Luis Saenz Record As District Attorney: "All Hat, No Cattle!"

Luis "Mr. Self-Promotion" Saenz

Reminding us of the Texas colloquialism "all hat, no cattle," District Attorney Luis V. Saenz never did quite "cut off the head of the snake" of Cameron County political corruption as promised by his 2012 Campaign Manager Zeke Silva.

If that snake's head were indeed Ernie Hernandez, Saenz issued wrist slaps softer than a feather duster while Ernie's underling, Raul Salazar, faced jail for his part in illegally getting a job for Ernie's brother-in-law.

Saenz craves publicity, but only the controlled, sanitized, high schoolish form of the species, issued through mouthpiece Melissa (Zamora) Landin, praising and overstating his accomplishments, stopping just short of a nomination for sainthood.

Melissa Landin

The PR surrounding "Operation Bishop," a blitzkrieg fueled by Bishop Daniel Flores lament that the 8-liners were drying up Catholic collection plates, gave the operation the look and feel of General Eisenhower's tactics at the beach of Normandy. The actual depth or shallowness of Saenz' commitment to eradicating the sin of gambling is illustrated in the sale of the gambling devices, allowing them to resurface in Starr County to destroy churches one hundred miles away. Ironically, some of the monies recovered may have been used to pay Landin's unbudgeted cheerleader salary.

Former fugitive Amit Livingston must feel like a prized Guernsey, as frequently as Saenz has milked the story of his on/off extradition. Until recently, only two or three Google alerts have detailed any developments in the Livingston

Saenz Getting in the Picture

case over several years, none mentioning a Saenz involvement in the extradition process. As reported by El Rrun Rruns' Juan Montoya, DA Saenz flew to Houston to board Amit Livingston's plane, opportunistically maximizing the PR. Saenz was there to "steady the Ark of the Covenant," should the prisoner transfer between the marshalls and the Cameron County Sheriff's department wobble or falter. At the subsequent Saenz press conference following the transfer, the district attorney, flanked by huge information cards, detailing the time line of developments, took credit for the process.