Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Texas Lege shenanigans continue

The House may throw out the Speaker -- or not, and the Senate will probably kill democracy at the ballot box, before the 80th ends but almost certainly in a special to be named later.

Craddick's woes:

Burka, Kuffner, Leibowitz, Eye on Williamson. And The Observer.

Dewhurst's folly:

BOR, NTL, STC, and TK.

And many others. The MSM blogs -- Postcards and TP -- have been good on the topics as well.

I am never embarrassed to be a Texan, except when the Legislature is in session.

Hillary outpolls "Other" but trails "No Freakin' Clue"

Who is currently your favorite 2008 candidate?

7%1247 votes
6%1035 votes
6%1051 votes
24%4223 votes
39%6878 votes
8%1484 votes
2%510 votes
0%134 votes
0%135 votes
3%531 votes


Similar results at MyDD, though Richardson and Obama trade places for second and third.

John Edwards 1,992 (48.4%)
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD __ :
Bill Richardson 1,086 (26.4%)
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH __________________________ :
Barack Obama 686 (16.7%)
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG _____________________________________ :
Other 105 (2.6%)
III ____________________________________________________ :
Hillary Clinton 92 (2.2%)
BBB ____________________________________________________ :
Mike Gravel 48 (1.2%)
E ______________________________________________________ :
Chris Dodd 37 (0.9%)
C ______________________________________________________ :
Unsure 28 (0.7%)
J ______________________________________________________ :
Dennis Kucinich 23 (0.6%)
F ______________________________________________________ :
Joe Biden 17 (0.4%)

In all of the terrestrial polling -- which matters more than the results shown above -- Hillary is the leader, and is strengthening her lead. Sheila J-L just announced her endorsement, which I consider significant (in that she called it so early and not for Obama).

So while the Repubs continue to flail and flog each other, the offline Democrats appear to be coalescing around their front-runner.

This is a depressing and disconcerting prospect.

I will find it difficult to impossible to cast a vote for Hillary Clinton for president, as much as I respect and admire her (and believe she would be an excellent commander-in-chief). I find the Senator from New York too conservative for my taste, as I did her husband, and I further believe she is toxic to our down-ballot races in Texas, which would probably prevent Democratic candidates from unseating undesirables like John Cornyn, John Culberson, and many others.

She wouldn't campaign here except to fly in and out of Austin and probably someone's home in River Oaks, leaving with several million dollars to spend anywhere but Texas.

Hillary Clinton at the top of the ticket sets Texas Democrats back another generation. I cannot support her candidacy -- even if she is the nominee -- on that basis alone.