Is Kesha Rogers the Texas version of Alvin Greene?

TIME thinks so.

South Carolina's unexpected Democratic nominee for the US Senate, mystery man Alvin Greene, says he wants to play golf with Barack Obama. But in Texas, another surprise Democratic primary winner, congressional nominee Kesha Rogers, wants to impeach the President. So while South Carolina party officials are still unsure of what to do about Greene's success at the ballot box, Texas Democrats have no such reservations — they wasted little time in casting Rogers into exile and offering no support or recognition of her campaign to win what once was Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay's old seat.

Several of my blog hermanos y hermanas cast aspersions on Rogers' nomination, you may recall.

Unlike South Carolina's Greene, Rogers ran a high profile campaign, staking out a corner on a major intersection in the district to appear almost daily with a large sign: "Save NASA. Impeach Obama." She garnered 7,467 votes, 53% of the vote, in a three way race that included a local information systems analyst Doug Blatt, who gained endorsements from local Democratic clubs and labor groups, and Freddie John Weider Jr., a preacher and onetime Libertarian candidate; Blatt came in second with 28% of the vote and Weider won 20%. "The people of the 22nd district voted for me," she said. "They recognized the party is not acting in the interests of the people."

Her name was also -- like Greene's -- first on the ballot, and as wingnut blogger Greg points out, it could have been her name, or maybe it was the media's fault. Continuing from TIME ...

Meanwhile, the state party has adopted a resolution denying any party support for Rogers, citing the alleged racist and discriminatory views of the LaRouche movement — allegations that Rogers, who is African-American, firmly rejects. District 22 has also been stricken from the party's official online list of congressional races. ...

One theory, according to a Democratic Party insider, is Rogers benefitted from her name being in the top position on the Fort Bend County ballot, where African-American Democratic interest was high in two local races. But Rogers rejects that notion. "I went to senior citizens centers. I was knocking on doors everywhere — everyone knew my positions, " she told TIME. "I don't think the Democratic Party leadership is getting it. The people continue to see more and more economic devastation and they don't see any real leadership." And for now, the party leadership will pretend that it can't see Rogers. 

Lastly, Open Source Dem weighs in with this opinion:

Both the GOP and even the LaRouche organization have “dirty tricks machines”, parodies actually of psychological warfare and disinformation operations by military and military intelligence organizations.

The GOP thinks they are waging “politics as war” (Gingrich); the LaRouche outfit is waging “permanent revolution” (Trotsky).  It is not funny: Real people get hurt and the media returns are huge from relatively little outlay of funds.

Frankly, I am tired of Democrats whining about this.

These folks have 'declared war' but cringing liberals are just running around in circles wringing their hands and moaning “won’t anybody think about the children!”  The Democratic Party establishment is supporting the candidacy of LaRouche associate Kesha Rogers and remains “inclusive” of the LaRouche movement. Anything else is, evidently, an challenge to the legal imagination and vanity of Boyd Richie and Gerry Birnberg. (ed. note: though the Senate District Executive Committee of the Texas Democratic Party -- led by Richie -- has passed a resolution denying support to Rogers, Harris County Chair Birnberg favors her candidacy, as noted here.)

The Democratic Party establishment is also trying to deny ballot access to the Green Party based on a campaign finance -- or ethical -- argument against the Green Party, not the GOP operatives nor the source of funding for this “op”.

There is no doubt in my mind that the GOP wants (a) to suppress the latent Democratic majority in Texas, (b) to sow dissention among Democrats, and (c) to shave votes from Bill White. But they can probably “comply” with “ethics” laws as artfully as Matt Angle and the Democratic Party.

So is Andy Taylor smarter than Buck Wood or Chad Dunn? Probably not, but who cares?  Is any of this gamesmanship really politics or actually strategic?

No! The GOP is promoting the Green Party and the TDP is publicizing it. Who is stupider? It is a close call.

The main threat the Green Party poses is to clerk candidates in Bexar and Harris counties. But the Hart InterCivic company is not worried about that, so the party establishment in Austin is not either. They are trying to piggyback on and justify themselves to Bill White’s campaign. Otherwise they are doing whatever Matt Angle pays them to.

One could objectively, if amorally, admire a pimp-consultant like Angle if he was actually smart or proficient. But Wallenstein he isn’t. Tilly, maybe.

