Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Friday the 13th may be the reason for so many losers this week, but there are some big winners too. Here’s who made the list.

WINNER: Sen. Paul Bettencourt Gets the Story at Texas A&M

Only a small percentage of Texas university professors actually belong to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), but it seems like any time one of their members opens their mouth, reporters in the Texas media copiously write down everything they say and treat it as news. When Houston Public Media reported about the Texas A&M decision to eliminate women’s and gender studies classes last week, they described life over at College Station as “academic and political turmoil.”

This week, Texas State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, waded right into that “academic and political turmoil” at A&M and he should win some kind of Texas Pulitzer Prize for getting the real story.

Bettencourt hosts a radio show on KSEV in Houston every week, “The Amigos,” and, while nobody in the Texas press could manage it, Bettencourt invited Texas A&M President Tommy Williams to explain every detail of the process that culminated in the cancelling of bachelor degree programs in women’s and gender studies at Texas A&M.

Bettencourt questions Williams for 30 minutes or so asking about the dozens of faculty members and administrators Williams got involved in weighing the value of the women’s and gender studies programs—which served only 56 students. Williams reported that the process took weeks before the final decision was made. He didn’t mention any turmoil—academic or otherwise.

Bettencourt did not ask anyone from the AAUP what they thought.

If you want to know what actually happened, listen to Sen. Bettencourt’s interview on KSEV with Williams here. 

WINNER: Henry Cuellar is the John Fetterman of Texas

Laredo congressman Henry Cuellar is the John Fetterman of Texas, spewing common sense wherever he sees it. Cuellar is the only Democrat who voted in support of requiring a photo ID in order to vote when it came up in Congress this week. Facing the ire of his fellow Democrats, Cuellar said, “I believe in the fundamental principle that American citizens should decide American elections.”

Cuellar also noted that the proposed federal law mirrors Photo Voter ID laws in Texas, which have been in place for years, and have the support of the vast majority of Texans including Hispanic and African Americans.

WINNER: GOP Lawmakers Pushing to Lift Time Limit on Detransitioning Lawsuits

When the battle for tort reform began in Texas, there weren’t enough doctors. The likelihood of getting sued was so high, particularly in South Texas, that physicians were leaving the state—particularly obstetricians and orthopedic surgeons—because they could not afford malpractice insurance. Fraudulent lawyers who targeted those specialties were allied with corrupt judges to ensure big settlements. Tort reform changed that, bringing doctors and accessible health care back to Texas.

At that time, nobody could have imagined that medical doctors and health care professionals would set up clinics to counsel people with a wide range of issues—from autism to anxiety disorders—into thinking that they had actually been born in the wrong body and could be fixed if they took massive cross-sex hormones and had their reproductive organs removed.

No one imagined that doctors would tell parents they could prevent their child’s suicide by allowing him or her to go through sex change surgery.

But that kind of corruption is now routine. In fact, the anti-life group Planned Parenthood is one of the largest providers of these so-called “gender-affirming care” programs.

That’s why we hope we are reading the tea leaves correctly from the arguments before the Texas Supreme Court, where a number of Texas GOP lawmakers are asking the justices to allow Soren Aldaco to sue the therapist who helped her “transition” from female to male at the age of 19, including a complete, medically unnecessary mastectomy. Aldaco is past the time limit on this kind of case, but this is not a frivolous lawsuit. This woman is the victim of a horrible scam, and she and others should be allowed to sue their doctors and anybody else involved in these programs. The lawmakers are winners this week, and the Texas Supreme Court is teed up to be a winner too if it lets Aldaco’s case move forward.

WINNER: Greg Abbott Cracking Down on Illegal Drivers Licenses

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced this week that he has told the DMV to tighten up their rules to ensure illegal aliens are not being issued drivers licenses. There’s lots of good reasons for that, including getting the state out of the business of creating phony ID cards, but, speaking for the millions of people who drive on I-35 every day, it is also a public safety move. The U.S. Dept. of Transportation is now keeping track of fatal crashes caused by illegal immigrants driving 18 wheelers, and in Congress, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, launched a tip line this week that will allow people to report illegal aliens who are driving big rigs.

WINNER: Trump Invites Democrats After All

It was a good move for Trump to backtrack—or whatever he did—to make sure the Democrat governors were included in the traditional White House meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington. The president is pretty charming in person and Democratic leaders should get a chance to see that.

On a similar note, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, is begging his fellow Democrats not to disrupt President Trump during his State of the Union address on Feb. 24—not because it wasn’t nice, but because it didn’t work. Even Texas Rep. Greg Casar admitted that their antics last year—which ultimately got Houston Rep. Al Green escorted off the floor—were counterproductive. Americans are tired of Congress turning into a reality show.

LOSER: Bad Bunny Wasn’t Very Good

I live in San Antonio, so when it comes to music in Spanish, I’m all in—but Bad Bunny just wasn’t that good.

Even if we let the NFL off the hook for picking a guy for their half-time show whose literal brand is to bash America—and I’m not suggesting we do that—the dancing trees and the crotch-grabbing was just too much. Best line I saw on X was that the Bad Bunny show is the final nail in the coffin of Puerto Rico ever becoming a state. It goes without saying that the TPUSA show was better, even though it was their first year.

LOSER: Threatened Investigation of “The View”

ABC’s “The View” is a talk show with four Trump-hating ultra-liberal women, including most famously former Hollywood movie star Whoopi Goldberg, who spend an hour every morning blasting all things conservative. They have high profile liberal guests like the Obamas and Kamala Harris, as well as other political people. But mostly it’s celebrities selling books or movies. If you don’t watch it, there’s no reason to start now.

It’s not clear why this week the FCC announced it is going to investigate “The View,” because Texas Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico was on the other week and he didn’t get the same amount of time as his Democrat primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas. I’m not sure if the FCC thinks the incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, or his current challengers, Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton and former Congressman Wesley Hunt, also deserve equal time, but whatever, government should drop this.

Television talk shows are on the air to make money—as long as people keep buying advertising, “The View” should be allowed to continue—just like Greg Gutfeld should be allowed to continue on Fox, along with all the other late night shows, which are virtually all left-leaning. If advertisers want to pay for them, they should be able to continue. Nobody wants the government deciding who can be on television.

LOSER: The French Figure Skating Judge 

So far at the Winter Olympics, Team USA is running third in the medal count, with Norway in the lead and Italy working its home court advantage into second place, ahead of America in both the gold and overall medals.

There is a bit of a scandal over the figure skating competition in which Team USA lost the gold to the French skaters—because of a vote by the French judge. There’s a big petition going online, calling for an investigation. It is true that the same French judge has been found guilty of swapping votes in the past, but it’s been a while, so we’ll see how it goes.

The NBA All-Star Game Sunday afternoon has two Texas teams represented—Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun from the Rockets and, of course, Victor Wembanyama, from the San Antonio Spurs.

 

Have a great weekend.

 

P.S. We will be doing a live, in-person recording of Winners & Losers at TPPF headquarters on February 26. Audience members will be invited to make their own nominations and ask questions during the program. RSVP here.

 

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.