Why hasn't Ken Paxton resigned yet?

Hat tip to nonsequiteuse, who first posed the question.

No need to recount the extremist legal opinions nor the various laws he has broken.  If this is going to drag out for months as it did with Kyle Janek, then it is Governor Greg Abbott who is going to start paying a political price for it.  And everyone knows that Abbott does not expend political capital; he accrues it.  Always.

If Paxton skates past an indictment in Collin County in a couple of weeks, expect him to hang on.  If he catches one or more... well, Ken Paxton is no Rick Perry.  That much is certain.

Update: And the hits just keep on comin'.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose admitted violations of state securities laws will go before a grand jury this month, has also figured in a federal investigation of a Dallas-area technology company suspected of defrauding investors.

Paxton owns at least 10,000 shares in Servergy Inc., a company based in his hometown of McKinney. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating Servergy in 2013 after receiving complaints, according to federal court records reviewed by The Associated Press. The records show Paxton's name was singled out as a search term to satisfy an SEC demand for documents and Paxton's law firm email address was among a lengthy list of Servergy contacts searched as part of the SEC's investigation.

Update (7/9): And coming.

Despite promising last year to "wind down" his involvement in dozens of real estate and business ventures, Attorney General Ken Paxton continued to expand his holdings in 2014, according to personal financial documents.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance congratulates the US women soccer team on its FIFA World Cup victory as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff reports that thousands more Texas state employees are now eligible for spousal benefits thanks to the SCOTUS ruling on same sex marriage.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos, and contributing to Daily Kos, observes that it should be obvious the state's government has become a gathering place for crooks, crony capitalists, religious fanatics, homophobes, racists and misogynists, in Texas Governor's Cruelty.

nonsequiteuse's serious question is: why hasn't Ken Paxton resigned yet?

SocraticGadfly takes a look at American exceptionalism, and the subject of counterfactual history, to produce some musings about the Fourth of July and American independence.

TXsharon at Bluedaze has some frackquake lawsuit updates and other fracking news.

There are two things that will probably keep Sen. Bernie Sanders from acquiring the Democratic nomination for the US presidency, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs in the first of two posts on the topic. Clue: one of them isn't money, and the other isn't the questionable intelligence of the average American voter.

jobsanger -- the biggest Hillary Clinton supporter in the Texblogosphere -- grudgingly acknowledges that Bernie Sanders has closed the gap on the front-runner in Iowa.

Dos Centavos noted the Donald Trump outburst and its potential impact on Latino voting.

And Egberto Willies has video of the Kingwood Area Democrats marching in the Fourth of July parade.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Grits for Breakfast writes about the rigged criminal justice game in the Waco bikers shootout.

The Rag Blog rounded up a handful of its recent podcast interviews, from historian Victoria Bynum on Southern history, racial violence & the Confederate flag, to Maria Svart of the Democratic Socialists of America, to pioneering gay activist and Houston ‘Living Legend’ Ray Hill.

Somervell County Salon reminds us that a hundred years after the birth of America, women were still denied the right to vote.

State Impact Texas takes a lot at what's next after HB40, the Lege's ban on local fracking bans.

The Lunch Tray updates us on her "pink slime" legal case and her use of Texas' shield law.

Eric Berger explains why some rocket launches fail.

Elizabeth Rose has no trouble reconciling her Christian faith with same sex marriage, while Cody Pogue finds no good reason to oppose it.

Two Houston Tomorrow interns share their bus-riding experiences.

Isiah Carey relates the never-before-told story of how his infamous "bug-in-mouth" video got out to the public.

And Fascist Dyke Motors had a much more interesting holiday weekend than you.

Fourth Funnies

Trump: I didn't expect the backlash to be "quite this severe"

We should know later today, Angela.

"The British government remained willing to conceive of Native Americans as subjects of the crown, similar to colonists," Ethan Schmidt writes in Native Americans in the American Revolution. "American colonists … refused to see Indians as fellow subjects. Instead, they viewed them as obstacles in the way of their dreams of land ownership and trading wealth." This view is reflected in the Declaration of Independence, which attacks King George III for backing "merciless Indian Savages."

-- "Three Reasons the American Revolution Was a Mistake", from Dylan Matthews at Vox.  The thing to keep in mind here is that one man's treason is another's righteous rebellion.  The Tea Party is hardly different from the Occupy movement in this regard.  And history, as we well know, is written by the victors.

DNC kills Texas Two-Step to protect Clinton from being Obama'ed by Sanders

That's my premise, anyway.

Seven years after Barack Obama earned the majority of Texas' delegates despite losing the primary to Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic National Committee has put an end to the state's hybrid presidential nominating process, saying it "had the potential to confuse voters."

Under the two-step process, two-thirds of a candidate's convention delegates are awarded on the basis of the primary election results. The remaining third are chosen at caucuses, which are held after the polls closed on primary night.

Now, at the direction of the national party, delegates will be based solely on the primary results, a shift some party members lamented Tuesday.

"It's not the way we would prefer to do it," said Harris County Democratic Party Chair Lane Lewis. "I still think that there is plenty of opportunity for individuals who want to participate in the delegate process to be able to participate."

The Frontloading blog agrees with me.

