"When you're explaining, you're losing"

Could someone please text that to Matt Angle, stat?

Sen. Wendy Davis got some criticism from her own party when she came out for open carry of handguns, but she emphasized Monday there are some caveats in her position.

The Fort Worth Democrat said that entities including cities should be able to make their own decisions not only on any proposed open-carry law but on the existing law allowing licensed people to carry concealed handguns.

“Obviously in Texas we have a culture that respects the Second Amendment right and privilege of owning and carrying guns — but we also, of course, have respect and understand a the rights and privileges of property owners to make decisions about what’s right for them,” said Davis, who is expected to face Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott in the general-election in the race for governor.

“My position on open carry reflects my respect for both of those principles, and I believe that municipalities, school districts, hospitals, private property owners should be the ones that ultimately have a say as to whether this is right for them and their facilities,” she said.

Davis, pointing to her time as a city official, said, “My position on that is consistent both on open and concealed carry. I do believe that municipalities should be able to make that decision for themselves. I sat on the City Council in Fort Worth when that decision was made for us.

“I believe that local control means local control, and we should respect municipalities’ positions and opinions in these matters and we shouldn’t make the decision for them,” she said.

So then... everyone could have predicted this.

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor who championed the concealed-carry law as a state senator, called Davis’ position “absurd.”

“It’s a constitutional right,” Patterson said. “There is no such thing as local control of constitutional rights.” State law spells out places at which handguns are barred.

And this.

Abbott spokesman Matt Hirsch said, “Greg Abbott believes that Texans’ constitutional rights don’t stop at the city limits.”

I suggested she just stop talking about guns.  But noooo...

That’s fine as it goes, but local gun carry restrictions are the precise thing the most passionate parts of the open carry movement are mobilizing against. Increasingly agitated open carry protesters aren’t looking for the right to carry guns openly in some places, they want that right in all places—so what, exactly, is the political utility of this argument? Who is it supposed to win over, and at what cost to the small number of Democrats in Texas for whom gun control is a primary issue?

It's just getting embarrassing for Davis at this point.  Don't know what else can be said.

Update: It's valuable to take note that at a moment when her opponent is stepping in rolling through his own crap, she is too busy explaining something else to hit back.

Texas Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott made no apologies Monday for his statements comparing public corruption on the border to conditions in third-world countries. Instead, he accused critics of his border policy of having their “heads in the sand,” and said such corruption isn't unique to the border.

In his brief campaign stop at a warehousing business that facilitates cross border commerce and trade, Abbott said that corruption is a problem statewide.

“It doesn’t matter where you are in the state of Texas, public corruption does mimic third-world” practices, he said. 

Who would know any better than Greg Abbott about widespread corruption throughout the state of Texas, after all?  Who besides the attorney general of Texas would be responsible over the past twelve years for doing something about it, if it were truly a concern of his?  It's not like he was busy suing Barack Obama for the fortieth time, was it?

Yes, Davis had this over the weekend, and thanks to Abbott doubling down on the stupid, she has another shot she can take tomorrow, or maybe the next day (this is what I meant back here about the lack of rapid response).  But please, Senator: no more about guns.

John Coby has your comic relief.

Update II: And Socratic Gadfly has some direct advice for the incognito Green gubernatorial candidate, Brandon Parmer, who is squandering his own opportunity at this moment.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is still learning the rules of team figure skating as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff published interviews with US Senate candidates Mike Fjetland and Maxey Scherr.

Horwitz at Texpatriate expresses shock and anger over Wendy Davis' new positions on guns.

House Republican leadership finally announced last week that the chances for comprehensive immigration reform are "in serious jeopardy." But thanks to the great people at Houston Matters, Texas Leftist was able to discover that there was never a real chance to pass it in the first place. The only way it's going to happen is if Democrats take control the House and the Senate.

The news of the week was Wendy Davis coming out in favor of open carry, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs fears that might be a fatal error.

Eye On Williamson observes that Texans and their families that are purposefully being left without health care because of a cruel right wing ideology: Perry and the Texas GOP Left Me Out.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants everyone to know that Greg Abbott insulted the entire Rio Grande Valley. Way to reach out, Bucko!

Neil at All People Have Value said Wendy Davis announcing support for open carry of guns, as in the times of Wyatt Earp, recalls for us all yet again that the work of freedom is up to each of us and not politicians. All People Have Value is part of NeilAquino.com.

=======================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

The Feminist Justice League does the math on the declining abortion rate nationally and in Texas.

The TSTA blog laments that self-styled education reformers are often part of the problem.

BOR highlights another example of the Texas Medical Association endorsing candidates that work against their own stated interests.

Texas Redistricting examines the components of Texas' population growth.

Grits for Breakfast cheers a report showing that Texas led the nation in exonerations in 2013.

Molly Cox details how the Affordable Care Act would have saved her a lot of trouble and worry if it had been the law when she first got sick.

