Houston's Top Political Bloggers Holiday Happy Hour tonight, and the Weekly Wrangle

Join "Houston's Top Political Bloggers'" at their Holiday Happy Hour for mirth and merriment (despite those who would rather focus on gloom and doom) this evening at the Flying Saucer, beginning after work and lasting as long as you can stand it. Remember: no bottoms, please. And the rest of the Texas Progressive Alliance is stocking up on figgy pudding as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff covered a shoddy attempt by new Harris County Tax Assessor Don Sumners to disallow voter registration efforts at naturalization ceremonies.

Letters From Texas projected out the grim possibilities for state representative Aaron Pena as he contemplates switching to the Republican Party.

Now is the time to ask Larry Summers to do something REALLY useful. You know, for the good of the country. So says McBlogger.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks Barack Obama is a putz and Bernie Sanders is a hero. UT professor JK Galbraith says it all.

Edmundo Rocha at Xicano Power pays tribute to the passing of civil rights activist and former San Antonio Express-News columnist Carlos Guerra. An unsung hero who never gave up hope for a better Texas.

Aaron Pena's impending party flip is tied directly to his 2012 Congressional ambitions. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs explains.

Bay Area Houston dogpiles on State Representative Aaron Pena. He could get with this. Or he could get with that.

lightseeker at TexasKaos reports on Rick Perry's latest foray into half-truths and self-serving opportunism. This time he is whipping up a big batch of whacked out claims about the cost of providing health care to uninsured Texans. Check out the details here: Rick Perry, Rabble Rouser .

Public Citizen Texas over at TexasVox wants to remind everyone to show up to testify at the Sunset Advisory Commission meeting Dec 15th on the Railroad Commission and TCEQ. Details are at their blog.

Neil at Texas Liberal ran a post with pictures he took last spring at the Houston Ship Channel. Neil's view is that if the world around us is at times not ideal, there are still many things to consider, learn about, and maybe even embrace. This does not mean we should be resigned to a polluted landscape. Neil has been stressing the need for action by average people in the face of the newly empowered Republican party in Austin and Washington. We know from the TPA posts listed here this week that things are a mess. The question is what are we going to do in response to this mess?

Aaron Peña's bid for US Congress (as a GOPer)

Daniel Lucio in today's Rio Grande Guardian:

As a member of the House Committee on Redistricting, Peña has been advocating for a Hidalgo-based congressional district. Peña knows that he probably wouldn't be able to foster enough support to beat out state Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. or his son, state Rep. Eddie Lucio III, in the primary race for the congressional seat. The Lucios are hometown favorites, but suffer from many of the same symptoms of South Texas Democrats. If Peña wants to keep moving up as a political figure, his best bet is to switch sides, taking some voters with him and gaining the support (and money) of Hidalgo Republicans. So you can see now why the Republican Party looks pretty sexy.

There is lots and lots of instructive data in Daniel Lucio's article so go read all of it. My point here is that there is simply no chance Pena remains a Democrat (as if he ever was) unless he plans on retiring from politics (no chance of this either).

He draws the new congressional district's boundaries in the coming legislative session, then runs for the seat in 2012. How can a scheming weasel like Peña resist?

Greg has more, and so does Harold Cook, who lays out a compelling combination of reasons disagreeing with my premise.

Update: Lucio's article appeared first at his blog, Speak South Texas.