You talkin' ta me?

Tex-Blog Corral (and other great candidate news)

Let's begin with two Galveston-area Democrats who have declared their intentions to run for office in 2008, Joe Jaworski for SD-11 and Judge Susan Criss for the Texas Supreme Court, and wrap up with Glen Maxey for Travis County tax assessor-collector.

I met both Criss and Jaworski through our mutual association with the Van Os campaign in 2006. They were each strong supporters of David's, which naturally means they are both progressive Democrats. They are also the brightest of legal minds and once again are precisely the kind of people we need to get elected to public office.

Criss has served as the judge of the 212th District Court in Galveston since 1999 and has presided over many significant cases, including the semi-sensational Robert Durst murder trial. Judge Criss attended the Juneteenth Filibuster for Freedom last summer in Galveston with her father, SD committeeman Lloyd Criss, and has a great blog herself. She's challenging yet another odious Republican, Phil Johnson.

Joe Jaworski (yes, he's related) will take on Mike "Inaction" Jackson for the right to represent the Eleventh Senate District of Texas in 2008. Jaworski has served most recently as mayor pro-tem of Galveston and practices law in the family firm; Jackson was just named "furniture" in Texas Monthly's annual "Best and Worst Legislators" edition.

Glen Maxey makes a return to electoral politics after being narrowly defeated for Texas Democratic Party chair at last June's state Democratic convention in Fort Worth. He's challenging 16-year incumbent Nelda Wells Spears. Maxey intends to emphasize the "voter registration" responsibility of the TA-C job:

"There are basically four functions in the office," said Maxey -- taxes, fees and fines, vehicle titling and registration, and voters' registration -- and he describes its current operations as "fairly efficient but not being used to its potential," especially concerning voter outreach and registration. "We're not using the power of the office to achieve 100-percent registration of eligible voters," he said.

And here's more from around the Tex-blogosphere:

It's 11:30, do you know where your blogger is?

McBlogger sees "little Patty Rose" at one of his favorite Austin bars.

Taking Texas Back

Texas Kaos continues its podcast series, hosted by Refinish69.

This week features an interview with Mike Engelhart, who is running for 151st District Court judge in Harris County. I first met Mike when we worked on Barbara Radnofsky's US Senate campaign in the last cycle. He's also a blogging judicial candidate.

Going Public

Capitol Annex takes a look at the implications of the IPO of Kolberg Kravis Roberts, which is presently negotiating to purchase utility giant (and coal plant builder) TXU.

Do you want Blackwater types patroling our border?

South Texas Chisme writes about DynCorp International, a Virginia-based military security firm, stating it could train and deploy 1,000 private agents to the US-Mexico border within 13 months, offering a quick surge of law enforcement officers to a region struggling to clamp down on illegal immigration.

And Don't Forget that Senate Race

Burnt Orange Report reminds that John Cornyn reeks and either Mikal Watts or Rick Noriega is a vast improvement (Watts not so much, but that's just my humble O).

Half Empty explores the idea of another draft movement. Why not draft Mikal Watts For Chief Justice of Texas 3rd Court of Appeals?

Border sheriffs ask: "Where's our money?"

Remember all that money that was allocated by the Lege for border security? Border sheriffs want to know why their buddy Rick Perry isn't giving more of it to them. Off the Kuff takes a look.

Sunday Funnies (DiCKO, Subpoenas, and the Supremes edition)

(view this last one full screen; it's a classic)

Es un Domingo de Noriega

Noriega moves closer to run for US Senate:

Fresh off his wife's victory onto the Houston City Council, state Rep. Rick Noriega is poised to launch a race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate to challenge Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. ...

Noriega, 49, began looking at a challenge during this year's legislative session, but he put off any direct action until after his wife, Melissa, won her City Council runoff election last month. ...

But now Melissa Noriega's race is over, and a dozen of the state's most influential left-leaning blogs have begun an Internet "Draft Rick Noriega" movement. Noriega called it "flattering."

Yes, that would be us.

Reading further in the article we find once again the ubiquitous Matt Angle quoted:

Democratic political consultant Matt Angle said a Democratic victory in the Senate race is possible next year because the mood of the state has turned away from Republicans on national issues, and the one-party administration of state government has turned many people off.

"Nobody's under any illusions: A Republican still goes into a statewide race in Texas with an advantage, but it would be irresponsible for Democrats not to make a sincere effort to win a statewide race, especially when you have some quality candidates," Angle said.

Now I hate to take space in a post that contains such good news and say something negative, but that goddamned Matt Angle just has a special talent for getting my goat. Say this for him: he's a clever wordsmith. He managed to tell the bald-ass truth about himself and work in an insult against the 2006 slate of Democrtaic candidates, all in one sentence.

Unwittingly (perhaps), Angle also points to the most glaring deficiency of Noriega's declared primary opponent, Mikal Watts.

Watts, through a now-defunct PAC operating out of Corpus Christi law offices, donated tens of thousands of dollars to both Greg Abbott and David Dewhurst in the 2006 cycle. He did so -- allegedly -- because the Democratic party bosses in Texas told him that the 2006 statewide candidates didn't have a chance of winning.

Angle demonstrated the defeatist attitude of the Texas Democratic Party's elders not only by telling influential donors like Watts that the Democrats nominated in 2006 -- one of which, you may recall, I labored for -- were a lost cause, he made certain no genuine effort was made on their behalf by sending his operatives to work in the TDP's Austin offices.

