She's got her flippy floppies

Where Kay Bailey Hutchison ranks among great American flip flops

Kay Bailey Hutchison is issuing an official "just kidding!" and flip flopping her way back to the Senate. The Republican Senator had said (among many other things) that she would resign if she weren't successful in the Governor's race. She lost the Republican nomination to incumbent Gov. Rick Perry.

The move doesn't surprise many. Hutchison sits on the Commerce, Banking and budget-making Appropriation committees and had become increasingly ambivalent about when she planned to leave. First, Bailey said she would leave the Senate as soon as she lost to Perry in the Republican gubernatorial primary on March 2. Then, she was staying on to fight Barack Obama's health care bill — only when the bill passed, Hutchison was still there.

This all fits in with the long and illustrious history of American flip flopping.

The saga of when and if Kay Bay would resign is impressive, but so are these five fierce flip flops:

George H.W. Bush - In arguably a bigger verbal blunder than anything his son W. later pulled off as president (after all, this is largely considered the reason why the elder Bush lost his reelection campaign in 1992 to Bill Clinton), Herbert vowed, "Read my lips: No new taxes" in his 1988 Republican nomination acceptance speech. Of course when Bush took office ... he raised taxes.

Anne Heche - The formerly heterosexual Heche switched teams for Ellen Degeneres (and who wouldn't, might I add — she's a doll) and then switched back again. More recently, Heche's opened a whole other can of crazy with claims of outer space interaction, an alter-ego named Celestia, and custody drama with one of her two baby daddies.

Brett Favre - The former cheesehead football hero has retired and unretired from the NFL so many times that he's turned the running gag into the center of multiple commercial endorsement campaigns. Favre's played on three different teams the last three years ... and he's unsure (shocker!) if he'll play or not next season.

Jason Mesnick - The Season 13 Bachelor dumped then-fiancé Melissa Rycroft on national television in favor for second-runner-up, Whatsherface.

NBC - The network promised The Tonight Show to Conan O'Brien, pushed Jay Leno to 9 p.m. (CST) to make it happen — and then booted Conan and returned the The Tonight Show to Jay Leno after less than a year.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”

She's got her flippy floppies

Where Kay Bailey Hutchison ranks among great American flip flops

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

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