Texas Vox notes the Texas House interim charges to watch.

PTA mom Kim Burkett informs teachers they've received a wake up call.

Cody Pogue gives his perspective on Wendy Davis and open carry.

Rand Paul gives clue to Harris GOP, but they may not be listening

Politico first.

Sen. Rand Paul on Saturday predicted that Texas would turn blue within a decade if the Republican Party doesn’t become more inclusive.

“What I do believe is Texas is going to be a Democrat state within 10 years if we don’t change,” Paul (R-Ky.), who grew up in Texas, said at a dinner held by the Harris County GOP. “That means we evolve, it doesn’t mean we give up on what we believe in, but it means we have to be a welcoming party.”

Paul, who is heavily weighing a presidential bid, noted that his assessment was shared by the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. The Lone Star state, currently the largest Republican bastion in the country, is nearly 40 percent Hispanic — a demographic that has overwhelmingly supported Democrats in recent elections.

The senator, whose father was a longtime congressman from Texas, acknowledged that immigration reform is a “touchy” subject before offering his vision for people who want to come to the United States.

“We won’t all agree on it,” he said. “But I’ll tell you, what I will say and what I’ll continue to say, and it’s not an exact policy prescription … but if you want to work and you want a job and you want to be part of America, we’ll find a place for you.”

There was some quiet applause in the massive hotel ballroom, in which hundreds of Republicans — a mix of high-dollar donors, activists and state officials — were gathered. But Paul remarked that the response was “kind of tepid.”

There's all you need to know about how things are going for Jared Woodfill.  Scott Braddock's subhead: "Resistance to change bodes well for Woodfill's reelect"...

Against the backdrop of a fierce struggle for leadership of their party and a fundamental argument about which direction it should be led, the largest county GOP in America largely came together Saturday night in Houston for their annual Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner. By any measure, the fundraiser itself was a success. It was a sellout which drew about 800 of the party faithful and netted about $200,000 for the Harris County GOP, organizers said.

But, there were several key moments scattered throughout the evening that embodied the larger internal struggle the Republican Party is having nationally to retain relevance and locally to do likewise.

The longtime Party Chairman, Jared Woodfill, faces his most serious challenge to date because some key Republican power players in Houston now believe it is time for a change. Dick Weekley, John O’Neil, and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett are among those who have now donated about $133,000 to Woodfill’s challenger, Paul Simpson. This of course is much more money than is usually seen in a local party chairman’s race. At last check Woodfill had about $10,000 on hand. “They’re spending all this money against me,” Woodfill said. “What does that tell you? That I’m effective and I’m doing things they don’t like.” 

I can't wait for Big Jolly's take and his photos from the event last night.  His latest seems a little... well, unenthusiastic about both the incumbent and his challenger, Simpson.  Greg seems conflicted as well; he doesn't have anything lately but this post a month ago reveals a preference (Simpson), as do his more recent comments posted to Jolly's blog.  But this from the blog's Facebook page reveals some measure of not receiving Sen. Paul's message.

Out of town, there's Laura Ingraham from the Sunday Talking heads this very morning.

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham battled the rest of the Fox News Sunday panel over immigration, arguing that immigration reform and current enforcement of immigration laws were weakening the American workforce, even as her fellow panelists countered that reform would bolster the economy.

“I think what we’re seeing here is a split inside the Republican Party between two staunch conservatives,” host Chris Wallace said, going on to ply Ingraham with a Wall Street Journal editorial that called flinching on reform “de facto amnesty.”

“As far as I can tell, the Wall Street Journal is on the side of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama, Pat Leahy and La Raza,” Ingraham said. “I think they should put down their dogeared copy of Fountainhead and live in the real world…Do we care about American workers at all?”

“You’re the one who’s arguing the AFL-CIO argument,” Will said, noting that the “economic dynamism” aided by immigrants would help sustain the American workforce.

“So why have a border at all?” Ingraham said. “There is no will to enforce the border. There is no faith in this administration to do it. The Republican elites and the Democratic elites agree, and the people are revolting across this country.”

So Rand Paul is a Republican elitist, eh?

I'll keep watching these developments, and with plenty of popcorn on hand, but the Republican civil war just isn't claiming enough casualties fast enough to flip Texas in 2014, and that has nothing to do with Wendy Davis' identity crisis.  The path to 50%-plus-1 was almost too steep for her anyway, and that was before she started blasting shotgun holes in both running shoes.

There remain, however, good opportunities for a breakthrough elsewhere on the ballot.  Specifically in the lieutenant governor's race and the comptroller's contest, as Leticia Van de Putte ("Momma ain't happy") and Mike Collier ("accounting, not abortion") adeptly draw the proper distinctions between themselves and any one of the Republican reactionaries they are likely to  face in November.

That's how you run against the fruitcake conservatives, folks.

Update: More -- mostly skepticism -- from Booman and his commenters with regard to Texas turning blue any time soon. And Bay Area Houston and Juanita Jean pick at Woodfill's scabs.