I've already bitched quite a bit about this previously (type "Angle" in the 'search this blog' box at the top of the page if you want to re-read it; I just don't feel like linking back to it any more). Angle is sending some folks down to Houston to help us take Harris County blue in 2008, so maybe our paths will cross at some point and we can hash this out privately. For now I want everyone to be clear that I have a difficult time considering Matt Angle, TDP chair Boyd Richie, and the Texas Democratic Trust allies in electing progressives. DINOs, yes. Real Democrats, not so much. I hope I get to blog something more encouraging about this shortly.

Enough of that. Back to the encouraging development, and that's Rick Noriega answering the call to run for the Senate.

His record of service in the National Guard, in the Texas House, and to the city of Houston during the Katrina exodus has been nothing short of exemplary. He's a true progressive Democrat and has demonstrated a from-the-heart populism that stands for the people and against the powerful. In these times of creeping fascism throughout our nation, that position is neither expedient nor popular. It is, however, vital to the health of our republican democracy.

Noriega is precisely the kind of candidate, the kind of leader -- and man, and human being -- that Texas desperately needs after too many years of Bush and his lickspittles destroying our Constitution, our economy, our freedoms, our military, our respect in the world ... our country.

There's no one I will work harder to get elected in 2008 than Rick Noriega. He is the real deal.

This week's GOP Screw-up Round-up

If we leave the Bush Monarchy out of it and focus solely on the presidential candidate comedy troupe, we find a pretty funny collection. First up, Fred "The Second Coming of Reagan" Thompson:

Fred Thompson, who is weighing a Republican presidential bid as a social conservative, "has no recollection" of performing lobbying work in 1991 for a family planning group that was seeking to relax an abortion counseling rule, a spokesman said Friday.

Write him off. Getting paid for advocating for reproductive freedom when you're supposed to be a fundamentalist is the kiss of death. Then again, this is just the kind of rank hypocrisy that the last vestiges of the Republican base laps up like thirsty dogs. That he's working the Alberto Gonzales/Sergeant Schultz defense right from the get-go suggests it's his only way out.

Next, Mitt Romney's porno problem:

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, who rails against pornography, is being criticized by social conservatives who argue that he should have tried to halt hardcore hotel movie offerings during his near-decade on the Marriott board.

Two conservative activists say the distribution of such graphic adult movies runs counter to the family image cultivated by Romney, the Marriotts and their shared Mormon faith.

"Marriott is a major pornographer. And even though he may have fought it, everyone on that board is a hypocrite for presenting themselves as family values when their hotels offer 70 different types of hardcore pornography," said Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, an anti-pornography group based in Ohio.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a leading conservative group in Washington, said: "They have to assume some responsibility. It's their hotels, it's their television sets."

During a recent Associated Press interview, Romney said he did not recall pornography coming up for discussion while he was on the Marriott board from 1992 to 2001. He also said he was unaware of how much revenue pornography may have generated for the hotel chain.

Once again, a Republican presidential candidate cannot recall selling himself out from under conservative val-yews. Who will the fundies turn to now? Newt?

John McCain is going down in flames. Ron Paul has more money than Senator Surge; the Maverick is going to be the first one forced to quit the race. The guy who's been leading in the polls for the Republics the past year, the famously cross-dressing Rudy Giuliani, is also quite stupid relative to historical comparisons. No surprise there. Again, most conservatives are equally ignorant of facts, so they may not hold it against him.

Is there a second-tier candidate who can capitalize on the front-runners' missteps? Duncan "Ann Coulter is a great American" Hunter? Tom "Kill the Illegals" Tancredo? Mike "WTF?" Huckabee? I know I'm leaving out some conservative stalwart ...

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the Right has got to be feeling mighty queasy these days.

LiveEarth concerts all day

On Bravo now, also MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, Sundance and NBC tonight.

Former vice-president's son busted for drugs

I wonder what kind of car he was driving:

A new book by Texas author J.H. Hatfield claims that George W. Bush was arrested for cocaine possession in 1972, but had his record expunged with help from his family's political connections. In an afterword to his book "Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President" (St. Martin's), Hatfield says he took a second look at the Bush cocaine allegations after a story in Salon reporting allegations that Bush did community service for the crime at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Houston's Third Ward.

The center's executive director, Madgelean Bush (no relation to George W. Bush), had told Salon News and others that Bush did not do community service there, and the Bush campaign likewise denied the allegation. But the Texas governor had admitted to working at Houston's Project P.U.L.L. in 1972, and Hatfield says he began to wonder if that was actually the community service sentence. Hatfield says he confirmed those suspicions with three sources close to the Bush family he had cultivated while writing his biography, which publishes Wednesday.

By contrast, "First Son: George W. Bush and the Family Dynasty," by Dallas Morning News reporter Bill Minutaglio, says George Bush Sr. referred his son to Project P.U.L.L. after an incident in which George W. drove drunk with his younger brother Marvin in the car.

But Hatfield quotes "a high-ranking advisor to Bush" who confirmed that Bush was arrested for cocaine possession in Houston in 1972, and had the record expunged by a judge who was "a fellow Republican and elected official" who helped Bush get off "with a little community service at a minority youth center instead of having to pick cotton on a Texas prison farm."

When you stumble across douchebaggery like this, it always helps to get, you know, a "fair and balanced" perspective.