It's only been a week ...

... and I'm still not as happy as everybody else about the election results in Deep-in-the-Hearta.

I believe the elation some feel comes from their proximity to Dallas County, or Hays County, or how much work they did in Ellen Cohen's or Juan Garcia's or Valinda Bolton's campaign. And to be clear, the following is not at all meant to rain on their victory parade. Those wins are certainly sweet, and those candidates and their campaigns deserves congratulations for their hard work.

But I believe the overabundance of enthusiasm for last Tuesday's election returns in some quarters simply comes from having met an extremely low set of expectations:

"We made a practical decision," said Matt Angle, a Democratic strategist who is helping rebuild the state party. "It was the most efficient way to spread the resources. It wouldn't have been a rational decision to do otherwise."

Mr. Angle said the party focused its resources in 17 House districts, half of those in which Democrats mounted a challenge against Republican opponents.

I just don't recall Matt Angle being elected by anyone to develop and execute the Texas Democratic Party's election strategy. I also don't believe that anybody at the SDEC level of governance approved or even consented to a plan of focusing all of the party resources on just 17 statehouse races.

Furthermore, I have it on good authority that the party officials at the highest level repeatedly assured candidates who were NOT in one of the afore-mentioned 17 contests that the words Matt Angle is quoted above speaking -- about concentrating on just a few selected races -- was absolutely NOT the case; that there would be no narrowly-targeted strategy in 2006.

In other words, somebody lied. And in any event, their deeds spoke louder than their words.

The Texas Democratic Party, such as it is, long ago chose a minimalist strategy for 2006. Big-dog contributors like Walter Umphrey and John Eddie Williams sent six-figure checks early on to Carole Strayhorn, apparently thinking she was the only Democrat capable of defeating Governor MoFo. Potential Democratic candidates stayed away from filing for office in droves. It took a late leap by three members of the Dirty Thirty -- Bob Gammage, Ben Grant, and Fred Head -- to make things interesting. But none of the members of the "Dream Team" from 2002 stepped up to support anyone or anything on the Democratic slate. The only thing John Sharp ultimately did, after having his name published repeatedly as the only Dem with a snowball's chance of being elected Governor, was to join Rick Perry in a bipartisan education funding initiative. Charles Soechting abruptly abandoned the chairmanship in the middle of the campaign season, setting up a protracted fight at the convention between old-guard and new-school factions. The most positive message conveyed to the media all during this time was: well, we're going to have to lower our sights somewhat. And guess what? The media picked up on the defeatist attitude of the bigwigs who call themselves Democrats and ran with it. Over and over.

The state party -- the tattered shards of it, anyway -- was so impotent that it gave up on all of the statewide races long before the party's convention in June of this year. All of the enthusiasm generated by the grassroots in Fort Worth for the slate of populist candidates was wasted on the small band of elitists and insiders pulling the strings and moving the money around, who had long since determined -- and telegraphed to the media -- that there was no hope this year.

They didn't even do a good job of going through the motions. Their overt acts of capitulation contradicted their mealy-mouthed expressions of support. Well, most of the time that was the case, though I frequently heard the following:

"We have limited resources." "We can't concentrate on every race." "This is a rebuilding year." "We need more staff and better databases in order to rebuild our infrastructure so we can be competitive in (pick one: 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014)."

In that respect, the men in charge of the Texas Democratic Party -- that would be Fred Baron and Matt Angle -- did exactly what they said they would do.

Performance met expectations. I suppose congratulations are in order. What do you think, Boyd?

"There's enough credit for everyone involved in the effort," state Democratic Party chairman Boyd Richie said. "But certainly the (Texas Democratic) trust created an atmosphere where we could organize, plan and execute."

Can't wait to see the game plan for 2008, fellas. Here's a question for Freddy Bosshog: do you think John Edwards can carry Texas as the presidential nominee? Can he at least win the Texas primary in March of year-after-next, or will he be an Iowa-only kinda guy (he IS lookin' good in the Hawkeye State, for whatever that's worth)?

Hey Matty All-the-Angles: who are you recruiting to run against Senator Box Turtle? Oh wait; that's Boyd's job -- allegedly. Can Nick Lampson hold that seat in 22, ya think? And who's gonna challenge Ralph Hall, Boyd? Got anybody in mind besides you?

Boy, I'm stoked. *belch* *fart*

Update: Burka says ...

