Sunday Funnies

Scattershooting Ted Cruz

-- He may not get primaried from the Breitbart right, but he might get primaried from the right-wing Jesus freaks.  Such rich, creamy irony.  Backstory repeated for those who don't follow or recall these 2016 GOP machinations.

After losing the nomination to Donald Trump, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz delivered a speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention that was markedly unenthusiastic about the party’s presidential candidate. Cruz congratulated Trump on winning the nomination, but in over twenty-five minutes of speaking about conservative values he failed to endorse Trump for president. It was a gamble for the 2020 election. By the time Cruz reached the end of his speech, however, delegates booed and shouted, “Say his name!”

Cruz eventually endorsed Trump via a Facebook post two months later, but only after Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick hinted that he would find a primary opponent for Cruz if he didn’t. After the less-than-prime-time endorsement, Patrick, who was Trump’s Texas chairman, backed off.

Now it looks as if the speech might draw Cruz a potentially substantial opponent after all. Bruce K. Jacobson Jr., vice president of media for LIFE Outreach International and an aide to televangelist James Robison and his Life Today television network, told me that the convention speech has motivated him to seriously consider challenging Cruz in next year’s primary. Cruz had signed a pledge to support the party’s nominee, Jacobson said, but then didn’t follow through at the convention. “I’m concerned about anybody who doesn’t keep their word. I’ve very concerned about that. In Texas, when we give our word, it’s our word,” Jacobson said.

Brother Jacobson can't have been a Texas Republican for very long, or else he has a mote -- probably a beam -- in both eyes with respect to Texas Republicans keeping their word.

Although Jacobson declined to comment on his friendship with former Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, Republican blogger Erick Erickson claims they recruited Jacobson as payback to Cruz for defeating them in the Iowa presidential caucuses. “Cruz already has one establishment hack coming after him from the left within the GOP primary,” Erickson wrote in the post. “The guy is a lawyer who claims Cruz isn’t playing well with Mitch McConnell. Now we’re going to get this guy pretending to come at Cruz from the right. The media will love both so they can attack Cruz from all sides. But if I were Cruz, I’d be looking around thinking I’ve got attacks from left and from pretend right, so I must be doing something actually right.”

Yeahno, Erick.  There's more there about Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the link between her father and Trump that may be the conduit for payback, and Cruz's two announced-so-far challengers, but Jacobson would be a real problem for Lyin' Ted.  You'll need lots more popcorn if this develops, and you should bookmark RG Ratcliffe's posts as must-reads even if it doesn't.

Today I'll wager that Poop wins his primary by something on the order of 67%-75%.

-- The money race between Cruz and Beto O'Rourke is ... not quite even if you count COH (scroll to the bottom), but who cares besides the consultants Beto claims he's not hiring and Kuff and the consultants -- aspiring and incompetent and all in-between -- who read his blog?  Money isn't going to have a damn thing to do with who wins this race a year from now.

Beto has been journalistically fellated by Chris Hooks and Vox and several others of late, and they've dutifully used the trope "Texas is a non-voting state" as if this were breaking news.  My issues with O'Rourke are that he is of the "New Democrat/Blue Dog" variety, and both his efforts and his recent votes reflect that.  Being mousy in saying 'healthcare is a human right' isn't helping, either; believing that everybody needs to buy in and for-profit hospitals have to remain part of the 'Medicare for All' equation doesn't quite meet the definition of a human right, does it?  He seems to be fooling some people (again, scroll down) with this double talk, but he ain't foolin' me.  I simply can't vote for O'Rourke if he continues obfuscating on this issue.

YMMV, of course.

How about Sylvester Turner for governor?

He has a free shot, he knows both sides of the aisle in Austin (pretty well), and he can't get along with some of the usual Democratic constituencies in Houston.  Seems tailor-made for the job.

Simmering tensions and acrimony between Houston firefighters and Mayor Sylvester Turner have boiled over after the mayor erupted at firefighters who spurned him at two recent public events.

The most recent incident, which took place at a Houston Rockets game Thursday, prompted the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 341 to send Turner a letter warning him not to threaten the association's membership.

"Twice in the past week, you threatened firefighters that declined to engage with you in public settings," HPFFA President Marty Lancton wrote in a Friday letter sent to Turner and city council members. "We believe these confrontations violate state law. If they occur again, we will take appropriate action."

When asked about the incident, Turner said the firefighters had engaged in unprofessional and inappropriate behavior.

That's the pot calling the kettle you-know-what-color.  It's getting hard to tell who the mayor hates more: the firefighters or the homeless.

The tensions come amid a worsening relationship between firefighters – who campaigned extensively for Turner before his election in 2015 – and the mayor, particularly over recent moves to rein in looming pension obligations and what they see as the city's failure to bargain in good faith during contract negotiations.

"Firefighters deserve a good contract and a raise," said Gaylon Davenport, president of the Houston Black Firefighters Association. "They do a good job and everyone knows that. They deserve a raise and it hasn't happened and because of that it's toxic."

Why do these odd confrontations always happen at Rockets games?

Lancton said a fire inspector had been working at the Rockets game Thursday, which Turner was attending. The firefighter – who has been with the department for 15 years – saw the mayor approaching and tried to walk away.

"You don't walk away from me," he said Turner yelled, threatening to make sure he wouldn't be able to work security at the stadium in the future, and making him give his identification details to several cops working on his security detail.

"It's absolutely inappropriate from anyone in power to intimidate and aggress someone -- a classified member of the fire department -- when they're trying to diffuse a situation," Lancton said. "There are clear guidelines and laws, if someone felt someone was behaving inappropriately. There are ways to handle that situation."

Just days before, another firefighter had gotten crosswise with Turner at a National Night Out event in Gulfton, Lancton said.

After Turner spoke, he tried to speak to some firefighters also participating in the event, one of whom declined to shake his hand.

Turner apparently told the firefighter, "I'm still your boss," and stormed off, Lancton said.

Read on at the end of that piece where the mayor didn't have to call for backup from two Republican members of council.   Just a couple of weeks ago, Turner and a couple of Democratic CMs (prior confrontations blogged) quarreled again in too-personal fashion, this time about Harvey-related debris removal.  It's probably a good thing for his relationships with Paul Kubosh and Dave Martin and Brenda Stardig and Mike Knox, et. al., that the study on Confederate monuments got interrupted by the hurricane.

So Hizzoner seems like a bipartisan kinda guy, someone who can work well with conservatives and crack on Democrats when they don't show proper deference, or something.  For all the hard work Turner did and the goodwill built up during his crisis management in the aftermath of this year's 500- year storm, it sure seems as if he could spend that political capital more productively than in an unnecessary extension of a pissing contest with the city's firemen and women.  Why, he's even got fresh experience at forcing Greg Abbott to knuckle under, and that's kind of a big deal.

There are, after all, some difficult and expensive questions emerging that somebody down at Bagby will have to answer, and Turner won't be able to wield that tax hike cudgel twice.  And if the New Democrats running the TDP can't get Joe Straus or Joaquin Castro to run ... who better than Sly?