Tributes to Lady Bird Johnson and Ann Richards -- and Sen. Gallegos

Still shot compilations with musical accompaniment by Dolly Parton's "Wildflowers Don't Care Where They Grow" and Asleep at the Wheel's "Yellow Rose of Texas".

Shockingly absent was a tribute to Molly Ivins. That earns a great big WTF from me.

After a break in the action, Sen. Watson introduces a videotape on the Voter ID "fraud" non-issue. Lyndon Johnson's signing of the Voting Rights Act, juxtaposed with Sen. Mario Gallegos on his bed in the hallway of the Capitol during the end of the last session. Continuing with an interview with him and a discussion of his liver transplant, the breakdown of the legislative battle first in the Texas House and then the Senate, the complicated matters behind the nature of the suppression and disenfranchisement, and more.

Videotaped legislative speeches are highlighted, bringing the non-issue into greater focus. Royal Masset, Harvey Kronberg, and others are quoted. The relevant statistic is a average of 3% of the voter turnout across the states suppressed.

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst's treachery -- bringing the bill up when Sen. Uresti fell ill -- is underscored. The Star-Telegram's editorial entitled "A Poll Tax?" gets a mention.

This video ought to be required viewing for everyone demonstrating any misunderstanding or confusion of the issue.

Finally one of the women whom AG Greg Abbott charged with voter "fraud" told her story, about carrying some mail ballots to the post office for some seniors who could not do so themselves. She introduced Gallegos, who made a few thank-yous and expressed his solidarity for continuing the fight.

One-legged man wins ass-kicking contest with GOP

Lloyd Doggett, bless his broken whatever:

(Doggett) hobbled onto the convention stage, slowed by a broken leg, to rail against the Republicans and the “Bush-Chicanery administration” to a very receptive crowd.

“Thanks to Tom DeLay I’ve had the opportunity to represent much of Texas, just not all at the same time,” Doggett quipped.

The “W” in George W. Bush must stand for “worse-ever” or “whopper”, Doggett said, referring to the book by former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan.

And he quashed the notion that John McCain would bring anything other than a redux of the Bush administration.

“Been there and done that, done that for eight painful years.”

I think Kate's sitting somewhere behind me. The media room has gotten really popular in the past few minutes because you don't have to work on your laptop off your lap, and because they brought in lunch about a half-hour ago.

My personal (dis)favorite of Doggett's remarks was: "John McCain as President means Phil Gramm as Secretary of the Treasury."

And that, ladies and gentlemen who have threatened to vote for McLame because Clinton won't be available to you, is just one more reason why no one can, or should, take you seriously.

Another historic moment

... in a truly historic presidential campaign. Mrs. Clinton's concession speech is broadcast to the floor for delegates and guests to watch. But the satellite feed goes down for a few minutes, a handful of times. If you know what "Searching for Signal" means, you know what's going on.

Those of us in the press room are watching the rest of it online while the delegates get entertained with some Springsteen.

I'll have some of the more emotional parts in a text update later.

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Update:

Thank you very, very much. Well, this isn't exactly the party I'd planned, but I sure like the company.

(APPLAUSE) And I want to start today by saying how grateful I am to all of you, to everyone who poured your hearts and your hopes into this campaign, who drove for miles and lined the streets waving homemade signs, who scrimped and saved to raise money, who knocked on doors and made calls, who talked, sometimes argued with your friends and neighbors...

(APPLAUSE)

... who e-mailed and contributed online, who invested so much in our common enterprise, to the moms and dads who came to our events, who lifted their little girls and little boys on their shoulders and whispered in their ears, "See, you can be anything you want to be."

(APPLAUSE)

To the young people...

(APPLAUSE)

... like 13-year-old Anne Riddell (ph) from Mayfield, Ohio, who had been saving for two years to go to Disney World and decided to use her savings instead to travel to Pennsylvania with her mom and volunteer there, as well.

To the veterans, to the childhood friends, to New Yorkers and Arkansans...

(APPLAUSE)

... who traveled across the country, telling anyone who would listen why you supported me. And to all of those women in their 80s and their 90s...

(APPLAUSE)

... born before women could vote, who cast their votes for our campaign. I've told you before about Florence Stein (ph) of South Dakota who was 88 years old and insisted that her daughter bring an absentee ballot to her hospice bedside. Her daughter and a friend put an American flag behind her bed and helped her fill out the ballot.

