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.