International pariah

No one offers their hand. He doesn't offer his. He knows, after all, what an outcast he is.

Box Turtle's new chewtoy

Our freshly re-elected junior senator gets to be the boy that gets more Republican senators elected. In the glorious words of Bobby Knight: "He couldn't lead a hooker to bed":

In his new role, Cornyn will have to oversee a coming election cycle in which Republicans could stand to weather further losses. Among GOPers whose 2010 races are shaping up as potential nailbiters are Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky, and Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.

The GOP in fact stands to lose even more seats in 2010 than they did this year. Kagro X:

The title says "National," but the party's increasingly regional. The hard-right rump of what used to be a national base. And the GOP's cure? A hard-right Texan, who is, rather fortuitously, a bit of a rump himself.

But really, what choice have they got? You choose your leaders from the Senators you have, not the Senators you might want, or might wish to have at a later time.

Now, my humble O is that these jobs are a little overblown. After all Chuck Schumer, who does the same thing for our side at the DSCC, did nothing that I could observe to recruit Barbara Radnofsky in 2006 or Rick Noriega in 2008, and even less to help them. Recall that Mikal Watts raised over a million bucks last year for Schumer (that he must have spent somewhere else besides in Texas, obviously).

Will Corndog be the referee that separates the scrum that develops if Kay Bailey resigns her seat to run for Guvnah in 2010? She doesn't have to step aside, so it may not be necessary to even do that unless she won, and then called a special election for 2011 to replace herself.

And what does Corndog think he can do to stanch the GOP bleeding? Raise more money? Recruit better Republicans in other states to run?

Good luck with that, buddy.

Countdown to 60 in the Senate

Mark Begich makes it 58 (counting Bernie Sanders and Joe the Plumber):

Sen. Ted Stevens' election defeat marks the end of an era in which he held a commanding place in Alaska politics while wielding power on some of the most influential committees in Congress.

It also moves Senate Democrats within two seats of a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority and gives President-elect Barack Obama a stronger hand when he assumes office on Jan. 20.

On the day the longest-serving Republican in Senate history turned 85, he was ousted by Alaska voters troubled by his conviction on federal felony charges and eager for a new direction in Washington, where Stevens served since Lyndon B. Johnson was president.

Alaska voters "wanted to see change," said Democrat Mark Begich, who claimed a narrow victory Tuesday after a tally of remaining ballots showed him holding a 3,724-vote edge.

"Alaska has been in the midst of a generational shift — you could see it," said Begich, the Anchorage mayor.

Courtesy of historian Carl Whitmarsh, we have more on the Alaskan Senator-elect:

[Begich] is the son of the late US Rep. Nicholas Begich, who was killed in a plane crash while campaigning for re-election in October 1972 with then-House Whip Hale Boggs of Louisiana (father of ABC's Cokie Roberts and lobbyist Tommy Boggs), whose wife Lindy succeeded him in Congress and served New Orleans for some 26 years. The elder Begich and Boggs were presumed killed when their plane disappeared in the mountains of Alaska and they were declared dead in December after no wreckage or bodies could be found. Mark Begich was 8 years old at the time of his father's death.

So a recount in Minnesota and a runoff in Georgia are the last remaining Republican roadblocks to a super-majority. The links detail the circumstances; Al Franken needs rejected absentee ballots examined for various technicalities (including undervotes that the state's optical scanners may have missed) to overcome Norm Coleman's 200+ vote lead, while Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin call up Libertarians and call on the heavy hitters (John McCain, Bill Clinton, Al Gore) to campaign for them.

A win in either race matches my prediction *buffs manicure*, and I'll go a little farther out on the limb and say that Franken pulls off the upset but Chambliss beats back the challenge, which would perfectly align with my October 28 prognostication.

December 16 is Election Day for SD-17

QR's Daily Buzz:

Word out of the Governor's office late (yesterday) afternoon has Rick Perry setting Dec. 16 as the date for the runoff election between Democrat Chris Bell and Republican Joan Huffman to fill the unexpired term of retired Sen. Kyle Janek (R-Houston).

Early voting will run from Dec. 8 through Dec. 12 ...

That's four weeks from today, three weeks until the abbreviated early voting period. Another month-long sprint to the finish line to get one more good D into the Texas Senate.

Texas educators: teach evolution only

Yesterday's Texas Freedom Network conference call included Dr. Eve and these results of his survey, as Gary Scharrer reports ...

