Lampson is not in for the Senate, and more bloggerrhea

Just a week ago I confidently posted that Nick Lampson would declare his challenge to Senator Box Turtle for the US Senate in 2008, but yesterday Lampson, through his local spokesperson Mustafa Tameez, told the Austin American-Statesman he was a no-go:

A Senate bid is “not going to happen,” Tameez said. “It sounds goofy, but he feels like he made a commitment to the people of Congressional District 22.” Tameez said Lampson feels a Senate try would be “disingenuous.”

I am delighted to have misread the tea leaves. Of course I am more inclined to believe that the blogswarm over his dithering forced him to reconsider, but that's only because I have an inflated sense of self-importance. And considering he's at the top of Karl Rove's hitlist, he'd better go to work right now nailing down his seat in the House.

Elsewhere:

-- "Lyndon Johnson's mistress claims LBJ told her that he had JFK killed!"

-- Paul Burka found Tom Craddick in a bald-face contradiction. I'm shockedIsay.

-- The terrorists are NOT going to follow us home (so stop staying that):

The President and his supporters have been repeatedly expressing their concern that if US troops left Iraq before the war is "won" as they define it, Al Qaeda in Iraq would follow us home and carry out their terror campaigns in the streets of America instead of Baghdad. Critics like myself are suggesting the President has chosen once again to engage in fear-mongering to try to manipulate American public opinion on the war. He has done so in a desperate attempt to rationalize our continued occupation in the hope of salvaging his, and his party's, legacy. In the end, his and his supporters' claims will be proven to be just as self-serving, misguided, and delusional as the claims they made leading up to the war in Iraq about Saddam's WMDs, mushroom clouds, and being greeted as liberators.

Ironically, the only way they would have followed us home would have been if George W. Bush had actually succeeded in imposing his will on the people of the Middle East. Then they would have followed us home for revenge, much like they did on 9/11. Otherwise, they are no more or less likely to follow us home any more than we did the British, or the Viet Cong did us.

-- The movie critic at FOX News loves Michael Moore's new movie, SiCKO. There's hope for everything.

-- New sponsors of this blog include the National Cheney Impeachment Poll. Here, have an Impeachmint.

Sunday Funnies (Memorial Day edition)

Craddick Coup continues today

There was a revolt last night in the Texas House.

BOR followed the action (several other threads provided play-by-play as well). The House parliamentarians resigned due to the dictatorial will of Speaker Craddick. He replaced them with his stooge, former Rep. Terry Keel, who literally fed the Speaker his lines. (Muse had the quick wit on this comic drama.) Craddick refused to recognize motions -- even from Republicans like Fred Hill -- to consider the vacation of the chair.

Parliamentary procedure denied, the House was in an uproar most of the late evening and early morning, at the end of the legislative session, with numerous bills still to be considered. An historical pandemonium -- not since 1871 has a motion to vacate the chair been advanced -- and Craddick declared that occurrence divined no precedent in this case. He declared that any attempt to remove him would have to be an impeachment proceeding, requiring a two/thirds majority of the House's members to advance.

Update (ten minutes after original post): Via Eye on Williamson, John Kelso applies the, uh, coup de grace:

Mention Craddick’s name and the words “mean,” “small” and “autocratic” come up. I’ve heard him called autocratic so often I’m surprised they haven’t started calling him Otto — as in “Otto” Craddick.

So nevermind being civilized.

Just wait till he’s not there. Then send a moving crew of members into his posh 2,000-square-foot apartment behind the House chamber, and leave his stuff out on the Capitol lawn on bulky trash day.

Today the House reconvenes, at 11 a.m. Quite a few more of us will be watching.

Bush won't fire Abu Gonzales, so let's do it for him

Sparrow makes statement on Bush's statement on Gonzales

ABC's Ann Compton reports: An outdoor news conference in perfect spring weather, with birds chirping loudly in the magnolia trees, is not without its hazards.

As President Bush took a question Thursday in the White House Rose Garden about scandals involving his Attorney General, he remarked, "I've got confidence in Al Gonzales doin' the job."

Simultaneously, a sparrow flew overhead and left a splash on the President's sleeve, which Bush tried several times to wipe off.

No word on whether the on-the-sleeve incident can be successfully cleaned in the White House spin cycle.

Video here: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3209176

Ron Paul: Rudy needs to read up

I just love the way Dr. No is making the GOP crazy:

"I'm giving Mr. Giuliani a reading assignment," the nine-term Texas congressman said as he stood behind a stack of books that included the report by the commission that examined the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. ...

"I don't think he's qualified to be president," Paul said of Giuliani. "If he was to read the book and report back to me and say, 'I've changed my mind,' I would reconsider."

Among the books on Paul's reading list were: "Dying to Win," which argues that suicide bombers only mobilize against an occupying force; "Blowback," which examines the unintended consequences of U.S. foreign policy; and the 9/11 Commission Report, which says that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was angered by the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. Another book on the list was "Imperial Hubris," whose author appeared at the press conference to offer support for Paul.

"Foreign policy is about protecting America," said author Michael Scheuer, who used to head the CIA's bin Laden unit. "Our foreign policy is doing the opposite."

A Giuliani campaign official could not confirm whether he had read any of the books on Paul's list.

Since an assortment of lunatics on the right fringe were incensed by Paul's insinuations after last week's Republican pukefest debate, I'll look forward to more sputtering indignation from over there in short order.