Mark Jones tries to take down Wendy Davis

And fails. As usual.

Since her filibuster on June 25, activists, politicians and pundits within and outside of Texas have been discussing a possible 2014 gubernatorial bid by state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth. However, beyond her pivotal role in temporarily derailing a strict omnibus anti-abortion bill and her compelling life story, most Texans, let alone most Americans, know little about Davis. An analysis of her voting record on the Senate floor helps partially fill this informational lacuna, highlighting that during her tenure Davis has been one of the Texas Senate’s most liberal members.

Now you can click over and read Jones' data and interpretations for yourself, but you don't have to possess a doctorate to recognize political quackery disguised as political science. Just use Dr. Jones' own figures.

Jones asserts Wendy Davis is the 4th most liberal senator, and then charts a voting record that is all but identical to six of her colleagues. His words: "Her ideological position is statistically indistinguishable from that of the other six Democratic senators."

So if that's true, what weight is given data that makes her fourth most liberal and not one of the 6 others? By this same measurement, Jane Nelson -- yeah, that Jane Nelson -- is the 4th most conservative state senator, more so than Troy Fraser, Tommy Williams, Glenn Hegar, and Bob Estes. And every Republican in Texas is laughing out loud right now. Update II: In preparing my personal legislative scorecard at the Texas Tribune, Nelson was the Republican whose votes I agreed with the most often (a stunning 86%).

And if you have a bias hiding somewhere in the numbers that's so obvious that I can see it.... why are you even trying to hide it?

This is called cherry-picking... and then making Robitussin with the cherries instead of wine. Jones has hacked up a "too-librul" furball and needed some cough suppressant.

To be clear, I have excoriated Dr. Jones and his opinions more frequently in this space than even I had thought. Here's what I wrote two years ago when he suggested that the defeat of sanctuary cities bills in that legislative session was a "strategic victory" for Rick Perry. Jones was eventually compelled to back up and rewrite on that, and I kicked him while he was down. In searching for those I found about ten more posts eviscerating the good doctor. And when I say 'eviscerate', I mean his lower GI tract was removed and replaced with PVC pipe.

I stopped reading his dreck a while back because the sniffs I heard at the end of every sentence were just too obnoxious to endure, but I gave him another chance recently when he appeared on teevee with Khambrel Marshall and David Big Jolly Jennings. I couldn't make it to the end of the broadcast without calling my dentist to schedule a gum-scraping. I figured that would be less painful.

I am not joking; compared to Mark Jones, Marc Campos has searing political insights -- and real keen baseball knowledge, too.

Anyway, Jones buried the lede.

Paul Burka, Patricia Kilday Hart, Ross Ramsey and others have identified multiple hurdles Davis would face were she to run for governor in 2014. To those I would add one more: Davis would be competing for statewide office in what is still a very red state with the legislative voting record of a relatively liberal Texas Democrat.

Well knock me over with a feather: Texas is as red as a baboon's ass in heat and hasn't elected a statewide Democrat in a generation. And Wendy Davis is a Democrat. You don't think the past might be prologue, do you? Let's gather some data and plot a graph.

(This baloney makes almost as much sense as the TexTrib's own polls. Yeah, I've blogged about those too until I'm tired of doing so. They're so mad at me they don't link over here any more.)

Dr. Jones should have simply saved himself the trouble and just gone all Ronald Reagan "librul-librul-librul" on Sen. Davis. He could have at least updated Reagan's smear with some of Rush Limbaugh's or Ann Coulter's spew; they've both made fortunes off that 'Liberals-R-e-VILL!' schtick. But I suppose he thinks what he's doing isn't the same thing.

Actually, it is. Calling someone the "most liberal senator" was the very first argument made against both John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008, and Jones knows it's a dog whistle only right ears can hear. But he had to go and ruin his credibility again. 

I have a hard time believing that Rice University cannot do better than this in the poly-sci department, and that's even if they wanted someone who was the academic equivalent of Karl Rove or Frank Luntz. Mark Jones must be tenured harder than the mortar between the bricks under the ivy. I'm guessing that without something that meets the definition of moral turpitude, they're stuck with him out there for another twenty-five years or so.

And I doubt that remains a long enough time for him to see any librul get elected governor of Texas.

Update: Greg has a similar opinion of Dr. Jones (it's more courteous than mine, but still pretty harsh on his figures and his conclusions).