The verdict from Texas scientists is nearly unanimous: 98 percent favor the unadulterated teaching of evolution in public school classrooms, according to a report released Monday as the State Board of Education prepares to weigh in on the controversy.

A vast majority of the scientists say students would be harmed if the state requires the teaching of the "weaknesses" of evolution, according to the survey conducted for the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund, an organization that works on issues involving religious freedom, civil liberties and public education.

"With 94 percent of Texas faculty ... telling me it (teaching the weaknesses) shouldn't be there, I tend to believe them," said Raymond Eve, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Arlington who did the study.

More than 450 biology or biological anthropology professors at 50 Texas colleges and universities participated in a 59-question survey. Many of those faculty members help determine admission of students into Texas' colleges and universities, Eve said.

"Their responses should send parents a clear message that those who want to play politics with science education are putting our kids at risk," he said.

So if the college and university professors are all but unanimous, where is the disconnect?

Why, it's at the high school level (including the private schools and the home-schoolers IMHO, although those obviously fall outside the purview of the public education system).

The handling of evolution is the most contentious part in the state's rewrite of the science curriculum standards for public schools. The State Board will have a public hearing on Wednesday and vote on the new science standards early next year. The new guidelines are formally known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS.

Social conservatives on the 15-member State Board of Education are likely to push for those standards to include a requirement that high school science teachers teach the weaknesses of evolution.

"There's no one on this board that is trying to inject intelligent design or creationism," said board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont. "They are trying to whip up into a frenzy over something that is not going to happen. But by trying to remove strengths and weaknesses, yes, they will get a fight."

Unfortunately we failed to knock Dominionist David Bradey off the SBOE. Here's another example of what we're up against:

Public school students should be exposed to all sides of the evolution debate, said Casey Luskin, a spokesman for the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank that advocates the teaching of evidence for and against evolution in public schools.

"It's a facade to pretend that there are no scientific weaknesses of evolution, and not teaching the scientific weaknesses to students will prevent them from learning about the facts of biology, and it will harm their critical thinking skills," Luskin said.

He downplayed the survey of Texas scientists.

"This self-selecting survey shows just how ideological the Darwinists have become because they are now resorting to scientific votes to reinforce a climate of intimidation that shuts down scientific criticism of evolution," Luskin said.

Ah, science goes up against the teachings of Jesus. "Scientific criticism" of evolution such as the belief that the planet Earth is less than 10,000 years old. Because that's what the Bible says.

And Texas high school teachers can teach anything they want once the door to their classroom closes.

The Weekly Wrangle

Here's this week's Texas Progressive Alliance blog post round-up.

Barfly at McBlogger takes a moment to remind all of us that we better not fu*k with Barbie.

Ruth Jones McClendon gets the Speaker's race dangerously wrong says CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme.

Vince at Capitol Annex takes a look at the race for Speaker of the Texas House and provides answers to two important questions: is a secret ballot legal and will a secret ballot doom Tom Craddick?

From the SDEC yesterday

A report by the famous -- or is it infamous -- Open Source Dem:

The purpose, if any, of the initial meeting of the SDEC was to initiate newly-elected members into the peculiar ways of the TDP. The most notable aspect of the meeting was that which was not mentioned:

There was no mention of Barack Obama’s campaign or election.

There was no mention of registration or turnout differentials on statewide and local races.

There was no mention of the lawsuit newly filed in Harris County over voter-registration issues.

The SDEC itself was described as the “legislative” arm of the party. Members were told they were “conduits”; money up and message down. They were warned against tinkering with the rules or questioning received wisdom as to interpretation of statutes.

Some notable success in local elections was attributed exclusively to providential intervention of the late Fred Baron, his anointed prophet, Matt Angle, and their worshipful apostles in Austin. Since this divine guidance is already perfect, there will evidently be no need to consider lessons learned from success or failure, for instance, of 3.7 $MM in campaign expenditure (a) including no GOTV outlay, as directed by the previous SDEC, (b) disclosed only after the fact, and (c) mostly squandered on media in losing races.

So how'd we do?

Greg took issue with my contention -- I expected to disagree with him -- but the better and still-contradictory analysis is at Trail Blazers and the Texas Observer. First, from Robert T. Garret at the DMN:

Hey, let's start an argument. Did the Democrats' big push in Harris County succeed this year? It all depends on your expectation.