Sunday Funnies

Curtains

So... I was wrong about Keystone XL being dead.  Charles Pierce, with some additional links I embedded beyond his:

The ducks are lining up in a very pretty row regarding our old friend, the Keystone XL pipeline, the proposed continent-spanning death funnel that would bring the world's dirtiest fossil fuel from the environmental hellscape of northern Alberta down through the richest farmlands on the planet all the way to refineries in Texas, and thence to the world. Ed Schultz is running the bullshi...er...ball on liberal MSNBC. Progressive champion Brian Schweizer is on board; what the hell, they're not going to take his land to build it. The State Department's cheesecloth "environmental" study is being treated as dispositive, not least by former Energy Secretary Ken Salazar, and AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka's on board as well, guaranteeing that the stupid stand-off within progressive politics between organized labor and the environmental movement will go on for another decade, because we all know how helpful that has been. And just for entertainment's sake, here's Glenn Kessler at the Washington Post being baffled by the jobs numbers, which all have been fake from the beginning because TransCanada, the company that wants to build the pipeline, cannot be trusted. And the State Department's numbers, as the National Resources Defense Council makes clear, are one big ball of fudge. You simply cannot make the case for this monstrosity on the basis of economic stimulus unless you count the strippers. Are we counting strippers?

Yes, exotic dancer jobs should be counted in the economic impact study.

I think the deal has gone down. Some late Friday afternoon, the president and John Kerry are going to stick their heads out the window and whisper, "We gonna build this sucker," and then blow town. This is what will happen next. There will be massive civil disobedience all along the length of the pipeline. It will get built. TransCanada, as is its historic pattern, will then neglect to maintain it and it will leak, badly. The environmental damage will be massive and lasting. All over western Canada, which has stood firm against running this creature through its territories, people will chuckle wisely at what suckers we all were. And important pundits -- and fact checkers -- will tell us nobody could have predicted this.

It'll happen like Pierce says, probably about a year from now, once 2014's election is in the books, irrespective of whether the US Senate flips or a Democrat gets elected to something statewide in Texas.  But I'll let David Nangle, the top FB commenter to Pierce's article, finish.

... and we will pay dearly in tax money for an inadequate cleanup that makes the perpetrators even wealthier, somehow. The perpetrators will pay less in taxes from their profits than I will from my job. Obama will be blamed (correctly), and socialism will be blamed (insanely.) Liberals will be blamed. The victims all along the pipeline will fiercely vote Republican in response. Cancer rates will soar along the path of death. Firebrands will stand very, very far away from each disaster and proclaim that government regulations caused the mess. Freedom will be mentioned. Rights will be mentioned. Solar power will be declared more dangerous, as will wind power. None of this is avoidable.

Don't blame me; I voted for Jill Stein.

Hey Wendy: you're not supposed to run to the right until after the primary

Another poorly-advised headscratcher from Wendy Davis. TexTrib, because they wrote the best headline.

State Sen. Wendy Davis has taken plenty of shots from conservatives for proposing new gun restrictions, but on Thursday she faced blowback from liberals and fellow Democrats over gun rights.

Sparking the fallout: Davis’ embrace of so-called open-carry laws, which would allow Texans to pack pistols on their hips. Under current law, people licensed to carry handguns must keep them concealed.

Not even Leticia Van de Putte and Gilberto Hinojosa are standing with Wendy on this one.

While the position essentially mirrors the stance on open carry taken by her likely Republican opponent, Attorney General Greg Abbott, it puts at her odds with statements from her own Texas Democratic Party and her fellow senator, Leticia Van De Putte of San Antonio, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.

Van De Putte looked flummoxed Thursday morning in a Texas Tribune interview when asked about the revelation — reported overnight by The Associated Press — that Davis wanted to allow Texans to carry firearms in public.

“The discussions that I have had with the law enforcement back home, they think that open carry does not make their job any easier, and I’m with them,” Van De Putte said. “This is one where Wendy and I are on a different page.”

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa also said he did not support open carry, but noted that many Democrats in Texas are members of the National Rifle Association and have been strong supporters of expanding gun rights here.

“We’re not in favor of it,” he said. “The position that we’re taking at the Democratic Party today, we don’t think that promotes the safe use of weapons in Texas." Hinojosa said Davis could lose support from some gun control advocates, but he predicted liberals would keep up their “intensity” for her campaign because they’re more concerned with bread-and-butter issues such as education and health care.

Probably the worst disfavor she did herself is that she simultaneously deflated her base while aggravating the conservatives and gun nuts who refuse to believe her.  Just read some of the comments here.

Privately, though, some of Davis’ top supporters said they were caught off guard and disappointed by her embrace of a position that has in the past sparked divisions even among traditional supporters of strong or expanded gun rights.

And it seemed doubtful that Davis would attract much support from pro-gun groups.