As dumb as bean dip

That's what Juanita said on Facebook about Jodie Laubenberg, the House sponsor of the Texas abortion restrictions legislation almost ready to be sent to the Texas Senate. More about Representative "Cleaned Out" has been previously written here and here, and Kuffner has the morning's best update on where things stand for the moment.

Just another bit of hypocrisy about Laubenberg that needs wider distribution.

Texas State Rep. Jodie Laubenberg (R), the author of the radically anti-abortion bill making its way through the Texas Legislature this week, argued for hours on Tuesday that lawmakers should support her bill because of its strong protections for a person's "pre-born life."

The bill, HB 2, responds to "the definite death to the 70,000-plus babies who have been aborted in this state," Laubenberg said during remarks on the House floor. "HB 2 focuses on both the child and the woman."

But back in 2007, she made the case against treating the unborn as people -- at least, when it comes to qualifying for health care services.

Worth repeating for emphasis: they're pre-born babies when we want to score an emotional political point, and they are not if we have to pay for their health care. Pre-born, born, or in any other condition (that defies explanation or understanding).

During a House debate on an appropriations bill that year, Laubenberg, a staunch conservative, put forward an amendment that would require expectant mothers to wait three months before they could begin receiving prenatal and perinatal care under the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, a program that helps cover uninsured children in low-income families.

Laubenberg's amendment drew criticism from Democratic Rep. Rafael Anchia, who said the change would mean that more than 95,000 children, in utero, would be kicked out of the CHIP program. As the two sparred over whether that was true -- Anchia cited CHIP data from hospitals, Laubenberg alleged it was "misinformation" -- Anchia asked if Laubenberg recognized those in-utero babies as people.

"You do know, don't you, that these are U.S. citizens?" Anchia asked.

"But they're not born yet," Laubenberg said.

Laubenberg's response drew a look of shock from Democratic Rep. Dawnna Dukes, who could be seen standing next to Anchia during the exchange. Anchia also appeared to relish the moment as he pressed Laubenberg that she was now arguing against treating a fetus as a person. "That's the whole point, see?" Anchia said. "You have an anti-life amendment."

Laubenberg fired back that there is "no one more pro-life" in the House than her, and again said Anchia's data was wrong. Still, something he said must have rattled her because she pulled down her amendment.

"I will be back," Laubenberg said as she prepared to leave the podium. "But right now, out of consideration for the body, I will pull this amendment down."

Yep, there's video.

There just aren't appropriate words to better demonstrate all that Texas Republicans stand for -- and against -- than Rep. Laubenberg's own. What we are witnessing in our state legislature today, and over the next several days, is some of the most powerful dishonesty human beings are capable of.

I just hope people can remember it a year and a half from now.

What fighting back in Texas looks like

At the Senate committee hearings on the abortion restrictions legislation being jammed through the Legislature, a young woman's testimony -- and the response it drew from chair Jane Nelson as well as the four state troopers who dragged her away from the mic -- is today's gas on the fire that started burning two weeks ago.

That is Sarah Slamen, known on Twitter as @VictorianPrude, who also served as the campaign manager for Amy Price's Houston city council campaign in 2011. You can read the text of her remarks here (scroll down about halfway to the bottom, until you see the YouTube similar to the above). After she was removed from the hearing room -- there's also video of that -- she was interviewed at Daily Kos.

She's barely a Democrat, much like me, to some degree because so many Democrats are simply willing to be well-behaved in the face of the authoritarian fascism that is being presented in the cramped conference rooms and marbled halls of the Capitol building. And the reaction that not-so-well-behaved women receive -- and their place in history -- should not be lost on anyone. Especially Democrats.

In yesterday's post about the people not named Wendy Davis who might be the 2014 Democratic nominee for governor of Texas, the qualities that they possess are so far removed from those that Sarah Slamen owns as to be alien to each other in comparison. Nobody (except for Wendy Davis) who might stand for statewide office in 2014 is half that brave, half that bold.

It's a shame Sarah is leaving Texas for New York, as we need lots more like her in Austin. And in Washington. And not just protesting and testifying, either.

The Bayou and Politics USA with more. And with Lawrence O'Donnell the following day to finish her testimony.

Update: It is valuable to observe that with the dearth of progressive populist candidates, conservative populist ones will attempt to fill the vacuum.

“Texans feel they aren’t being heard by political insiders who wield power,” (GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Pauken) said in a statement. “There’s a style of governance that has developed even within our own Republican party’s leadership where primary allegiance goes to those who write the big checks, and powerful insiders pick and choose what issues get taken care of in Austin.”