Opportunities like 2006 only come along once in a generation, and Democrats failed to make the most of this one.

Bush's Brain Damaged

"How could one notice," you're thinking. Not referring to the one encased in his skull, in this case:

President Bush had many explanations for what he called the "thumping" his party took on Tuesday, but the most creative was the notion that his chief strategist, Karl Rove, had spent too much time reading books.

"I obviously was working harder on the campaign than he was," the president said at (the Wednesday November 8) East Room news conference. The reporters laughed. The Architect, who had challenged Bush to a reading contest, wore a sheepish grin and stared at his lap.

Newsweek piles on:

Rove's miscalculations began well before election night. The polls and pundits pointed to a Democratic sweep, but Rove dismissed them all. In public, he predicted outright victory, flashing the V sign to reporters flying on Air Force One. He wasn't just trying to psych out the media and the opposition. He believed his "metrics" were far superior to plain old polls. Two weeks before the elections, Rove showed NEWSWEEK his magic numbers: a series of graphs and bar charts that tallied early voting and voter outreach. Both were running far higher than in 2004. In fact, Rove thought the polls were obsolete because they relied on home telephones in an age of do-not-call lists and cell phones. Based on his models, he forecast a loss of 12 to 14 seats in the House -- enough to hang on to the majority. Rove placed so much faith in his figures that, after the elections, he planned to convene a panel of Republican political scientists -- to study just how wrong the polls were.

So a reputation as 'genius', painstakingly constructed over nearly a lifetime, washed away in a single wave.

I built a sandcastle once, too. Only took me a few hours though. And boy was I crushed when the tide came in that afternoon.

I can only imagine how sick Karl must be feeling these days.

Houston's Veterans

From yesterday's parade here:



From Arlington West (in California):



Arlington West is the Veterans for Peace project to acknowledge the loss of life in Bush's Iraq war.

Yesterday in Houston, the Veterans for Peace contingent marching in our parade received a great deal of positive feedback, but there were a few boos and heckles of "peace is cowardly" and so on. (We have the classiest conservatives around here.)

Images above courtesy Houston Chronicle. See also this story about the younger veterans and how they were impacted by their participation in the parade. Be sure also and click on the moving multimedia entitled "Three Generations of War".

Ed Bradley, 1941-2006

Bradley had many nicknames throughout his life, including Big Daddy, when he played defensive end and offensive tackle in the 1960s at Cheyney State College; but his favorite, (Charlayne) Hunter-Gault and (Jimmy) Buffett said, was Teddy Badly, which Buffett bestowed on him onstage the first time Bradley played tambourine at his side.

“Everybody in my opinion needs a little Mardi Gras in their life, and he liked to have a little more than the average person on occasion.”

“He was such a great journalist,” Buffett added, “but he still knew how to have a good time.”

One mo' for Biggio

Biggio, 40, will begin next season just 70 hits shy of becoming the first player in team history and 27th all-time to reach the 3,000-hit total, a feat that will cement his Hall of Fame credentials.

He's the club's all-time leader in games (2,709), hits (2,930), at-bats (10,359), runs (1,776), doubles (637), extra-base hits (970) and total bases (4,514). He's second in homers (281) and RBIs (1,125).

In 1988 I was still a newly-wed and we had just moved to Midland, Texas so that I could become the national advertising manager for the Reporter-Telegram. It was difficult to impossible to get Astros games or news in West Texas at the time -- not much in the way of satellite TV, no Internet quite yet, ESPN was just coming around.

It was 1993 before we moved back to Houston. I had to be in San Diego training for a new assignment during the time allotted for our move and asked my wife to find an apartment as close as possible to the Astrodome, so that I could go see a game whenever I chose. She accommodated me and found us a little loft on Holly Hall where I could walk right down the street to the Dome. From my front door to the box office on the east side: twenty minutes.

I got to see Biggio (and Bagwell) on the field on a regular basis. They're the best ballplayers Houston has ever had. Not counting Hakeem and Earl, of course.

All the best to Biggio as he chases 3,000 next summer.

Update (11/13): HouStoned is a bit harsher on Bidge.

"As far as two-handed push-ups ..."

" ... you can do that all night, and it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not."

Rest in peace, Jack.

OK. I suppose I'm a little encouraged

by this:

Harris County Democratic and Republican officials have looked at Tuesday's local election results and they agree: The GOP-dominated county government could be recaptured by Democrats as soon as 2008.