There's a lot of people outside Texas who were ready to write checks that aren't going to do so now.  They don't understand the culture of the Lone Star State, and certainly not the subculture of guns and Texas.  More importantly, they don't want to.

Sidebar: I own a few guns -- a .22 rifle my father bought me at the GI Surplus in Beaumont when I was 12, a 20 gauge shotgun I bought from a friend in high school, a Ruger .38 caliber revolver that I traded another high school friend a broken-down motorcycle for, and a 9mm Glock I bought at a Pasadena gun show about 8-10 years ago.  (I was judging the Labor Day BBQ contest with the AFL-CIO and the gun show was going on simultaneously.  So I cruised on in and looked around with some guys, and whoops there it was.  How often are you going to see that, after all?  At core, I'm just East Texas white trash.)

See, Wendy Davis grew up fairly poor, and lived in a trailer park for awhile; I'm sure she knows something about guns.  So this bit about open carry doesn't come as so much of a shock or surprise to me.

But it's a dealbreaker for lots and lots of Democrats inside and outside Texas, many of whom are to the right of me otherwise politically.  For my part, I would like to be a more idealistic peace-loving Green, but I just can't fully commit. (It's sort of like being a conflicted carnivore.)  You can't win any revolutions without some firearms, and muskets and balls are a little out of style.

I just don't think Thomas Jefferson was joking around when he pushed it up to the Second Amendment.

Yet... I favor gun legislation of almost all kinds, especially on the assault weapon-variety.  I do NOT have a CHL because I believe that law enforcement -- even the lousiest of Texas cops, HPD -- should be the only people licensed to carry, concealed or unconcealed.  I am confident that is enough to keep me safe in public places.  I am most certainly not in favor of weapons being brandished, or strapped, or hidden in boots like Jerry Patterson.

In your home, under lock and key. At the range, or in the field.  All individuals handling them properly safety-trained (with continuing education courses for all, including children).  So hopefully that clarifies my position on open carry; absolutely not.  I'm not interested in living in the American version of Somalia, or Afghanistan, or Iraq, in spite the TXGOP's headlong rush to get us there.

I realize this makes me a confounding dichotomy among most every single progressive and conservative.  Too bad for them; gun-totin' liberals are here, we've always been here, get used to it.  But back to Wendy Davis.

I consider this to be the most colossal fuckup to date by the Davis campaign.  It suggests that someone outside Texas -- with no understanding of the previously-referenced Texas culture -- advised her poorly.  But even if that was the case, she should not have taken that advice.  At the very least, she should have exercised her political sixth sense and deferred this disclosure -- especially if it represents her beliefs and not some political calculation -- to after the primary election.  This rationale is almost precisely why she has been so hard to pin down specifically about gay marriage, and also why Greg Abbott has not outlined any specific policy proposals ... except for a border wall with armed guards and a moat and alligators and boiling oil.

He's not going after any Democratic primary crossover voters with that.

I'm pretty sure that everybody understands that Davis, contrary to the perpetual Republican whining, is no liberal.  She has voted Republican in the past, she is in law practice with a former GOP state legislator chief of staff of Rick Perry's, that practice does a lot of corporate work, she's advocated for safe water for the frackers, etc.  Even most Democrats understand that this is, sadly, the only kind of Democrat that stands a chance of getting elected in Texas.  Until non-voters who lean Democratic start showing up to vote, the Republicans aren't going to moderate themselves.  Once some Democrats get elected, then you focus on getting more.  Once you have more, you focus on better Democrats.

Texas Democrats have spent a couple of decades just trying to get one elected, without success, as everybody knows.  James Moore summarizes the brutal truth for Sen. Davis.

She's lost my vote with this Open Carry crap. I believe in the Second Amendment and have never felt the conceal carry legislation was as dangerous as portrayed. People have a right to guns. People also have a right to not get shot by guns. We even have what seems a moral right to go into a public place and not have to wonder if the guy wearing the .45 in his holster and swilling beer is not going to get pissed about something inane and clear his leather and start firing. A person entering a room wearing a holstered gun in open view completely changes the entire dynamics of that room without any real purpose.

I can't vote for Greg Abbott. And this makes it impossible for me to vote for Wendy Davis. I know politics is all about compromise. I've been around a bit. I know we sometimes have to settle for not getting everything we want in a candidate. But there are some things I refuse to accept in a potential leader. Pandering to the right to support Open Carry Laws fits in that category.

I'm sitting out this Texas gubernatorial election. 

No reason to do that, James.  There's plenty of other candidates in the race for governor besides the Democrat or the Republican.  Your vote won't be wasted; undervoting at the top of the ballot is for suckers.

Moore isn't alone.  Davis is leaking base Democrats like John Coby, for example.  Neil Aquino wasn't ever one of those, but has some good advice for those who wish to pursue a course outside the box.  And Socratic Gadfly has been a harsher critic of the senator's starboard tack on other topics for some time now.