Mine were very high, especially at the end of Election Day, as I sat in the Harris County CCO with Beverly Kaufman and crew and watched the EV returns being tallied.

The bottom line:

If you're a Democrat who thought this year's effort was going to be like the old eyedrops Murine -- and take the red out of Houston -- maybe you should be seeing red.

But if you're a Democrat who was just looking for progress in Harris County -- which until Nov. 4 hadn't voted Democratic in a presidential election since 1964; and in a countywide race, since 1994 -- you could be smiling.

And this take from Matt Angle (a fellow I have disagreed with repeatedly) nails it ...

Democrats won the straight ticket vote by over 40K while losing it by over 40K just 4 years ago.

None of this was an accident or good luck. Democrats worked together, devised a smart and realistic strategic plan and stuck to it. They raised money and spent it strategically, using sophisticated targeting and clear messages. They did not count on an Obama wave but were able to take advantage of the enthusiasm for Obama. They made a clear, strong case that Republican leadership in Harris County had failed.

Harris County Republicans were not caught off guard. They raised and spent more than Democrats. They simply got outworked and outmanuevered.

Harris County has moved from being a Republican County to one where Democrats have a marginal advantage. It will take continued work and commitment by local Dems to grow and lock in this advantage.

And this, from Dave Mann (third entry from the top), is also dead solid perfect:

Lower-than-expected turnout—especially on Election Day—scuttled Democratic hopes for a sweep. The Harris County Democratic Party hoped that 1.3 million voters would cast ballots. And during the early voting period, when more than 726,000 people voted, Democrats seemed well on their way to hitting their turnout targets. Most Democratic candidates led their races in the early voter totals.

But the plan fell apart on Election Day. Not even 450,000 voters turned out on November 4, roughly 200,000 fewer than expected. The GOP dominated among those voters. It was the scenario feared by some Democratic activists, who had worried that the Harris County coordinated campaign wasn’t devoting enough resources to get-out-the-vote efforts. They had few paid organizers focused on ushering voters to the polls.

Harris County is majority Democratic—at least on paper—if only they all voted, says Fred Lewis, who worked on Democratic campaign efforts in Houston. Democrats don’t need to persuade people with advertising. They have enough potential voters. The problem has been low turnout. And it still is.

Mann, like Wythe, doesn't blame any demographic or geographic for it, but there's going to be some devils in those details. And there's always a little room for finger-pointing and recriminations.

Sunday Funnies

Hatin' the player

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

Yeah, it's a sick sad world, blahblahblah.

Other incidents include:

—Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.

—At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."

—Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.

—Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.

—University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.

—Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.

—Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.

—A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'

—In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."

Emotions are often raw after a hard-fought political campaign, but now those on the losing side have an easy target for their anger.

"The principle is very simple," said BJ Gallagher, a sociologist and co-author of the diversity book "A Peacock in the Land of Penguins." "If I can't hurt the person I'm angry at, then I'll vent my anger on a substitute, i.e., someone of the same race."

"We saw the same thing happen after the 9-11 attacks, as a wave of anti-Muslim violence swept the country. We saw it happen after the Rodney King verdict, when Los Angeles blacks erupted in rage at the injustice perpetrated by 'the white man.'"

"It's as stupid and ineffectual as kicking your dog when you've had a bad day at the office," Gallagher said. "But it happens a lot."

These people are simply misfits in the 21st century. Yes, there's more of it in particular geographic regions of the country, and in certain areas within each state. Look at the counties in East Texas, for example, that have historically voted Democratic that were blood red this year. I think that it's wrong to characterize it as a "Southern problem", however.

I tend to give them some leeway if they are geriatric, somewhat less so if confined by their religion or lack of education no matter their age. But young, intelligent people indoctrinated by conservative elders get no pass with me.

Waiting for the enlightenment of others -- particularly the others who are entirely capable of knowing better -- is a game I will not play any longer.

Playing ketchup

I passed attending today's SDEC post-election confab in Austin today. With a sick spouse (recuperating), and after two consecutive 9-hour days in a hotel conference room with a sixty-minute commute at rush hour on either end, the last thing I wanted to do today was drive 2 1/2 hours to sit in a hotel conference room for four to six hours. And then drive back tonight. But I'll get some reports that I will likely blog about.

Meanwhile at last night's Chris Bell organizing event for SD-17, I had a couple of interesting conversations about the election last week.

