TeaBagger loses in SD-22

As has been the case across the nation, election predictions of TeaBagger takeovers missed a few times. Initially covered here but better blogged since by a variety of other shops, a pair of alleged CarpetBaggers finished first and second in the free-for-all to replace state Sen. Kip Averitt of Waco yesterday.

Former state Sen. David Sibley and Gulf War veteran Brian Birdwell are heading to a runoff after neither garnered enough votes during a special election Saturday for a Texas Senate seat.

Sibley, a Republican, is trying to retake the seat he held for 11 years and finished with the most votes. But with all precincts reporting, no candidate in the four-way race earned the required 50 percent of the vote to secure the seat.

The central Texas seat includes 10 counties stretching from Waco to the outskirts of Fort Worth.

Sibley, a lobbyist and former dental surgeon, captured 45 percent of the vote while Birdwell, also a Republican, came in second with about 37 percent. Birdwell, who survived the Sept. 11 terrorist attack at the Pentagon, trailed Sibley by more than 2,500 votes.

Both men questioned the other's residence eligibility (a state senator must reside in the district for one year at minimum). But the real news is that the TeaBagger, Darren Yancy, came in fourth with just over 5% of the vote in a four-man race. He finshed woefully behind Baylor political science professor and Democratic candidate Gayle Avant, heretofore famous only for his moustache.

So the good conservatives of the Central Texas counties comprising SD-22 picked two establishment Republicans to face off against each other in a runoff. And the Democrat got nearly three times as many votes as the TeaBagger.

Yet we will continue to be treated to more stories about the Tea Party revolt sweeping Texas and the nation. Just remind yourself that it is horseshit when you see it.

The Teabs are an internal Republican Party uprising, and they are experiencing limited success in their maiden electoral endeavor. The Teed Off phenomenon is, at its core, anti-Obama: a virulent strain of Obama Derangement Syndrome. Nothing more.

Because what this country needs is a more conservative senator from Utah

RIP Bob Bennett. No great loss, and his replacement will probably be worse.

He voted in favor of the bailout, which was his death warrant among this extremist subset. The real message, though, is being sent to Texas' own TeaBagger, NRSC head Box Turtle Cornyn.

The result is yet another rebuke of the GOP establishment -- barely a week after Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, official Washington's pick for the state's Senate nomination, quit the party in a last-ditch effort to survive. Another blow to Republican powers here may come in another week or so, as Tea Party favorite Rand Paul may take out the establishment choice in the Kentucky Senate primary.

Note the Teabonics in this link's ending sentence that Republicans had "best head voters warnings".  Sadly Tim Kaine, the Democrats' mostly invisible chair, didn't proof-read his response, either:

" ... If there was any question before, there should now be no doubt that the Republican leadership has handed the reigns to the Tea Party."

Yeah, and the rein in Speign falls mainely on the plane. Go back to sleep, Governor Kain.

The other Senator Bennet, he of one 't' and hailing from Colorado, said it best when he called the TeaBaggers nihilists.

"Who do you think built the road that you traveled here on? Who do you think built the bridges and the sewers and the waste-water systems and invested in the higher education system that we now have. They built that stuff from scratch!... Our parents and our grandparents. And we can't even maintain it?!"

But hey, never forget that " 'Murrica is th' greates' cuntry inna werld".

Update: Steve Singiser ...

Bob Bennett is not burdened by scandal, nor has he been the kind of perennially unpopular politico that barely scrapes by intraparty challenges for the duration of his career (the way his fellow Utahn, Chris Cannon, was).

He is a standard-issue incumbent, who committed the capital offense (for 2010, anyway) of being a Republican occasionally capable of a non-ideological vote. This led him to a raft of opponents, and an unceremonious second-round exit in the state convention, one that was fueled at unbridled anger at ideological apostasy, as local columnist Peg McEntee pointed out:

When Bennett lost, the yips and howls from thousands of delegates sounded like coyotes going after one of their own.

Left standing were Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater, both Utah County Republicans who like the tea partiers and 9/12ers just fine. Both claim to be strict constitutionalists who will free Utah from an oppressive federal government, take back federal lands in Utah and repeal health care reform.

This process is being repeated from coast-to-coast, where so-called mainstream or "establishment" Republicans are getting battered for their lack of commitment to the "principles" of conservatism.

Read more, and take note particularly of the muddled past as prologue.

Greasy Sunday Funnies

Hearst shuffles Beaumont publishers again

After just three years the soon-to-be-former Beaumont Enterprise publisher is moving on to an undisclosed 'other business opportunity'. The new man in charge is from the Houston Chronicle.

As part of a larger restructuring of Hearst newspapers in Texas, Bill Offill, executive vice president of sales and marketing at the Houston Chronicle, will succeed John E. Newhouse II as publisher of The Beaumont Enterprise. ...

As executive vice president, Offill has overseen the Chronicle's advertising sales, circulation and marketing divisions since 2004. He joined the Houston Chronicle in 1987 as an advertising sales account executive and later held key leadership positions, including advertising director and vice president of circulation.

Offill is one of the big winners in the mass shakeout the Chronicle itself experienced just over a year ago. His roots in circulation and advertising should provide some sorely needed expertise to the Enterprise, which continues to hemorrhage readership and, correspondingly, advertisers.

I've spent time in Beaumont recently working with some new clients and attended the Better Business Bureau's Torch Awards banquet just this past Tuesday evening. While all of the television stations and their on-air personalities were represented, along with a few radio stations, the newspaper was conspicuously absent -- no attendees, no sponsorships.

Heavy community involvement and activism was one of the hallmarks of the tenure of previous Enterprise publishers Aubrey Webb and George Irish (both of whom I once worked with; I have blogged here and here about that). I was more than surprised that there was nobody at an event of this profile. Even if the top man had plans to leave the paper, it seems odd that a business editor or reporter would not have attended or covered it. This link looks like a reprint of the press release.

Here's hoping the reorganization of the six Texas Hearst papers -- besides Houston and Beaumont, they include the Express-News in San Antonio, the Reporter-Telegram in Midland, the Daily Herald in Plainview, and the Morning Times in Laredo -- is a success.

Now if she will explain how Dirty Sanchez relates to immigration reform

Right-wing nutbag Melissa Clouthier tried to be outraged about the TeaBaggers being outraged about being called TeaBaggers.

She failed. Massively. This link is completely unsafe for work.

This one from the Houston Press is mostly OK, though. No excerpting; just go read it and LYAO. Or weep, as the case may be. Hat tip to Kuff for the link, and more and ever more hilarious comments at Wonkette.