Davis should be talking about anything else but guns -- or fundraising, or minor discrepancies in her life story, or other hot-button social issues that Greg Abbott picks -- going forward.  There's plenty of topics that need elaboration: she needs to focus even more on education, the rights of women and minorities (actual conservative crossover appeals), and an economy where all Texans can lift themselves up, not just the greediest and the wealthiest.

But she may be out of chances to do that now.

This might represent the moment in the 2014 gubernatorial campaign that we look back on in November and observe that all hope was lost for Wendy Davis.  It might also represent a pivotal moment for Texas Greens, if they can step up and deliver the proper contrast to a corporate, conservative Democratic party in Texas that is just too Republican-lite for many Texans.  But they might begin by getting their candidate a website, or a Facebook page, or even an image of his visage online.

We'll just have to watch and see what happens.

Update: McBlogger, succinct. And Juanita Jean, straight up no chaser.

It is mid February.  If this campaign doesn’t get back on track soon, it’s over.  We’ve sacrificed another Democrat to a nonexistent “persuadable Republican,” when all we had to do is excite the base in urban areas and South Texas.

I feel sure her campaign is telling her, “What’s your base going to do?  Vote for Abbott?   They won’t do that because he’s worse for them than you are.”   No, they won’t vote for Abbott.  They just won’t vote and that is the worst thing you can do to Texas.

More Texas Republican one-upsmanship

-- Chris Christie will be in the Metroplex today, raising money for the Republican Governors Association.  And neither Rick Perry nor Greg Abbott is going to meet him while he's in town.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) will not be at Christie's events in Dallas and Fort Worth. A spokesman for Perry told the Dallas Morning News Perry was "pleased" Christie would be visiting Texas.

"Governors come to our state regularly for a variety of reasons and we’re pleased to have them here," the spokesman said.

Greg Abbott, the likely Republican nominee in Texas' gubernatorial race this year also will not be at Christie's event. A spokesman for Abbott told the Dallas Morning News he would be in Houston for an appearance on immigration.

There was a third Republican who wasn't going to be able to meet Christie also, but nobody can remember who it is.  Oops.

-- Abbott does have his plate full, to be sure.  In a remarkable gaffe earlier this week, he revealed that South Texas is like a whole other country... a third-world one.  From my inbox:

Speaking from Dallas on Tuesday, February 4, Abbott also singled out the elected leadership and people of the Texas border region and neighboring Mexico, which is the largest trading partner with Texas, as being dishonest.

“This creeping corruption resembles third-world county practices that erode the social fabric of our communities,” Abbott said.

State Rep. Terry Canales of Edinburg took exception.

“What kind of Texas leader tells the whole world that the most important state in America has “Third-World” conditions, which sends the extremely damaging message that Texans are uneducated, unskilled, controlled by drug lords and other thugs, and served by incompetent local and county governments?” Canales asked. “It shows how much contempt that Greg Abbott has for millions of his fellow citizens. With so-called friends like Greg Abbott, who needs enemies?”

I don't think even Abbott's Latina wife is going to be able to help him out with this. That mistake is going to cost him another couple of million bucks in Spanish-language media, and Aaron Peña will be sent back out on the road again.

-- Not to be outdone, Congresscritters Pete Sessions and Joe Barton stepped up and tried to take the heat off Abbott with malaprops of their own.

Sessions:

Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, called long-term unemployment insurance “immoral” on Tuesday.

“I believe it is immoral for this country to have, as a policy, extending long-term unemployment [insurance] to people rather than us working on the creation of jobs,” he said on the House floor. “[People must] be able to have a job, to learn to take care of themselves, to be able to meet their needs, to be able to become engaged in their community and have self-respect enough to know that jobs are important.”

Sessions’ statements were first reported by the Huffington Post on Tuesday. As Rules Committee chairman, he wields significant influence in crafting the House’s agenda. In January, the Senate failed to pass a Democratic-sponsored bill that would extend federal benefits for more than 1.3 million Americans who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks.

Barton:

At a question-and-answer session with reporters, Representative Joe Barton said Republicans should push for deficit reduction in exchange for a debt-limit increase.

Barton, a Texas Republican who has been in Congress since 1985, said his party should push for curbs in spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security.

"A clean debt ceiling, I think, is capitulation," Barton said at "Conversation with Conservatives," a monthly forum moderated by the Heritage Foundation.

No UI, no SS.  Just go live under a bridge and starve while we find more tax cuts for oil companies, so that they can eventually create some jobs for you poor slobs in steerage class.  And if you get sick, then die quickly and reduce the surplus population.

If I hadn't linked it, you'd think I was making it up.  You would say to yourself: 'nobody could possibly be this cold-blooded'.

-- Finally, comprehensive immigration reform is dead in the US House until after the election.

Conservative Republicans on Wednesday ruled out any immigration legislation in the House this year, insisting that the GOP should wait until next year when the party might also control the Senate.