After sleeping on it, I'm convinced the evidence in Harris County -- the granular precinct and statehouse district analysis -- will reveal a few discomfiting things about how we voted last week.

In fact I would submit (and for the record, I have not seen the data; I'm positing the following based on what little I do know) that African-American Democrats voted for Hispanics on the ballot, but Hispanic Democrats may not have returned the favor to black Dems. More telling, "what's in a name" had as much to do with who won and lost as party label, the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on teevee advertising, or anything else. And that naturally would not be due strictly to just Democrats and their biases.

We already know that Hispanic neighborhoods in the county voted at a 40-45% clip, and African-American ones were 60-65% and higher. And we also know that a cursory glance past the presidential results reveals that Adrian Garcia tallied the most Democratic votes in Harris County, and that Rick Noriega and Linda Yanez also ran ahead of John Cornyn and Phil Johnson here. Further down the ballot, Democratic judicials won most of the contests, but a look at those races that Democrats lost is where the brutal truth may lie.

The defeated Democratic courthouse hopefuls were named Goodwille Pierre, Mekisha Murray (she's Caucasian, FWIW), Andres Pereira, and Ashish Mahendru. And Alexandra Smoots-Hogan (an African-American married to a Caucasian) and Josefina Rendon (Latina, obviously) had very narrow victories.

The evidence accumulates that Latinos delivered the White House to Obama by virtue of their turnout and votes in states like Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Florida -- where the Cubans' changing of the of the generational guard is lumped in with the "Latino rise", much to Cuban chagrin. And the perhaps-contradictory evidence that Harris County defies the national trend placing Texas slightly outside the mainstream of the political currents is still to be determined by the precinct analysis left to others better than me, like Kuffner.

So maybe we Democrats were a little bigoted about our votes last week, and maybe not so much. Maybe it was a little tilted in one direction than another, maybe it wasn't.

And maybe it's just me stirring the pot a little. Especially if you overlook all the Democrats in California and other states that denied gays the right to marry last week. That wasn't racial either.

Bettencourt sued over provisional ballots *update*

Final Update: Alas, the results don't change. But the TDP will press forward on Bettencourt's shady actions...

(Wednesday morning at 10 a.m.), at the federal district court hearing regarding the disposition of provisional ballots in Harris County, tax assessor/collector Paul Bettencourt’s attorneys told the court that his office had processed all of the provisional ballots by 7:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. Additionally, Bettencourt informed the media that he had actually finished the ballot process the afternoon before the hearing. However, the Harris County Ballot Board received additional ballots as late as 4:00 p.m. after the hearing, in direct conflict with what Bettencourt’s attorney told U.S. district judge Gray Miller.

"For some time now, Paul Bettencourt’s unusual effort to reject legitimate voter registration applications has raised public concerns, but misleading a court of law for partisan purposes would be beneath contempt," said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. "Whether Paul Bettencourt is incompetent or indifferent, neither is a legitimate excuse."

Furthermore, we have received reports that Bettencourt had a private meeting with Harris County Republican Party chair Jared Woodfill the Wednesday after Election Day, after which Bettencourt’s processing of provisional ballots slowed to a near halt, despite a state law that requires complete processing of provisional ballots by the Friday after Election Day. Then yesterday, at least two witnesses observed Woodfill and an unidentified Anglo male in a private meeting with the Republican ballot board chairman, Jim Harding, between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m., just hours after the District Court assumed jurisdiction of the matter. Additionally, we have received reports Bettencourt personally called Harding and berated him regarding his comments in today’s Houston Chronicle.

In response to these reports, the Texas Democratic Party General Counsel has sent a letter to Harris County Republican Party Chairman Jared Woodfill asking him to report his actions to Judge Miller.

Further developments in future postings. More at Off the Kuff.

Update: Bettencourt got his job done, so the court action scheduled for this morning was rendered moot. But the implications on two judicial races hang in the balance, with the last votes being counted even as I post this:

In a miniature version of the 2000 Florida vote drama, election officials prepared to work late tonight toward counting the last leftover votes that could switch outcomes in two Harris County judicial elections.

The tedious work lurched forward when county voter registrar Paul Bettencourt delivered his reports on about 7,000 ballots that were cast by people not listed on the Election Day voter rolls. Some of those residents had been omitted from registration records by mistake, and their votes will be added to last week's totals.