Cringing, gullible liberals and nostalgic, vindictive conservatives -- plus vain, underemployed lawyers -- do not for a strong, strategic, or victorious party make.

They cannot even whip a senile Trotskyite or a few GOP frat-boys playing “covert operator”.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance was unable to attend summer solstice celebrations at Stonehenge this morning, but welcomes the official start of summer anyway with a cold beverage and the highlights from the past week's blogging.

There is no way in hell Txsharon could pick just one post from this hellish week in the Barnett Shale, so she did a recap, at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

San Antonio hospitals are dumping seriously ill homeless patients at Haven for Hope. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees Republicans hating health care for the poor. How selfish and cruel can a group of people be?

Off the Kuff examined some data to get a handle on Rick Perry's performance with Latino voters in the 2002 election.

The update on the Green Party's bid for the ballot, including Perry campaign operative Dave Carney's latest lie, is at PDiddie's Brains and Eggs.

Bay Area Houston has More on Driving Ms Daisy-Harper-Brown and her scandal.

Over at TexasKaos, Libby Shaw reminds Smokey Joe and Old Box Turtle what their jobs are, in Earth to Joe Barton and John Cornyn: You are not Lobbyists.

Neil at Texas Liberal offered up a post with two examples of folks voting across party lines. Neil says political parties provide a useful shorthand for voters and says people should support a slate that has the same general outlook and goals.

Serving up crow at Smokey Joe's Cafe

Excellent op-ed from the Denton Record-Chronicle.

We should all cut U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, a little slack. When he apologized Thursday to BP CEO Tony Hayward for the harsh treatment BP was getting for causing the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States, Barton was simply following a cardinal rule of politics: Once bought, an honest congressman stays bought.

Barton has been in the vest pocket of oil, gas and other polluting industries since the mind of man runneth not to the contrary. In Congress, he is the champion of any industry that can erect a smokestack, befoul a free-running stream and write a fat check to a political campaign.

God Damn that liberal media.

House Republican leaders backed away from Barton and his “apology” like a mess of crawdads. They reportedly took Smokey Joe to the woodshed even as the hearing was still in progress and threatened him with expulsion from the House subcommittee should he not retract his statement.

Which, of course, he did, with one of those patented nonapologetic Washington apologies.

We feel a measure of sympathy for Joe Barton. His lickspittle pandering to the head honcho of BP on Thursday was no worse than what he had done for much of his congressional career. It was as though he did not know that the object of his fealty had just inflicted grave harm upon this country through greed and neglect. It was as though he were pimping for Typhoid Mary.

And I left out some of the best parts.

In other apology-related news, Barton has taken to hiding in his basement:

The day after Rep. Joe Barton became a household name -- and a source of ridicule for late-night comics -- by first apologizing to BP and then retracting his apology, the Texas Republican appeared to go underground.

A phone message said his Washington office was closed, although press secretary Sean Brown eventually e-mailed that aides were, in fact, at work, but that there would be no further comment.

[...]

Barton is in a safe Republican district, although his Democratic opponent, David Cozad, mocked Barton in a web page, joebartonwouldliketoapologize.com, that has the lawmaker apologizing for many things, including bad World Cup calls.

If you're feeling generous, throw a few shekels at Cozad and let's see if we can't make Barton's district a little less safe.

Ignorance isn't bliss

On behalf of all Texans ...

... I apologize for Joe Barton. He is as venal and corrupt as a Texas Republican comes. And since he is so "ashamed" and "doesn't want to live in a country" where we hold corporations responsible for their mistakes, then I invite his sorry ass to GTF OUT of MY country.

A staunch conservative who has a long record of backing oil industry interests, Barton apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward for the "shakedown" the Obama White House pulled on the company. (Barton has received more than $1.5 million in campaign donations from the oil industry, according to Open Secrets, a nonpartisan watchdog group.) You can watch the video here:

"I'm not speaking for anybody in the House of Representatives but myself," Barton explained, "but I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown. In this case a $20 billion shakedown."

Wrapping up, Barton said: "I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, is subject to some sort of political pressure that is, again, in my words — amounts to a shakedown, so I apologize."

Joe Barton's Democratic opponent is David Cozad.

Update: And wipe that 10W-30 off your mouth when you say "misconstrued".