[...]

But several of the conservatives were adamant that the House should do nothing on the issue this year, a midterm election year when the GOP is angling to gain six seats in the Senate and seize majority control. Democrats currently have a 55-45 advantage but are defending more seats, including ones in Republican-leaning states.

"I think it's a mistake for us to have an internal battle in the Republican Party this year about immigration reform," Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, told reporters at a gathering of conservatives. "I think when we take back the Senate in 2014 one of the first things we should do next year after we do certain economic issues, I think we should address the immigration issue."

Labrador's comments were noteworthy as he was one of eight House members working on bipartisan immigration legislation last year. He later abandoned the negotiations.

Wayne has more on the fecklessness of the GOP, and the spinelessness of the Democrats to effectively run on the issue.  Latino voters: it's all on you to change this if you don't like it.  As Howard Dean said not so long ago: you have the power.  Get your block, your neighborhood, your church, and your community registered to vote in November.  And make sure you have proper ID.

Update: Almost forgot to mention that the True the Vote pasty gangsters are once again vindicated; there is indeed voter fraud in Texas.  Unfortunately it's Harris County Republicans doing the defrauding.

Four political campaign workers have been indicted by a Harris County Grand Jury in the wake of allegations of election fraud in a Harris County Justice of the Peace race, first reported by Local 2 News in January.

The suspects -- two men and two women -- were paid to gather signatures to place Republican candidate Leonila Olivares Salazar's name on the ballot in the Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2, Place 2 race.

Salazar is fighting to stay on the ballot. She says the four workers were hired by her campaign consultant, Collonnade Marketing, owned by long-time politico Fred Blanton.

[...]

The indictments, handed down Monday, come about two weeks after Salazar’s Democratic opponent, incumbent Judge George Risner, sued to have her name withdrawn from the ballot.

As first reported by Local 2, Risner obtained signed statements from three of the suspects admitting they did not actually obtain the signatures listed on the petitions.

Risner said his investigation shows that 380 of 447 signatures submitted to put Salazar's name on the ballot were forged.

The indictments name campaign workers 57-year-old Ralph Basil Garcia, 53-year-old Annette Irigoyen, 28-year-old Iris Irgoyen and 55-year-old David Basurto. All face felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and tampering with a governmental record.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Only two things today

If your time is short -- like mine -- and you only have time to read one or two pieces about Texas politics today, then click on these from Paul Burka and Charles Kuffner.

The evolution of the Republican primary into a race to the far right is a sad moment in Texas politics. There is nothing left of the party of George W. Bush, or even the party of Rick Perry. The press has done little to hold up its side of the equation; they can't get away from the Wendy Davis saga. We should be talking about how Republicans have allowed creationism to creep into the schools, about the myopia of the media when it comes to setting the agenda for a political race, about the failure of the business community to shoulder its share of responsibility for educating Texans about the things our citizens need: better schools, better roads, better health care.

There's only three more paragraphs there.  Burka isn't all that accurate all that often any more, but he's dead solid perfect there.  And so is Charles.  All the grafs ahead of this last one are important.

Here’s where Mark Jones’ idea really makes no sense. Pretty much every county where Democrats are strong features important primaries. We already know about Harris County, where the need to nominate Kim Ogg outweighs Jones’ suggestion all by itself. Travis County is electing a County Judge, as is El Paso County, which also features three hot legislative races. Bexar County has races for County Judge, County Clerk, District Attorney, District Clerk, and a slew of District Court judges. Dallas County has a power struggle between current DA Craig Watkins and Party Chair Darlene Ewing, with the former running his own slate of candidates, including one against Ewing. Tarrant County will be key to Rep. Mark Veasey’s re-election. And those are just the big counties.

The media and the consultants and the anal-ysts like Jones have dictated the terms of this election so far, and not just with the roasting of Wendy Davis for the snarling consumption by the fringe right hogs in this state.

The only way that will ever change is if enough people refuse to buy what they're peddling, and upend the conventional 'wisdom' with their direct action at the polling place.  If that does not happen, then Texans will keep getting what they have gotten for the past 20 years.  And will excruciatingly deserve what they will surely get in the years to come.

This is your final warning.

Reconnoitering

But still no time for anything but an assembly.

-- Trey's rant about the Lone Star media was... okay.  I don't understand how anybody can call me vulgar after that, but all of McB's drunken-sailor-ishness doesn't detract (much) from his point: that the people covering politics in Texas day to day are simply a weak bunch, and especially from a historical perspective.  That isn't going to change, and if the Davis campaign is looking for a break... that ain't happening either.

The Texas Tribune apparently represents the best that it's going to get, and they are consumed with the horse-race aspect while at the same time advancing the usual false equivalencies that are by now just lazy and sloppy.  Click here, and then compare the headline to what you read in the address bar (the former headline, I presume).  And Charles Kuffner is absolutely correct: the next time you see "Mark Jones" in a story on Texas politics, just stop reading.

