Texas governor ripped for pandering to conspiracy theorists over military training exercise

In recent days, Pat Calhoun has found himself reassuring jittery residents of Goliad County that there is nothing to fear about Jade Helm 15, a planned military training exercise that has become a fascination of conspiracy theorists. A retired Marine, the county judge has taken part in similar operations and knows the drill — literally.

"I know what's going on with this," Calhoun said Thursday. "You don't have anything to be afraid of in our military."

The two-month simulation, slated to begin in July in states throughout the Southwest, has nonetheless spooked some Texans, leaving local officials scrambling to assuage constituent anxieties about an operation even the military characterizes as unusual in its "size and scope." On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott elevated those concerns with a letter asking the Texas State Guard to keep an eye on the operation, whose skeptics have openly questioned whether it as a covert effort to institute martial law.

“During the training operation, it is important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed," Abbott wrote to Maj. Gen. Gerald Betty, saying he expects "regular updates on the progress and safety of the Operation."

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Another attention-grabbing response to Abbott's letter came earlier Thursday, when former state Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, sent a scathing missive to Abbott accusing him of "pandering to idiots." Smith, who served in the Legislature for 16 years, told Abbott he was "horrified that I have to choose between the possibility that my Governor actually believes this stuff and the possibility that my Governor doesn't have the backbone to stand up to those who do."

"I am appalled that you would give credence to the nonsense mouthed by those who instead make decisions based on Internet or radio shock jock driven hysteria," Smith wrote in the letter, which he also sent to the House and Senate. "Is there ANYBODY who is going to stand up to this radical nonsense that is cancer on our State and Party?"