The Brief: Aug. 16, 2010

THE BIG CONVERSATION:

Wooing rural voters, Democrat Bill White ventured into Haskell County, home county of Gov. Rick Perry, on Saturday. Speaking on ethics, White addressed a crowd of about 40 at a goose-hunting lodge not far from Perry's hometown of Paint Creek, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

White — surrounded by wall-mounted animals, a fitting scene-setter for a candidate treading into enemy territory — hit on familiar talking points, jabbing at Perry's education record and fundraising practices. "We need a governor who acts like a public servant," White said, reprising some of the language that had Perry crying racism last week and fueled an attack ad Perry's team released Friday.

While White traipsed through enemy lands on Saturday (which, the Statesman adds, might not be so enemy after all, given that the county went for Democrat Chris Bell in 2006), The Dallas Morning News had a look at some of White's past tax returns, which Perry has said he will not consider released in their entirety until White discloses records from his time in the U.S. Department of Energy.

In its analysis, the Morning News calls White an "active" and "diversified" investor, but the paper still couldn't get its hands on White's energy department returns from 1993-1995. White "keeps trickling out information, which continues to raise more questions," says Perry spokesman Mark Miner.

But White spokesman Katy Bacon tells the Morning News that Perry, who says he won't participate in a debate until White releases returns from the years in question, is still simply using the issue to duck tough questions. "When reporters ask questions because they're doing stories on Bill's finances, we provide the information requested," Bacon says.

Meanwhile, in the back-and-forth over business deals, attention today might be back on White, whom the Statesman is examining for his ties to a natural gas company involved in a federal inquiry.

CULLED:

• It's all the rage these days: the 14th Amendment, with its birthright provision that has rankled conservatives and given rise to a certain now-ubiquitous natal term. The Tribune's Morgan Smith asks the fateful question: If we repeal birthright citizenship, what happens then? The answer: A whole lot of I-don't-knows. 

• U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Sunday that the Ground Zero mosque issue, which President Barack Obama recently waded into, will factor into the November elections. As for the governor's race, Gov. Rick Perry and Bill White have both come out on the same side of the issue.

“I didn't shake his hand. I walked up straight to him, stared him in the eye and greeted him with a warm abrazo. Because that's the way you greet a fellow laborer.” — Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Linda Chavez-Thompson, who ran to President Obama's side on his visit to Texas last week while other Democrats fled

MUST-READ:

Many Dallas County drivers found to get only probation in DWI manslaughter cases, The Dallas Morning News

Border Patrol sees spike in suicides, The Associated Press

Plano coming to terms with new identity, needs, The Dallas Morning News

Leander mayor says council member tried to choke him, Austin American-Statesman

Pelosi pulled strings to let dying Dallas lawyer Baron try experimental cancer drug, The Dallas Morning News