But the bottom line for Wendy Davis remains the same: her campaign is going to have to make something happen and stop reacting to what's happening.

-- I thought that Gadfly one-upped me with this.

Greg Abbott wouldn't want the political correctness police to treat his candidacy with kid gloves related to his physical handicap limitations, now would he?

We know that a good conservative like Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott would never, ever succumb to political correctness, now, would he?

Of course not. A rugged individualist hombre who can shoot thousand upon thousands of clay pigeons with a powerful 12-gauge loaded with double-aught buckshot a light, likely multi-round chambered 20-gauge shotgun with barely-more-than-blanks skeet loads surely doesn't need the support of librul buzz words, coded phrases and mollycoddling language, does he?

Or does he?

"Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus", indeed.  I remember singing that in church when I was a kid.

I wonder how Greg Abbott feels when he sings it.  To have to live with the fact that he can't, I mean.  Does that foster shame, or embarrassment, or some kind of putrid self-hatred?  Can you get counseling to deal with it?  It's probably covered by Obamacare, but not Medicaid, even under the terms of expansion that General AbouttheSame has no more intention of accepting than Governor Goodhair.

Neither of them should ever have to worry about being on Medicaid, after all.

-- Some Republicans have started an anti-Nathan Hecht campaign.  There's a Twitter account as well.  If you want something a little more serious -- and not seriously stupid all the time -- with your Texas Supreme Court campaign soup, then head on over and read John Coppedge at QR.  Excerpt complete with Harvey Kronberg's typical oddball emphasis.

There are three Texas Supreme Court incumbents facing challenges in the Republican Primary this election cycle- Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, Justice Jeff Brown and Justice Phil Johnson.

It is no secret that Houston mega-lawyer Mark Lanier is not a fan of the current court. What is noteworthy is that a look at the most recent Texas Ethics Commission reports of the three challengers to Hecht, Brown and Johnson shows that they have collected $61,100 in total. And 98% of that came from members of the Lanier firm. (Mark Lanier and 10 lawyers in his firm have contributed $60,000). He and his firm seem to be leading the charge. It remains to be seen if others will follow.

If the personal injury bar follows Lanier's lead this cycle, they will contribute handsomely to the campaigns of the three challengers. But so far, they are laying behind the log. And notably some are supporting the incumbents. In past campaigns, the trial lawyer contributions came primarily after the "30 Day Report", thus shielding them from public view until just a few days before the election. And the dollar amounts have been staggering.

More if you have a subscription.

-- Just so we're clear: the underling at MSNBC that got fired over a Tweet about the right-wing acting all indignant about a Super Bowl commercial (you know, the one Phil Griffin apologized to Reince Priebus for) just had the wrong Super Bowl commercial in mind.  You think Griffin will hire that person back?  Since they were correct about the right-wing reaction, that is?

Still way behind on events past and future.  I wanted to blog about all of the Keystone XL developments and #NoKXL rallies yesterday, and even about Louie Mueller Barbecue in town on Super Bowl Sunday (I went, it was great) and coming to Houston permanently soon, but there aren't enough hours in the day.  I'll get a round tuit eventually.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance still has a dozen or so Republican responses to the SOTU it needs to get through as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff takes a look at campaign finance reports for Harris County legislative and countywide candidates.

Horwitz at Texpatriate laments the loss of Algebra II as a high school graduation requirement.

In light of some of the more ridiculous back-and-forth between Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott and their campaigns -- not to mention James O'Keefe and his clandestine, altered video -- PDiddie at Brains and Eggs asks: "Is it insensitive to say that Abbott is 'running' for governor?"

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants you to scream in horror over the Republican war on women. All Republican candidates for lieutenant governor are FOR keeping a brain dead woman with a severely abnormal fetus on life support against her family's wishes.

McBlogger has some advice for the Wendy Davis campaign, the press, and all the Democratic activists who are eager for a win this year.

Neil at All People Have Value wrote about the slate of Green Party candidates running in Texas in 2014. All People Have Value is part of NeilAquino.com.

======================
And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Nonsequiteuse scoffs at the notion that Texas may turn into California.

Texas Redistricting updates on the proposed fixes to the Voting Rights Act and other election law news.

John Coby names Randy Weber the frontrunner to replace Steve Stockman as the craziest Congressman from Southeast Texas.

Texas Clean Air Matters reports on the longrunning legal battle between Texas and the EPA over clean air regulations.

The Lunch Tray alerts us to potential changes to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

Randy Bear examines the reasoning behind various LGBT groups' non-endorsement of Wendy Davis in the Democratic primary for Governor.

Greg Wythe has the data to analyze the actual impact of Texas' voter ID law in Harris County.

BOR asks why the Texas Medical Association supports candidates who oppose their own stated positions, and gets a non-responsive answer from them.

