“You see,” somebody smiled, reaching for another hors d’oeuvre, “there are liberals in Texas!” The scene was the ultra-modern new home of Charles MarLett and James Vasilas in Northwest Dallas (white walls, linoleum-looking floors, cutting-edge art). That’s where about 50 people gathered late yesterday afternoon for a fund-raising party with Terri Burke, a former Dallas Morning News editor who’s now executive director of the ACLU of Texas.
Among the guests were Dawn Rizos (shown in photo here by Jeanne Prejean). Rizos owns The Lodge, an upscale Northwest Highway gentlemen’s club that she used to run with her (now) ex-husband, Nick. Waiting for Burke to address the crowd, Rizos was talking about a new eatery called Elaine’s Brasserie she’s planning to open in Uptown this fall. Exotic dancers; New Orleans-style food; named after Dawn’s mother, who’s 90 and “may hostess” once in awhile. (Reason for the new joint? “I turned 48 and I’m bored,” Rizos said. “Plus, I wanted to do something on my own.”)
Also in attendance at the Sunday fund-raiser were Democratic District 114 state House hopeful John Wellik; Don Templin of Haynes & Boone (he’s D‘s lawyer); and Templin’s wife Sarah Saldana, a Democrat who happens to be the favored U.S. Attorney/North Texas candidate of the state’s two GOP senators.
But there are other contenders, too, and the selection process has stalled. “She is so well-qualified,” one of the guests said of Saldana, who’s currently an assistant U.S. Attorney here. “It’s too bad she’s being whiplashed” by politics.
Politics was the subject of the brief talk by Burke (shown here in photo by Jeanne Prejean) as well.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Burke said, is intent on defending the U.S. Constitution and American values. “We are so mainstream that we ought to be a Junior League project,” she added, drawing a laugh.
The ACLU’s critics, on the other hand, are “extremists” bent on promoting prayer in schools, ending a woman’s right to reproductive freedom, throwing all immigrants out of the state, and curbing same-sex marriage, Burke said.
“We’re trying to push back on those who would impose their morality agenda on this state,” she concluded.
Your correspondent wondered whether the ACLU’s wasn’t also a “morality agenda,” just of a different sort. But he was a guest and behaved. The home was spectacular and these were awfully nice people, to boot.