She passed away soon after and, under state law, her ballot didn't count, but her daughter later told a reporter, "My dad's an ornery, old cowboy, and he didn't like it when he heard Mom's vote wouldn't be counted. I don't think he had voted in 20 years, but he voted in place of my mom."

(APPLAUSE)

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Trailblazers asks some tough questions. I don't have the same disagreement; I'm feeling the unity this afternoon.

Seven thousand two hundred and thirty-nine

That's the number of Texans signed in as delegates to the 2008 state party convention, and each indicated a presidential preference.

Those numbers were 4,144 for Obama, 3,088 for Clinton, and seven undecided (you gotta love it).

The percentages are 57.3% Obama, 42.7% Clinton. That translates into 24 Obama delegates to the national convention, in Denver in August, and 18 for Hillary. Each camp gets three alternates.

Update: Trailblazers has the full and final tally... Obama 99, Clinton 94.

More entertainment, less offense

-- Susan "Juanita's/Big Blue Butt" Bankston's maiden effort for the Texas Observer finds her in agreement with those of us who loved the Texas Four-Step Primacaucus:

We like to fight in Texas. Philadelphia has Independence Hall; we have the Alamo. Oregon has Lewis and Clark; we have William B. Travis and Sam Houston. It is common knowledge that honky-tonks were created so people could fight to music.

In Texas, the hybrid system suits us fine because we Texans like a little of this and a little of that. Why opt for just voting or for just a caucus when you can have both? We like to sample a little of each, which, in case you were wondering, explains the popularity of Mexican food and barbecue in Texas. Any Mexican restaurant that doesn’t have a different combination platter named for every city on both sides of the border and a couple of suburbs of San Antonio isn’t going to stay open for more than a month. If you order barbecue in North Carolina, you get a plate heaped with a gray mound of something horrible they did to pork. Then, as if to rectify it, they pour pure, unadulterated vinegar all over it. In Texas, you get a choice of at least six meats and seven sides, not to mention four kinds of cobbler and three pies for desert. The best barbecue joints in Texas have two sauces, for those fool enough to ruin perfectly good meat with ’em—the sweet one and the other one.

We are a fighting, hybrid bunch of people.

Folks who complain that Democrats won’t win if we keep fighting just might have caught themselves some memory problems. Texas Democrats are at our most powerful when we fight like the dickens. There were bitter, name-calling, biting, and hair-pulling battles between Lloyd Bentsen and Ralph Yarborough. Ann Richards and Jim Mattox fought each other mean and propelled us to the governor’s mansion. Compared with those battles, this is vacation Bible school.

-- A slideshow from Somervell County is worth going all the way through (just to see if you can find a picture of yourself).

More sneers, snubs, shuns, and dirty looks ahead

for your intrepid reporter...

-- That dress. Dear God, is that the spinnaker from the HMS Pinafore?

-- "Oh gosh! Oh gosh! Oh gosh! I'm used to ... much smaller (ones). You give new meaning to the phrase 'Everything's bigger in Texas!' "

And she said that while still clothed in the draperies from the funeral home.

--Burnt Orange Report has reported on the Lapel Sticker Primary, that David Van Os didn't file the necessary paperwork with the Texas Election Commission (dutifully following the breathless accounts of Ye Olde Texas Blue), and then by golly, that he had done so.

Today we can expect postings from either one of those two fine shops indicating that Barack Obama has endorsed DVO to spite Boyd Richie for his snubbing of the Obama campaign two weeks ago, that the Van Os campaign took over the Flower Mound Democrats booth in the exhibit hall and Molly Beth Malcomb had to run over and try to stop them -- and failed when her red outfit suddenly ripped at the seam, and finally, that Bill White has entered the race for state party chair in order to unify the fractured convention.

-- I saw Pink Lady's toes at the Bloggers' Caucus too, and I'm not sure whether Charles is foot-fetishing or what. (Me, I thought she'd had a boobjob since I last saw her. I could be mistaken, though...)

All at once, from the left of the Texas blogosphere comes a low "SSSSShhhhuuunnnnnnnn"...

Don't forget that I still love all of you.