Hell, I just wish I could find some Democrats who could bring themselves to agree with me that having their message co-opted like this is an embarrassment.

Stand with Texas Women road show today (and also about taking stands)

Because sustaining the momentum that outrage over abortion restriction legislation provides is important.

More at the Facebook event page and Stace's place. Speakers confirmed at post time include Wendy Davis and Cecile Richards. We might get to see Sens. Leticia Van de Putte, Kirk Watson, some of the Houston contingent such as Rodney Ellis and Sylvia Garcia, and a few Texas House members prominent in the fight on their side of the Capitol, like Senfronia Thompson and Jessica Farrar (that is, if they aren't busy debating/voting on the bill).

Here I'll digress into a conversation on Facebook that began yesterday among Democratic activists about a 2014 gubernatorial campaign between Davis and Greg Abbott, and whether a race that includes a slogan such as "standing with Wendy" might be insensitive to Abbott.

I have been ridiculing the attorney general's ribald hypocrisy since at least 2006, when I helped the David Van Os campaign challenge him in the AG race that year. This is one of my favorite posts of all time, and it was written on the inauguration of the clean Republican sweep in January, 2007. I have lots and lots to blog about Abbott, and much of the source material is going to come from the archives here.

Let me just say that if there are Democrats shirking from a fight this early, then Wendy Davis might as well stay in the Senate. And if anyone find themselves in a quandary over a campaign slogan that alludes to bipedal mobility or lack thereof, then let's "Roll with Wendy" instead.

Update: Am I the only person that remembers the vicious slander leveled at Max Cleland by Saxby Chambliss? How about Tammy Duckworth? Republicans simply do not suffer from these minor league moral dilemmas.

It's hard for me to imagine anybody -- even a group of Texans as profoundly ignorant as the Tea Party -- conjuring up an ounce of sympathy for a craven opportunist like Greg Abbott, but one thing I have learned in my activist years is that anything is possible. I don't see enough votes being lost over this that cannot -- should not -- be easily replaced with the canvassing efforts Democrats have to make to win anyway.

They stand to lose many more votes if they keep looking and acting like a bunch of cringing milksops.

AMF

Socratic Gadfly has already said all that needs sayin', so I'll just look ahead to the future. Which is Governor Greg Abbott at about 1:4 odds.

Texas Democrats probably had a better chance of defeating Governor Suckseed, despite what the early polls indicate.

For Wendy Davis, it means she can’t run against her perfect foil. She can’t run against damaged goods and a governor that many Texans have grown weary of. If Davis makes a bid for the Governor’s Mansion, she’ll most likely have to face Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, currently sitting atop a campaign fortune of $18 million and counting. The silver lining, though, is that Abbott is every bit as right-wing, if not more so, than Rick Perry. And in recent polling, Davis actually performs better against Abbott than she does Perry. Abbott leads her 48-40 (still a big lead) vs. Perry’s 53-39 advantage.

Davis, should she choose to run, would have a hard row to hoe no matter who she might challenge. And then there's the matter of defending her seat in the Texas Senate, which if lost gives the Republicans a 2/3rds majority in that body (and likely with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick presiding over it).

Yes, that is all worse -- much worse -- than what is in place at the moment.

But Texas simply isn't changing fast enough to bring some big changes about in 2014. There might be a couple of lower-level statewide offices in closer play next year, but there are still no announced candidates that aren't Republicans.

Which means some wealthy fellow, probably Caucasian and conservative, gets to be the sacrificial lamb once more this cycle. Since Bill White probably doesn't want to get his butt beaten again, whose turn is it? I'm guessing businessman, maybe trial lawyer, devout Christian, similar sort of profile to what has been offered up in the past.

I'm pumped. How about you?

In related news, Katy Perry also announced that she would not run for governor of Texas.

I can't tell if those titties are strawberry ice cream or cherry-flavored whipped cream. Can you?

Standing with Texas Women Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance stands with Texas women as we bring you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff explains that while the Supreme Court may have neutered the Voting Rights Act, the legal battles over the redistricting maps are far from over.

Horwitz of Texpatriate rips Houston mayoral candidate Eric Dick a new one.

The GOP's national strategy for Obamacare is erode, impede, repeat. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs thinks that's bound to be more effective than introducing bills to repeal it once a month for the past several years.

Many of the major pro-migrant groups have been pushing the U.S. House to pass the Senate's immigration reform bill, but in case you haven't heard, there are some like DosCentavos who have been railing against the bill's "border surge." DC reports on the Valley member of Congress who resigned from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus because of it. Could it trip up the CHC as the debate continues?

