Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Kay Bailey Watch

Three MSM political bloggers weighed on KBH's radio appearance today with three distinctly different observations. First, Anna Batheja at the Star-Telegram's PoliTex (emphasis is mine):

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison suggested on conservative radio host Mark Davis' show this morning that she might put off her resignation from the US Senate once again.

"I am going to leave," Hutchison told Davis on WBAP/820 AM. "I think it’s important that I do everything I can when there are such huge issues and I haven’t been able to set that deadline which I know is something a lot of people are looking at to determine what other possibilities there might be."

Davis asked if she might stay in her seat until the end of the year.

"I can’t say anything right now because I don’t know," Hutchison said. "Every day in Washington, some new bad thing is coming up."

Davis pushed further, asking if she might stay in the Senate through next year's March primary.

"Well, a lot of people are suggesting that," Hutchison said. "That’s not what I want to do. That’s not what I intend to do but... right now I want to just see what comes next. ..."

Hutchison announced in July, also on Davis' show, that she would step down from her Senate seat sometime in October or November in order to devote herself to her campaign for governor.


Todd Gilliam at the DMN's Trail Blazers mocked out Michael Burgess' re-endorsement:

The Hutchison for governor campaign is touting an endorsement today from U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville. Burgess joined the senator this morning on the Mark Davis show on WBAP to "announce" his support. Hmmm. Seems like I read that somewhere a couple weeks ago.

Oh yeah, here is it.


Lastly, RG Ratcliffe at the Chron's Texas Politics notes the senator's jabs at the governor, calling him a former Democrat, that he has "increased taxes", and that he is "so political and trying to protect his political base that he's not doing what's necessary to lower taxes, have good policies, to address the what's good for Texas in 20 years and not just tomorrow".

My reaction to these reactions is 1) so what -- KBH is saying one thing and doing another, again; 2) so what --Burgess is the pretty much the least freaky of Texas Republicans in Congress, he brings very little to the table she needs; and 3) ho hum -- Kay Bailey is shaving off a deli-thin slice of red meat and having one of her purse boys throw it to Rick Perry's 'political base'.

The only news here is her continuing lack of commitment to a deadline for withdrawal. At this point that probably means a special Senate election butting up against the March primary -- not what the governor wants, which is exactly why she's stalling.

And so we wait.

Update: Even the conservo-blogs express perplexity.

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