"Believe me, it's being discussed," said Republican Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, a conservative leader. "It's an amazing wake-up call," said Republican County Commissioner Steve Radack.

In an election when many ethnic minority voters didn't vote, Republican judicial candidates on the bottom half of the Harris County ballot won by an average of fewer than four percentage points — 52 percent to 48 percent.

The average margin four years ago was more than nine points.

If minority voters had been energized, as they might be in the 2008 presidential year, it could have been a Democratic sweep, some analysts said. They point to Dallas County, long a GOP stronghold, where Democrats claimed every countywide seat elected Tuesday.

Here's what political analysts and party officials are seeing:

Countywide judicial races are considered a good indicator of party feelings. There are so many of them that voters tend to choose based on party affiliation rather than knowledge of individual candidates or issues. The Houston Chronicle calculated the combined GOP margin of victory for all contested races for state district courts, which are elected countywide.

It was 3.9 percentage points, the smallest since at least 1998.

Some Republicans evaluating Tuesday's results said conservatives didn't get out to vote. Others said the problem might be that fewer Republicans voted straight-party tickets because the governor's race included two independent candidates. Those lost straight-ticket votes might have benefited down-ballot judicial races that voters otherwise didn't bother with, Radack theorized.

Democrats noted that the margin in the judicial races was close even though ethnic minorities who generally vote Democratic skipped the election, which featured few Hispanic or non-Hispanic black candidates in showcase races. In the 11 state House districts within Harris County that have Anglo majorities, voter turnout Tuesday was 36 percent. In the 12 with non-Hispanic black and Hispanic majorities, the turnout was 26 percent. Local Republicans faced a national political current Tuesday that they hope is temporary -- congressional scandals and wide dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq.

But the demographic trends are long-term: The Hispanic population is booming and the Anglo population is not.

"The Republican Party is not attracting minority voters the way it should. I've been saying this for 10 years," Radack said. Former Harris County Democratic Chairwoman Sue Schechter said she regrets the party didn't put more money into the judicial races this time. It might have made a difference, she said. Rice University political science professor Bob Stein said an immediate effect of Tuesday's local and national results could be interest from talented Democrats who realize they have a legitimate chance to be elected next time around.

Radack predicted trial lawyers, stung by lawsuit limitations enacted by Republicans, will pour money into the races.

When state District Judge Katie Kennedy stepped down in 1999, she was the last countywide Democratic officeholder. In the closest Harris County judicial race Tuesday, Democrat Mary Kay Green got 49.4 percent of the votes against Republican incumbent Annette Galik for a family-court bench. The margin of victory was 6,800 votes, but the "under vote" — the number of people who voted in other races on the ballot but not that one — was 51,000. There's no way to tell which candidate would have benefited most had those 51,000 voters made a choice for the 245th District Court.

But the demographic and political trends seem clear.

"Doomsday is coming," said UH political science professor Richard Murray.

Radack said factors such as the independent gubernatorial candidates and national scandals made things worse this year. But the handwriting was on the wall for anyone who cared to read it, he said.

Many of the minority/majority precincts in Harris County (one of which I chair) had, to be kind, an under-representation at the polls on Tuesday. But from a Texas perspective, it also appears that our Democratic base in El Paso and the Valley sat this one out in large measure.

That cost the Democratic Party some judges, county-wide and statewide.

Was it the fault of the candidates? The TDP, and Boyd Richie specifically? The voter registration effort, or the GOTV one? How about the media? Or should the voters themselves take some blame for being blase' ?

Everybody catches a little bit, I suppose, but it may be something we can improve on next go-round.

I must say however that I believe this incremental strategy is bullshit. There was constant repetition from the party machinery in Austin that this was a rebuilding year, that we should only focus on a few select races, that the efforts of fund-raising and spending would be on infrastructure and rebuilding for 2008 and not on candidates and races in 2006, because there was really no hope of achieving anything any grander like capturing a statewide office.

Congratulations, Mr. Richie. Your strategy was executed flawlessly.

A closing thought from my man David:

I must add that despite the results in Texas, I'm ecstatic about the Democratic takeover of the Congress. These midterm results may have saved the country from dictatorship and civil war.

The Bushite arctic freeze is thawing nationally but in Texas we're still iced in. Fight 'em on the ice.