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw gives us a long and passionate look at Texas women pushing back! Check out Texas GOP: Regulate Women's Reproductive Rights. But Don't Mess with Industry.

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

From The Desk explains to her (Republican) Congressman why charity cannot adequately replace a government program like SNAP.

Former Texan Marci Glass says she'll be post-feminist when the world is post-patriarchy.

Juanita mocks the anonymous fool that's whining about Sen. Wendy Davis' appearance.

Nonsequiteuse will keep making her voice heard in Austin until someone listens to it.

Texas Leftist warns against underestimating Wendy Davis.

Bay Area Houston had Rick Perry's press release announcing his future plans before anyone else did.

BOR suggests that SB2, the bill dealing with 17-year-old murder suspects, may be unconstitutional.

Eric Dick on Annise Parker's "tyranny"

Somebody get that man a tri-corner hat.

Two City Council candidates facing thousands of dollars in fines for violating the city's sign ordinance during their 2011 campaigns accused Mayor Annise Parker on Friday of targeting them for their conservative beliefs.

Eric Dick, a lawyer who fell short in his bid for an at-large seat two years ago and who is running for mayor this year, drew ample criticism during the 2011 race for blanketing the city with red signs bearing his last name in prominent white letters. He and Clyde Bryan, who challenged westside District G incumbent Oliver Pennington, used the backdrop of the July 4 weekend to, as Dick put it, "declare independence from Annise Parker and her tyranny."

It won't be long before we see Dick backers dressed as in colonial Williamsburg, waving Gadsden flags, and wearing multiple teabags hanging from the brim of their straw hats.

Dick was cited for 90 sign violations, and Bryan for 41. The cases are being tried one at a time. So far, Dick's have ended in a mistrial and a $100 fine; Bryan was found not guilty in one case and had several others dismissed.

Dick and Bryan cited Councilman C.O. Bradford's example as proof of their persecution. Bradford was hit with 22 sign violations in 2011, all of which were dismissed.

"(Parker) selectively chose the people that were going to get violations," Dick said. "(Bradford) received many violations, but he got a free pass. Why? Because he's a Democrat. The Republicans got stuck with it. She's using city money to attack people that oppose her views."

Uh oh, I smell a race card in somebody's hand.

Asked why Parker would dismiss Bradford's cases for political reasons when the two are not allies and Bradford has, in fact, endorsed Ben Hall, Parker's most prominent opponent, Dick said, "He's a Democrat. She's hoping she'll get the support of the black community."

Bradford couldn't help chuckling at that. "The whole idea that this administration gave Bradford preferential treatment?" he said. "Let me just put a big question mark behind that."

Let's simply not conflate Councilman Bradford with the mayor, and not only because he speaks of himself in the third person tense. Even Bradford understands that standing too close to MAP would screw up his chances to be the nominee of the Gene Locke/Ben Hall Caucus in 2015.

I expect this to end badly for Dick, in both the near term and the far one.

Scenic Houston board chair Claudia Williamson said her group understands the use of signs in campaigns, but the group also supports the city's sign ordinance.

"What sort of message does it send that you are asking the voters to support you for a position of leadership in our city, yet you are not adhering to a well-defined city ordinance nor taking the basic responsibility of cleaning up your mess?" she said.

Allow me to provide that answer: it says you're a dumb dick.

Texpate was on the scene and filed a report (somewhat more respectful than mine). And Kuffner piles on.

Update: If Eric Dick actually wanted to understand what tyranny really is, he could check in with poor women in Texas.

The Texas GOP’s jihad against family planning and Planned Parenthood creates unintended pregnancies and leaves poor women with no options. This creates generational poverty and a low-wage workforce with no time to consider how the petrol-funded theocracy of the Lone Star State is designed to make the rich richer and workers less safe and more dependent on the corporations that have indentured them.

That’s how you get 31% of the state with no opinion of Senator John Cornyn, who has been in office for a decade.

And as he reminded us again just this morning, Rick Perry thinks forcing women to have children is something women should be proud of.

This is just too much dickishness for me at the end of a relaxing holiday weekend. The battle is joined again tomorrow in Austin -- and in San Antonio, for that matter. And anywhere in Houston some other Republican Dick might turn up.

Sunday Funnies

Independence Day

With revolutions in Syria, Brazil, and Turkey (perhaps Portugal as well) and a coup d'etat in Egypt, and with a few legal steps forward and a few back in their own country, Americans will celebrate today once more with grilled meat and fireworks. And some music.

