The Pre-Convention Wrangle

Time for this week's edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance weekly blog round-up -- the pre-Texas Democratic Party state convention edition. And don't forget about the Third Biennial Texas Blogger's Caucus set for this Thursday at 8:30 p.m. at the Cedar Door in Austin. Joe Jaworski, Sherrie Matula, Melissa Noriega, and more will be joining us!

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on A Texas Myth: The Citizen Legislator.

BossKitty at BlueBloggin points out that Bush has been successful in preventing accountability and that he is at the center of an intelligence leak in The Leaky Bush: Probable Cause For Treason.

Captain Kroc declares that McBlogger now has a patron saint. That means we're protected so don't mess with us or we'll have our BFF, God, gut-punch you.

PDiddie at Brains and Eggs had some questions for Boyd Richie.

Vince from Capitol Annex reviews the Texas Legislative Study Group's excellent recommendations concerning what the Texas Legislature needs to do to improve higher education.

North Texas Liberal thanks Michelle Malkin for letting us know why we should boycott Rachael Ray, the terrorist scarf-wearing daytime chef.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme crowns Victoria DA Steve Tyler the new Hissy Fit after the grand jury indicts the Victoria police chief and former city attorney. Both may have used the Victoria Advocate to prod the child rape investigation of Tyler's chief of staff.

WhosPlayin? takes a humorous look at how Rep Michael Burgess (R, TX-26) missed the mark again with recent comments, showing how out of touch he is with his middle-class constituents.

The burning question at Doing My Part For The Left is: will Republicans return Rev, Hagee's hate money.

Off the Kuff completes his early tour of the Harris County races with a peek at the race for Harris County Department of Education Trustee, which in a normal year would be a pretty low-profile affair. Of course, as we know, this is anything but a normal year.

The Texas Cloverleaf tells us how Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples wants to support the communist Cuban regime.

Texas Kaos gets into the nuts and bolts of coming events. If you're headed to Austin for the Texas Democratic State Convention this week, check out this Netroots Nation convention in Austin we're preparing for a great service event, Netroots for the Troops preparing care packages for those who are putting themselves into harm's way.

Sunday Funnies

Scotty come lately

I watched the Olbermann hour-long interview and read the "puzzled" reactions from his former bosses and co-workers, but I ain't buyin' Scott McLellan's conversion (nor his book, for that matter).

His public quasi-confession is as much about trying to avoid prosecution as it is about selling books. Recall, from the historical record, what McClellan said when the first Boosh whistleblower, Richard Clarke, outed the adminstration's prevaricators:

McClellan pointed to the timing of Clarke's book.

"If Dick Clarke had such grave concerns, why wait so long? Why wait until the election?" Instead, McClellan said, Clarke "conveniently" released a book in the middle of the campaign season.

This must have been long before his pangs of conscience got the best -- or worst -- of him.

And when Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said basically the same thing in January of 2004 that Scotty is saying now, except a with a tad more bluntness ...

Former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has provided the grist for an unflattering tell-all book about the Bush White House called "The Price of Loyalty". ... Mr O'Neill said President Bush was disengaged, "a blind man in a room full of deaf people," and said the administration was hatching plans to invade Iraq from the day Mr Bush entered office.

... McClellan responded with equal force:

"We appreciate his service, but we are not in the business of doing book reviews," he told reporters. "It appears that the world according to Mr. O'Neill is more about trying to justify his own opinion than looking at the reality of the results we are achieving on behalf of the American people. The president will continue to be forward-looking, focusing on building upon the results we are achieving to strengthen the economy and making the world a safer and better place."

Come to think of it, maybe O'Neill was ahead of Clarke. Anyway, somewhere along the road to Damascus Scotty learned the truth and decided to come clean err, write a book.

Good on him, I suppose. Note that Scotty is directly descended from an opportunistic stripe-changing zebra and a grand conspiracy collaborator/author.

So this appears to be nothing more than the next edition of "All in the McClellan Family" to me.

I'll pass on both the applause and the account of his coming to Jesus.

Harvey Korman 1927 - 2008

The late Harvey Korman, second from right, in a 1968 skit on "The Carol Burnett Show," in which some shapely legs -- and then their owners -- are revealed to the audience. From left, Betty Grable, Martha Raye, Jackie Gregory, Lyle Waggoner, Korman and Burnett.

"Give me something bizarre to play, or put me in a dress and I'm fine," Korman jokingly said in a 2005 Chicago Sun-Times interview.

My family to this day will recite lines from "Eunice and Ed" when we get together.

Korman and Conway developed an uncanny rapport that made them arguably one of television's most lethal comic teams; Conway's on-camera ad-libs often made Korman crack up; producers wisely kept them in the show.

For about eight years, until late last December, the pair toured the country in a stage show that, more than anything, was a homage to their years with Burnett. They performed about 120 shows a year.

"I don't know whether either one of us was the straight man," Conway said. "The most important thing in comedy when you're working together is for one guy to know when to shut up. And we both knew when to shut up; quiet show, actually."

One of their favorite routines from the Burnett show was the dentist sketch, "where I kind of anesthetize my entire body with Novocain" while trying to fill Korman's teeth, Conway told The Times on Thursday.

"They play it at all the dental schools, as kind of an introduction on how not to do it," Conway said.

Korman suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm in January, the same malady that claimed my uncle Toots in his early sixties, several years ago. Most people cannot survive it but Korman battled for four months before passing on Thursday.

I think my favorite memory of Korman is from Blazing Saddles, when his character Hedley Lamarr was constantly irritated at having to correct the pronunciation of his name.

"Head - leh"

It's been a difficult week for Hollywood legends, and those of us who are their fans.