Houston's Top Political Bloggers Holiday Happy Hour tonight, and the Weekly Wrangle

Join "Houston's Top Political Bloggers'" at their Holiday Happy Hour for mirth and merriment (despite those who would rather focus on gloom and doom) this evening at the Flying Saucer, beginning after work and lasting as long as you can stand it. Remember: no bottoms, please. And the rest of the Texas Progressive Alliance is stocking up on figgy pudding as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff covered a shoddy attempt by new Harris County Tax Assessor Don Sumners to disallow voter registration efforts at naturalization ceremonies.

Letters From Texas projected out the grim possibilities for state representative Aaron Pena as he contemplates switching to the Republican Party.

Now is the time to ask Larry Summers to do something REALLY useful. You know, for the good of the country. So says McBlogger.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks Barack Obama is a putz and Bernie Sanders is a hero. UT professor JK Galbraith says it all.

Edmundo Rocha at Xicano Power pays tribute to the passing of civil rights activist and former San Antonio Express-News columnist Carlos Guerra. An unsung hero who never gave up hope for a better Texas.

Aaron Pena's impending party flip is tied directly to his 2012 Congressional ambitions. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs explains.

Bay Area Houston dogpiles on State Representative Aaron Pena. He could get with this. Or he could get with that.

lightseeker at TexasKaos reports on Rick Perry's latest foray into half-truths and self-serving opportunism. This time he is whipping up a big batch of whacked out claims about the cost of providing health care to uninsured Texans. Check out the details here: Rick Perry, Rabble Rouser .

Public Citizen Texas over at TexasVox wants to remind everyone to show up to testify at the Sunset Advisory Commission meeting Dec 15th on the Railroad Commission and TCEQ. Details are at their blog.

Neil at Texas Liberal ran a post with pictures he took last spring at the Houston Ship Channel. Neil's view is that if the world around us is at times not ideal, there are still many things to consider, learn about, and maybe even embrace. This does not mean we should be resigned to a polluted landscape. Neil has been stressing the need for action by average people in the face of the newly empowered Republican party in Austin and Washington. We know from the TPA posts listed here this week that things are a mess. The question is what are we going to do in response to this mess?

Aaron Peña's bid for US Congress (as a GOPer)

Daniel Lucio in today's Rio Grande Guardian:

As a member of the House Committee on Redistricting, Peña has been advocating for a Hidalgo-based congressional district. Peña knows that he probably wouldn't be able to foster enough support to beat out state Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. or his son, state Rep. Eddie Lucio III, in the primary race for the congressional seat. The Lucios are hometown favorites, but suffer from many of the same symptoms of South Texas Democrats. If Peña wants to keep moving up as a political figure, his best bet is to switch sides, taking some voters with him and gaining the support (and money) of Hidalgo Republicans. So you can see now why the Republican Party looks pretty sexy.

There is lots and lots of instructive data in Daniel Lucio's article so go read all of it. My point here is that there is simply no chance Pena remains a Democrat (as if he ever was) unless he plans on retiring from politics (no chance of this either).

He draws the new congressional district's boundaries in the coming legislative session, then runs for the seat in 2012. How can a scheming weasel like Peña resist?

Greg has more, and so does Harold Cook, who lays out a compelling combination of reasons disagreeing with my premise.

Update: Lucio's article appeared first at his blog, Speak South Texas.

Sunday Funnies

Aaron Peña, weasel diva

I've said here a handful of times that Aaron Peña is a weasel. Now hear this: Peña is also a diva.

In response to this, the little -- not so little -- prima donna got lots and lots of of telephone calls from lots and lots of people about switching parties. Here's how he responded to that ...

“Many of the Democrats are still thinking the party can be reformed and that perhaps, in a decade, we can be competitive again.

“Many of the calls from Republicans, including lawmakers, were that our community can still have a seat at the table now. Why wait a decade when you can have opportunities now?

“And so, after the large number of calls today and the growing speculation, I can say I am taking the matter under consideration and I will issue a public statement in the coming days, one way or the other.

“I am who I am and my intention is to represent my community and to give them the best possible advantage under the current environment.”

Peña added that when he gets back home he will talk to family, close friends and community leaders before issuing his public statement.

There's just not a dime's worth of difference between turncoat Peña and Newt Gingrich telling his cancer-stricken wife in the hospital he was divorcing her.

If Peña does switch over to the Republicans it would give them a Super Majority in the Texas House. They currently have 99 seats to the Democrats’ 51.

If Peña does switch, it would give the Republicans their first Texas House seat in heavily Democratic Hidalgo County. A Republican has never won elected office in Hidalgo County.

There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever that he switches. Furthermore, I'm even more confident that he gets turned out of office in 2012 whether he does or doesn't. Nueces County may be turning red but not Hidalgo.

Aaron Peña is a moderate Republatino no matter what letter shows up behind his name. And those have no base of support anywhere in the Great State (ask Victor Carillo or Leo Vasquez).

Unless he can reach down and find some tiny little core principle somewhere, declaring after his period of rumination and reflection that he is committed to the Democratic Party, its beliefs and values and goals and ambitions in the wake of Democalypse 2010 ... he is a goner.

Update: It makes sense that Peña would not be seeking re-election to HD-40 in 2012 if he and the Republicans can gerrymander a brand-new GOP seat in the US Congress for him, out of the coming redistricting efforts in the Lege.

Related:

Burka

Statesman

Burnt Orange

TexTrib

Update: John Coby piles on, and Allan Ritter falls in line behind Peña. Good riddance to yet another Blue Dog.

Fighting for the President's conscience

Well ... somebody has to.

Tuesday Funnies Break

With all of these passings this week -- and I was hoping to mention the 69th anniversary yesterday of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the 30th anniversary today of the assassination of John Lennon, for cripe's sake -- I believe I'll go to the funny papers instead.

Can you guess what the toonists are laughing about?

That's right; poker games and mining disasters. How'd you know?