Via Greg Mitchell, the "4th of July", covered by Robert Earl Keen and the original by Dave Alvin.





Via AMERICAblog, an a capella rendition of the national anthem, by Lady Gaga at last weekend's Pride Rally in New York.



And last, what would this blog be without a cartoon.

Here's a good list of celebrations in Houston, Galveston, and surrounding towns this weekend.

Abortion restrictions bill on ramming speed

The usual middle-of-the-night, cut-off-public-testimony, party-line-vote kind of thing.

On Monday, Rep. Byron Cook (R-Corsicana) warned that he would end testimony on House Bill 2, the sweeping anti-abortion bill, at midnight (Tuesday) no matter how many people wanted to testify. He said the House Committee on State Affairs might vote on the bill. And that’s exactly what happened.

Shortly after midnight, Cook put the bill to a vote and it passed on a 8-3 vote. More than 1,000 people who had signed up to speak were cut off. Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) was left sputtering that he had amendments he wanted to propose to the committee. “You know you’re wrong,” he said to Cook. But the Republican plan for this second special has been obvious: Use their large majorities in the House and the Senate to muscle the bill through and avoid another star-making moment like the Wendy Davis filibuster.

Tonight’s hearing was theater. The author of HB 2, Republican Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, studiously stuck to her script, reading from prepared remarks or responding to questions from Democrats on the committee with terse responses focused on “the health and safety of the woman.” There wasn’t going to be any “rape kits” goof tonight.

The number of Texans who appeared to give public testimony varied greatly. By one early account it was 1100, another 1900. Cook's rules, however, meant that a total of just 140 would actually have time to do so. It turned out to be less than a hundred who got to speak.

Testimony on the bill ranged from the heart-breakingly personal to the completely bizarre. (One man said he knew of a woman’s get-rich-quick scheme whereby she would encourage high school girls to get pregnant and then provide them with abortions. Her goal was to make $1 million at a rate of $25 profit per abortion. Another man, in favor of HB 2, established his bona fides by telling the committee that he was a “professional juggler” and “sidewalk angel.” Yet another man complained that his sister getting an abortion deprived him of the chance to be an uncle.)

Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists and some Republican lawmakers worried that Satan had gotten personally involved in the debate.

One report, back channel but first hand, indicated that the throttling efforts began early: the HB2 hearing was held in a room smaller than the Extension Auditorium, or even the normal committee room that State Affairs typically uses (in the Reagan building). GOP leadership also denied access to the Legislative Conference Center, the room that pro-choice activists used to organize last week. Texpate has another account from last night.

With 3,543 people signed up to testify, after getting started a little behind schedule (what a surprise), the Committee barely made it through 100 people before Cook took the unilateral, though not unexpected, step of cutting off public comment. Shortly after Midnight, without much warning, Cook abruptly ended the debate and took a vote. 8-3, along party lines in favor. However, the vote was taken so quickly that two Democrats could not return to the desk. Accordingly, the real vote should have been 8-5.

Shortly thereafter, the Capitol got cleared and locked down. The result, in the above photograph, was roughly 1000-1700 angry protesters banging on the doors to their place of government while 7 White Men and 1 White Woman, in the dead of night, passed punitively burdensome restrictions on the right to abortion.

The bill will move on to the full House next Tuesday when the body is scheduled to reconvene. The Senate committee will take similar action in short order. The bills will get a brief airing in the full chambers, pass according to party affiliation -- with a few notable exceptions, primarily fervent Catholic Democratic men joining the Republicans -- and move swiftly to the governor for signature, perhaps as quickly as a week from now.

The Republicans can do whatever they feel like doing in Texas, just because they can, and they aren't going to let anybody or anything -- certainly not a trifling thing like democracy or the voice of the people -- stop them.

With fresh polling indicating that the Democrats are just as far away from taking back the governor's mansion as they ever have been over the past twelve years; with the same poll suggesting that Rick Perry has strengthened his hand among GOP primary voters -- the only people who count for anything in this state -- there is absolutely nothing that the Republicans in the Legislature feel except some minor annoyance over the whole affair. Kuffner has more insight into the polling.

There's going to be one opportunity to send a message that sounds any different to them. And that will come in November of 2014. Between now and then, the people who oppose this authoritarian display, not to mention this legislation, have their work cut precisely out for them.

Update: Salon's Joan Walsh points out that progressive women in red states will be a key constituency in hastening the change. Because it ain't just Texas where this shit is going down.