Bettencourt's move led Democratic Party officials to drop their request today for a judge to order him to complete the tallies and open his staff's work to monitors. However, Democrats said they will press ahead next year with the part of their lawsuit that accuses Bettencourt, a Republican, of illegally rejecting voter registration applications.

He sent his work on the 7,000 or so provisional ballots to a bipartisan ballot board that will decide which ones will be added to the Nov. 4 vote total. About 1,400 of the 7,000 are expected to qualify for addition to elections for countywide offices, election officials said, in addition to about 400 ballots sent by overseas voters.

If those ballots contain votes on judicial elections, they could reverse the outcome in two contests where fewer than 600 votes separated the winners and losers as of last week. ...

Democratic candidate Goodwille Pierre, who trailed Republican state District Judge Joseph "Tad" Halbach by fewer than 600 votes, said he had faith the new totals will make him a new judge.

"I believe it will definitely show that we are ahead," he said.

In the other closest race, Republican state District Judge Elizabeth Ray trailed Democratic challenger Josefina Muniz Rendon by 135 votes.

After a court hearing today on the Democrats' lawsuit, their lawyer, Chad Dunn, implied that Bettencourt had dragged his feet on processing the provisional ballots as the deadline for counting them neared.

"We are disappointed ... that it took a lawsuit to get Mr. Bettencourt to do his job," he said. "The Texas Democratic Party will consistently stand up for the voters' right to cast a ballot and have it be counted."

Alan Bernsten's report from last night is in full below. I won't comment on it for now except to note that I don't expect to be a party to this myself, but know some who will:

Texas Democratic Party officials are asking a federal judge in Houston to block what they call illegal moves by Harris County voter registrar Paul Bettencourt as the last few votes are added to the totals from the Nov. 4 election.

U.S. District Judge Gray Miller was scheduled to consider the complaint against Republican Bettencourt at 10 a.m. today.

Bettencourt, who was re-elected last week as county tax assessor-collector, denied the allegations in general Tuesday. He said he had to withhold specific comments until he read the lawsuit and consulted with outgoing County Attorney Mike Stafford.

With two judicial races in potential limbo because they were decided by a few hundred votes, the lawsuit focuses on about 7,000 ballots that were cast before and during Election Day but have yet to be verified as ballots that can be added to the totals.

Called "provisional ballots," they were cast by voters whose names were not properly listed on voter rolls but who signed affidavits saying they nevertheless had properly registered.

A few hundred by-mail ballots sent by overseas voters also have been processed since the election. Those ballots could have been counted under state law if they arrived by Sunday.

No results from the overseas and accepted provisional ballots have been made public yet. The mailed ballots generally favor Republican candidates while the provisionals are expected to favor Democratic candidates, according to several political experts.

Since last week's election, Bettencourt's voter registration staff has been checking those provisional ballots against records and reported on each one to a ballot board, whose members are appointed by political parties. Technically, the board decides which votes will be added to the totals before the election results are made official by Commissioners Court, which is scheduled to accept the results Monday.

But, the Democratic officials said in the lawsuit, Bettencourt is providing incorrect information to the board, delaying the counting, refusing to let in observers and has illegally denied voter registrations.

The list of Democratic plaintiffs includes lawyer Goodwille Pierre, who trailed Republican state District Judge Joseph "Tad" Halbach by fewer than 600 votes in the election. In another civil court race, Republican Judge Elizabeth Ray trailed Democratic challenger Josefina Muniz Rendon by fewer than 200 votes.

About 1 million votes were cast in each of the two judicial races in which the opponents are currently separated by less than 1,000 votes.

Bettencourt said his staff would be done with the 7,000 or so ballots by late Tuesday — proof, he said, that he was not keeping the ballot board from making decisions by today, the flexible counting deadline suggested by state law.

Bettencourt said he gave a Democratic representative, Collyn Peddie, a tour of his provisional ballot processing system last week but refused on the advice of the Secretary of State's Office to allow anyone to serve as a monitor.

In an affidavit attached to the lawsuit, Peddie cast doubt on Bettencourt's system based on her one-hour presence. She said she saw provisional ballots "set aside" despite notes showing they had been cast by voters who had registered to vote at state Department of Public Safety offices.

The suit charges that Bettencourt may also be improperly blocking votes only because voters had listed commercial, rather than residential addresses and had not been given a chance to explain any discrepancy.

Bettencourt acknowledged to the Chronicle in July that a few voters' registrations had been delayed because they lived in new dwellings previously listed on property rolls as non-residential.