Vasquez reassigns his elections-office problema

Ed Johnson, Harris County elections official for hire to Republicans seeking insider information, finally loses his day job. Kinda:

The battle over alleged voter registration hijinks in the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector office took another turn today when Leo Vasquez reportedly removed Ed Johnson from his job as Associate Voter Registrar and reassigned him to Communications.

Johnson, along with State Rep. Dwayne Bohac has been the subject of a series of investigative pieces by the Democratically funded Lone Star Project out of Washington, D.C. LSP's allegations took a decidedly more serious turn yesterday when they questioned whether the Johnson-Bohac political consulting firm had improperly obtained drivers license data for their voter files.

Bohac has not returned our call seeking comment.

Matt Angle has been hard on this case:

The Lone Star Project’s exposure of the ongoing scandal in the Harris County Elections Office clearly spooked Republican State Representative Dwayne Bohac (HD138 – Houston). When the story broke, Bohac suspiciously pulled down his campaign consulting firm website and, since then, has refused to answer any questions regarding his ties to the Elections Office or his firm’s work for local Republicans officeholders like State Representative Ken Legler (HD144) and Congressman Michael McCaul (CD10).

Why has Dwayne Bohac “gone to ground” and hidden from the media?

Maybe because of this:

Dwayne Bohac must either produce evidence that CDS obtained Texas Drivers License records from a source other than the Harris County Elections office OR admit that he lied to clients and did not enhance their voter data with driver license records. Otherwise, Dwayne Bohac and Ed Johnson conspired to illegally obtain Texas Driver License records and use them for commercial political purposes which is a violation under the Texas Transportation Code, Sec. 730.013, and the federal Driver Privacy Protection Act of 1994.

More stink to come out about this.

Dewhurst courts Texas Blue Dogs

Harvey:

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst appears to have the support of at least two Congressional Democrats as a potential appointment to an open seat for U.S. Senate: Chet Edwards (Waco) and Ciro Rodriguez (San Antonio).

Dewhurst spent Thursday afternoon chatting with the two Democrats in the halls of the U.S. Capitol Building. They ran through issues ranging from the Hispanic vote to the partisan breakdown of Texas to Dewhurst’s chances of success in running for the Senate seat being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison (R).

Dewhurst has not-so-quietly been ramping up a campaign to replace Hutchison, who confirmed Wednesday that she will resign her seat this fall to run for Texas governor. She plans to formally announce her 2010 gubernatorial run next month.

Certainly seems to make Vince's scenario more plausible. Chet and Ciro seem to have been sought out for a blessing, which is just nauseating.

I owe a long post on my disgust with conservative Democrats, particularly our flea-bitten breed here in Deep-In-The-Hearta, and I hope I can get it done without strangling one of them.

Update: More of this from Burka:

Both Green and Edwards thought the leadership made a mistake by taking up the global warming bill before health care. “A lot of House members think it was wrong to do energy first,” Green said. “Polling it, it [global warming] is not a big issue in my district. Air quality is a big issue.” He was particularly annoyed that multinational energy corporations get a better deal from the European community than from our own Congress. Edwards said of the emphasis on energy, “It was a mistake. Why would you put a bill whose impact is 20 years from now ahead of a bill that deals with a system [health care] that is unsustainable now?” The decision to go with energy was made by Nancy Pelosi — it was her top priority — and by Obama, who wanted to have talking points at the G-8 conference.

Paul Burka, Gene Green, and Chet Edwards are three of the most massive douchebags in the entire state of Texas.