As a side note, it hard to resist viewing the denied waiver request as a signal of if not the Clinton campaign's pull on the Rules and Bylaws Committee, then the reality that there are folks on the committee (Harold Ickes comes to mind) that are or have in the past been aligned with the Clintons. That comment is not meant as some form of conspiracy theory. That is how the Democratic process has worked: Surrogates of the various campaigns get involved in the rules process. Given that Clinton folks were not fans of the two-step (and for arguably legitimate reasons) after 2008, it is not a real shock that it would meet its end now.

But why now and not four years ago? Parties holding the White House tend not to tinker as much with their delegate selection rules. And by extension, those in the White House at the head of their parties often prefer to maintain the same combination of rules that got them to the White House in the first place. The denied Texas request is as much about the DNC transitioning to life after Obama as it is about Clinton (and company) not liking the two-step because of 2008.

Back in Part One of my thesis on Bernie Sanders' even-more-difficult-than-you-may-think path to the Democratic nomination (Part Two is still under construction), I mentioned that Democratic muckety-mucks would start jamming Sanders if he began to get traction.  Well, he's been getting some serious traction, and sure enough, they're changing the rules to protect HRC and thwart him.

If you think this is not the case, I'd like to read your argument against it in the comments.

Update: Still don't think the insiders are working against him?

Richard Trumka has a message for state and local AFL-CIO leaders tempted to endorse Bernie Sanders: Don’t.

In a memo this week to state, central and area divisions of the labor federation, and obtained by POLITICO, the AFL-CIO chief reminded the groups that its bylaws don’t permit them to “endorse a presidential candidate” or “introduce, consider, debate, or pass resolutions or statements that indicate a preference for one candidate over another.” Even “‘personal’ statements” of candidate preference are verboten, Trumka said.

The memo comes amid signs of a growing split between national union leaders — mindful of the fact that Clinton remains the undisputed favorite for the nomination — and local officials and rank and file, who are increasingly drawn to the Democratic Party’s growing progressive wing, for whom Sanders is the latest standard-bearer.

[...]

His message wasn’t anything new for the federation’s state leaders: They know that endorsement decisions belong to the national leadership. Still, it was unusual for Trumka to call them out in a memo. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one before like this,” said Jeff Johnson, the president of the AFL-CIO’s Washington state labor council.

Johnson agreed that it was important for the AFL-CIO to speak with a single voice. But “there’s a lot of anxiety out there in the labor movement,” he said, “and we’re desperately searching for a candidate that actually speaks to working-class values. The Elizabeth Warren/Bernie Sanders camp is very, very attractive to many of our members and to many of us as leaders, because they’re talking about the things that need to happen in this country.”

Similarly, Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman said he agreed that Trumka had to lay down the law. More tellingly, though, he added: “Bernie Sanders has spent his life actually fighting for working people. He’s made no secret of it, and he’s used it as his mantra. And that I respect very much.” When asked about Clinton’s candidacy, Tolman was less effusive: “Who? Who? Please. I mean with all respect, huh?”

Paxton faces first-degree felony indictment

The water just got hotter for the state's top law enforcement officer (who double-dips as minister of state religion).

The criminal investigation against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken a more serious turn, with special prosecutors now planning to present a first-degree felony securities fraud case against him to a Collin County grand jury, News 8 has learned.

Special prosecutor Kent Schaffer told News 8 Wednesday afternoon that the Texas Rangers uncovered new evidence during the investigation that led to the securities fraud allegations against the sitting attorney general.

"The Rangers went out to investigate one thing, and they came back with information on something else," Schaffer told News 8. "It's turned into something different than when they started."

Schaffer, a Houston criminal defense attorney, said the securities fraud allegations involve amounts well in excess of $100,000. He declined to comment specifics of the fraud allegations.

A first-degree felony conviction is punishable by up to life in prison.

Just ponder that last sentence for a moment before we proceed.  It's nice to have friends in high places, like Rick Perry, when you screw up and break the law.

News 8 also learned Wednesday that Paxton had hired a former federal district judge.

"I met with General Paxton and he had retained me to look into the matter," said Joe Kendall, who practices in Dallas. "I am honored that he did. He's a good man."

Kendall told News 8 that he met with Paxton "very recently" in Dallas and confirmed that he was hired within the past two days.

"I'm going to be helping look into the matter," Kendall said, declining to comment further.

Yes, he's a good Christian man, one who has advised county clerks across Texas in recent days to violate their oaths (sworn on a Bible, mind you) and refuse to process marriage applications if they have religious objections to the people who wish to be married.  Never mind that state law defines this function of county clerks and their surrogates as ministerial, a definition everyone ought to acquaint themselves with.  Paxton's been forced to fold his tent for the most part in this regard, although he is still 'fighting the good fight', like a Japanese soldier hiding in a cave years after his nation's surrender in WWII.

As with our illustrious former governor and erstwhile presidential candidate, Paxton could still skate across the thin ice, since the Lege emasculated the Public Integrity Unit in Travis County, and the proceedings now will be heard in his home county of Collin.  It's the good old grand jury 'pick-a-pal' system that may save him, the perverse details of which earned the Houston Chronicle's Lisa Falkenberg a Pulitzer earlier this year, and which compelled the Lege to pass and the governor to sign into law a statute that eliminates it.  (That law does not go into effect until September.)

I can't bet against Paxton hanging on to his job.  God is on his side, after all, and the prayers of something in excess of 50% of registered Republicans in the state may lift him up to even more exalted status in the wake of all these "libruls" persecuting him.