Some 2016 light bites

-- Rick Perry's up and running, as of 2 a.m. this morning and, formally later today, live from Addison.  Jeb Bush will be also -- after some pointed legal criticism -- in a couple of weeks.

-- Lincoln Chafee, in his announcement yesterday, wants Edward Snowden to come home, the US to convert its weights and measures to the metric system, and negotiations with the IS to be on the table.  There's bound to be a few people outside Rhode Island, where he was both senator and governor as a Republican, for which that platform represents hope and change.

-- Ted Cruz has been telling a weak joke about Joe Biden for some months now.  This time he told it just after Beau Biden passed, so it came off a little worse than previously.  The audience still laughed heartily.

Afterwards when he was asked about the appropriateness of the timing of the joke, he stalked off from the reporter who questioned him about it.  Crooks and Liars characterized his behavior as 'sociopathic'.  I wouldn't go that far -- his actions haven't resulted in people dying, like those of Rick Perry and Greg Abbott (denying Medicaid expansion) -- but Cruz is a turd and a massive jerk, and just because somebody died doesn't mean he's not going to make a joke about it.  He'll just make sure he does so when there aren't any cameras or microphones present.

-- The Duggars continue to make excuses for their son's child molestations.  Cringe-worthy.  Mike Huckabee wasn't available for comment after the Fox News interview with the family patriarch last night, by all indications.  If he still wants to be president, he should keep doing that.  Making himself unavailable for comment on this matter.

Update: State Rep. Bill Zedler of Arlington chimed in today, saying "The Left hates the Duggars because they have standards".  We were running on stupid fumes until this moment.  Now we have a full tank again.

-- A billionaire Wall Street hedge fund manager named Leon Cooperman didn't like Hillary Clinton's pandering to the Warren crowd and promptly jerked her chain.

"I don't need anybody crapping all over what I do for a living," the founder of $9.2 billion hedge fund firm Omega Advisors said.

[...]

"[She] hangs out with all these people in Martha's Vineyard and in the Hamptons and then the very first thing she has to say is to criticize hedge funds," he said.

It's all crap, Leon.  You should know this.  This crap coming out of her mouth is the full extent of what is being passed off as Hillary's progressivism.  Everybody in the whole wide world knows it except for you, Leon.  (And maybe Ted.)  So stop taking it personally.

Culturemap covers first H-Town mayoral debate

It was a Q&A forum on the arts, affording little opportunity for scrapping among the seven, but Clifford Pugh provides the details anyway for those of us who track these items.

Twenty minutes into the first gathering of all seven candidates for Houston mayor on the same stage, former congressman Chris Bell noted an audience member stifling a yawn.

"It could be a lot worse. This could be a Republican presidential debate," he said, where as many as 20 candidates are expected on stage in a few months.

Bell always demonstrates the best sense of humor.  And why is Bill King so sour all the time?

While much of the evening was taken up with policy wonk questions about a cap on the Houston Hotel Occupancy Tax (aka the HOT tax), which funds arts projects around the city, the best — and most humanizing question — came from an audience member, who asked, "Who is your favorite artist and why?" You could almost see the wheels turning in each candidate's head as he scrambled to come up with an unscripted answer.

First up was former Kemah mayor Bill King, who lamely listed Van Gogh, whom he first learned about from his history teacher many years ago. Businessman Marty McVey picked the 13th century poet Rumi for the "great solace" his work provides, which drew the applause of one audience member.

State Rep. Sylvester Turner was the first to turn the discussion to Houston artists — John Biggers and Michelle Barnes are among his favorites, and the other candidates quickly followed his lead, with Bell listing Lamar Briggs, Houston City Council member Stephen Costello mentioning Mark Foyle, muralist Ashley Wren and Justin Garcia, and former sheriff Adrian Garcia picking his daughter along with Project Row Houses founder Rick Lowe.

Attorney Ben Hall had the most unconventional answer  — he's mad about Surrealists M.C. Esher and Salvatore (sic) Dali. "Read into that what you may," he said cryptically.

The man's name is Salvador, Clifford (or Pastor Hall, as the case may be).  Escher's name is also misspelled, despite the link to it, so we'll put both of those mistakes on Pugh and his editor, unless Hall actually pronounced it "Sal-vah-tore-ay".  Pugh still should have known better; Hall probably not.  (My guess is his disgust for Dali's nudes stopped him from learning the artist's name, if in fact he doesn't know it).  It's so easy to cull the field of prospective mayors by asking them a question that they didn't anticipate, isn't it?

Update: Those in attendance -- see comments -- report that Hall is a fan of Dali, with the phrase "mad about" in the article meaning good and not bad.  I got the wrong impression (pun intended).

The other two debates -- err, forums -- this week will be more policy-substantive, I predict.  I plan on being present for both of them.  No telling what unscripted moment may occur and reveal.