was surprising to me, however, was to see that Kim Ogg retweeted what Michelle had said.

So, if you are unfamiliar with Twitter etiquette, when one "retweets" another's "tweet," they are normally endorsing it and the sentiment behind it.  There may be exceptions, but Twitter gives a user the option to comment along with that retweet (i.e., "this is wrong" when retweeting something you actually disagree with).

But Kim Ogg just retweeted the sentiment that Lina Hidalgo was, in fact, vile.

So, I posted my own tweet, calling attention to what Kim Ogg had retweeted, and some members of the Horde of Hidalgo Haters turned their attention toward me.   Most accused me of being a Lina Hidalgo apologist/fan club member.  I've certainly been called worse, but the truth is that my feelings are probably best described as "okay."  I voted for Ed Emmett over her in 2018 because I thought he was an amazing County Judge.  I did, however, vote for Hidalgo over Alexandra del Moral Mealer, because I felt that Mealer was an election-denying, anti-vaxxing, right-wing kook.  I've disagreed with Hidalgo on some issues and agreed with her on others.  I don't agree with any of the racist or sexist vitriol that so many of her detractors aim at her.

Defending Hidalgo wasn't the reason for me pointing out Kim's retweet.  The issue was that Kim was sharing her personal distaste for someone that she has been actively investigating for a couple of years now.  This wasn't about the job Lina Hidalgo was doing.  It was about the job that Kim Ogg is, yet again, not doing.

A prosecutor's job is to seek justice.  If you don't believe me, just watch jury selection in a criminal case and they'll be happy to tell you.  They seek justice and the implication is that they do so without any type of personal bias or other dog in the hunt.  There's also an implication in there somewhere that a prosecutor isn't supposed to seek justice for media attention or votes, but Kim Ogg has never really adhered to that little unwritten rule.   From her prosecution of Arkema to HPD's narcotics squad to Dr. Hasan Gokal to three staffers in Judge Hidalgo's office, Kim has proven time and again her fondness for charging people with crimes for headlines.  

But with Kim's retweet of Michelle's "She is vile" message, our elected D.A. is showing a strong indication that her motivation for her investigations into Hidalgo and her staff is more than just capitalizing on the anti-Lina Hidalgo sentiment.  Apparently, there's some personal animosity mixed in there, too.

That's no shock to those of us who follow Harris County politics.  Ogg and Hidalgo are clearly political enemies, and Ogg has misleadingly accused Hidalgo of "defunding" the D.A.'s Office on multiple well-publicized occasions.  Hidalgo, as mentioned above, dropped an F-bomb when accusing Commissioner Garcia of being too closely aligned with Ogg.  Both are public officials and both are entitled to their opinions.  They are free to disagree and even fight with each other.

But only one of them has the power to potentially have the other investigated and prosecuted.  

And Kim Ogg's office has done just that for well over a year now.  In an "investigation" into Hidalgo's Office, there were media leaks right and left before three of Hidalgo's staffers were indicted (on what I personally believe are absolutely unsubstantiated charges based on my knowledge of the case).  In the aftermath, Hidalgo expressed concerns that based on Ogg's hatred of her that she (Hidalgo) would be indicted next.  Kim's retweeting of "She is vile." gives fuel to that fire and it's not what society expects from a prosecutor who is supposed to keep Justice blind to personal animosities.  It's a bad look and Kim knows that.  

How do we know that?  Because of what happened next . . .

After attention was brought to the retweet, Kim's Twitter account posted a laughably lame explanation that her account had been "hacked." 

Some were skeptical.

As is typical when Kim Ogg steps in dog crap, she blames someone else.  It couldn't possibly be that she was so stupid to put a stunning lack of ethics on such display, could it?  Of course not.  She had obviously been hacked.

If you are feeling like you are experiencing deja vu all over again, you aren't going crazy.  Remember this fun story from three years ago?  It may sound eerily familiar.   The short version goes like this - Kim Ogg sends out an e-mail to all prosecutors looking for "volunteers" to help at an event where she hands out free stuff to potential voters.  Her e-mail notes that their participation will be reflected in their evaluation.

And when some blogger points out on Twitter that perhaps coercing your employees to work a campaign event for you under threat of retaliation is completely illegal isn't a good look for an elected official, suddenly it turns out to be an unauthorized person using Kim's account without permission.

Amazing!

It seems to me that Kim Ogg's retweet of her thoughts on the "vileness" of Lina Hidalgo might become an interesting exhibit in that Motion to Recuse that was filed last year.

Maybe for once, somebody might actually hold our District Attorney accountable for the extra-judicial statements she makes about the cases her Office is handling.