No shortage of headlines for Texas nutbars

-- Steve Stockman appears to have blacked out about something that happened in his life, because he has found an attorney to sue John Cornyn for lying about his (Stockman's, not Cornyn's) nights spent in jail.  When he (Stockman, not Cornyn) confessed to the media to being in jail. 

Rep. Steve Stockman accused a group that supports Sen. John Cornyn of lying about him, by asserting that he had been “jailed more than once” and was “charged with a felony.”

That is strange, because Stockman has admitted to these facts, several times.

“I may have been in jail a couple of times, two or three times,” he told this newspaper.

As for the felony charge, that stemmed from the time his girlfriend hid three Valium tablets in his underpants when he was reporting for a weekend in jail. “When they found that they charged me with a felony,” he told the Houston Chronicle.

Those interviews were back in 1995, during Stockman’s first two-year stint in Congress.

On Friday, Stockman, R-Clear Lake, announced that he has filed a libel lawsuit in Houston against Texans for a Conservative Majority, a political action committee funded and run by Cornyn supporters. Its website, ShadyStockman,com, includes a line from a Jan. 15, 2013, Washington Post story: “He has been jailed more than once, and was charge with a felony after one such incident when authorities found Valium in his pants.”

“The Cornyn supporters have committed libel per se against me, falsely and maliciously accusing me of a felony,” Stockman said in a statement issued by a campaign aide. “Of course, I have never been charged with or committed any such act, and these anonymous Cornyn supporters know it.”

There's more, naturally.

-- Kesha Rogers went up to the Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M and made some news.  From the Bryan-College Station Eagle...

The woman who interrupted a moderated discussion Wednesday evening between two national leaders was Kesha Rogers, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's seat.

Rogers caused a stir and briefly derailed a discussion between Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, co-chairs on the committee to solve the nation's debt crisis in 2010, when she began yelling from the back of the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center.

The interruption came nearly an hour into the event, when Simpson was talking to moderator Andrew Card, George W. Bush's chief of staff, about the distrust in Washington between Democrats and Republicans. The three had been discussing contributors to the national debt, such as health care and Social Security, and what would need to be cut and changed to reverse the trend.

Simpson called trust the coin of the realm, but said it had been severely tarnished, when Rogers stood up.

"No one is going to trust you guys, because you are sacrificial leaders and they're sacrificing the population," Rogers yelled. "What they're doing right now, this policy was tried at Nuremberg."

Only an hour in, and she's already gone Godwin.

Rogers, a Democrat who is running for U.S. Senate on a platform to impeach President Barack Obama and fund NASA, went on to say that Simpson and Bowles had made a mockery of the lives of Americans, which drew boos from the crowd. Several people attempted to get her to stop yelling, but she said, "They haven't answered my question." Card then acknowledged her from the stage and asked her what her question was.

"My question is why are you pushing policies that are killing people?" she asked. "Policies that Dr. Leo Alexander warned about that were tried at Nuremberg? Why are we bailing out Wall Street and you say ..."

At this point, another attendee from the audience stood up and called her a "nutcase," pointing out that President George H.W. Bush and his wife were in the room, to which she turned around and said, "I don't care."

Card attempted to get the discussion back on track when Rogers began yelling about the funds that were used to bail out Wall Street.

"Why can we not afford Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid? Why do we have to put cost effective measures on human life?" she yelled. "Why do we have to look at the office of budget management to determine who gets to live and who dies?"

Rogers left on her own several minutes later.

You know, Rogers has some good points inside that rant, but as per her usual it's in that stopped-clock-twice-a-day fashion.

She issued a press release Thursday explaining her reference to Alexander, a psychiatrist and neurologist who served as an aide to the chief counsel at the Nuremberg war crime trials. He wrote the Nuremberg Code about moral, ethical and legal guidelines after studying the actions of Nazi troops and concentration camp guards.

Rogers compared cuts to social programs, which were included in Simpson and Bowles' 2010 proposal to reduce the debt, to Alexander's warnings about physicians in Germany devaluing life.

I'm all in favor of the Simpson/Bowles Catfood Commission going off the rails, but it really needs to include Kesha lying down in front of the train.  Three birds with one stone, as it were.

-- And what would a nutbar edition be without some tasty Ted Cruz tapas?

"Anyone pushing an amnesty bill right now should go ahead and put a 'Harry Reid for Majority Leader' bumper sticker on their car, because that will be the likely effect if Republicans refuse to listen to the American people and foolishly change the subject from Obamacare to amnesty," he said.

The Texas senator added that a bill that includes "amnesty" could keep conservative voters away from the polls.

You just gotta love it.

"Republicans are poised for an historic election this fall -- a conservative tidal wave much like 2010. The biggest thing we could do to mess that up would be if the House passed an amnesty bill -- or any bill perceived as an amnesty bill -- that demoralized voters going into November," he said. "Amnesty will ensure they stay home."

P.T. Barnum ain't got nothing on "Norovirus" Cruz.

Sunday Super Bowl Funnies