I know it sounds like the start of an Aggie joke: Texas A&M buys a law school, then lets a professor who wants to repeal the Second Amendment pick the new dean… If it doesn’t sound funny, that’s because it is all too true.

Meanwhile, it’s not unusual to meet a Republican candidate who lists taxes as the reason to seek office. What makes Steve Massengale of Lubbock unique is that he’s running because he wants to be pushing for higher taxes.

Pro-Tax Republicans
We know that a cabal of anti-taxpayer, pro-cronyism interests is working to keep malleable moderates in the Texas legislature so they will keep the pork flowing.

But I bet you didn’t know that similar forces are at work trying to help pro-tax Republicans beat conservative incumbents. I mean, so much for the “any Republican is better than a Democrat” theory of establishment politics…

In Lubbock, conservative State Rep. Charles Perry is being challenged in the GOP primary by the current Lubbock Independent School District president Steve Massengale (he previously headed the local Chamber of Big Government, er, Commerce).

Mr. Massengale told the local Fox news affiliate that he is running because Mr. Perry refused to help push a local tax increase. Massengale told the station, “Now I’m not here to advocate for or against a sales tax.” Funny, because that is precisely what he has been doing.

The tax hike, if you were wondering, was to fund a bevy of projects that reads like a smorgasbord of waste designed to hand out government contracts to political cronies.

(Note to self: review how much money Lubbock ISD has paid Mr. Massengale’s “printing” business, Advanced Graphix, over the last few years…)

Metroplex Moochers
Conservative freshman Jonathan Stickland is being challenged by local lackey Andy Cargile. It would seem Mr. Cargile’s chief claim-to-fame is that he’s controlled by Tarrant County political puppet-master Neal Adams.

When it comes to underwriting big-government Republicans, Mr. Adams is the moderate-in-chief. And he apparently expects to be rewarded.

In 2005 Adams’ local State Senator, Chris Harris, carried an amendment on House Bill 2120 that allowed county hospital districts to hire law firms to represent them, instead of using the already-paid-for-by-taxpayers county attorney.

Guess who the Tarrant County Hospital District hired as their general counsel? Neal Adams.

Anti-Gun Aggies?
Speaking of Neal Adams… What a shocker, he also is serving on that “dean selection committee” for the new Texas A&M School of Law located in downtown Fort Worth.

One of Mr. Adams’ fellow committee members is Professor Meg Penrose, who says the Second Amendment should be “repealed” and tells her students that the U.S. Constitution is outdated.

(With a crony-moderate and a gun-grabber as committee members, we’ll be lucky if the first dean of the Aggie law school isn’t a disciple of Saul Alinsky.)

A November article in the Daily Caller was headlined “CALL TO ARMS: Texas A&M law prof says it’s time to repeal Second Amendment.” Gig’em.

Prof. Penrose’s call to repeal the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment didn’t come at a Wendy Davis cocktail party, but “a day-long panel symposium on gun control and the Second Amendment at the University of Connecticut School of Law in Hartford.”

Here’s what Penrose said: “I think the Second Amendment is misunderstood and I think it’s time today, in our drastic measures, to repeal and replace that Second Amendment.”

In fairness, the Daily Caller pointed out Penrose says each state should set its own policies on gun rights.

But, come to think of it… why does Penrose stop at only the Second Amendment? I wonder what other fundamental rights she’d support the states abridging? Would she allow each state to decide if people enjoy the freedoms of speech, religion and the press? Maybe Penrose would let each state set its own laws about slavery? Would she make “due process” optional? Where would Prof. Penrose stop?

As an Aggie who prefers my constitutional rights left intact, I’m horrified that the likes of Prof. Penrose – along with crony-contracting moderate Neal Adams – get to pick the first dean of A&M’s law school.

Collegiate humor aside, our right to keep and bear arms is no joking matter. And cavalier attitudes about the U.S. Constitution should not be promoted in our tax-supported institutions of higher education. Especially in Texas!