Another reason I will only ever have a dog

Halter falters, and other notes from last night

Heading into Super Tuesday, Blanche Lincoln looked like a political goner. The embattled Democratic senator was down in the polls and the target of millions of dollars in TV ads and get-out-the-vote efforts in Arkansas from labor unions and other liberal advocacy groups looking to unseat her. But with the help of former President Bill Clinton, who appeared in a last-minute TV ad on her behalf, Lincoln defied the odds, besting her challenger, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, 52 percent to 48 percent.

The progressives -- MoveOn, DailyKos, -- as well as the unions mobilized and came up short. This one tastes bad.

Still, Lincoln's victory celebration will be short-lived. In a state that has steadily moved to the right in recent elections, she faces an uphill battle to win re-election this November. Recent polls show her losing to the GOP challenger, Rep. John Boozman, by double digits.

Normally, a Democrat in Lincoln's situation would be able to depend on outside groups for election help, but many of the usual suspects, like the Service Employees International Union and League of Conservation Voters, cast their lots against her in the primary. Will those groups reverse position and lend support to the woman they tried to defeat?

No, we won't. As Barbara Morrill says:

Look for this to be a Republican pick-up in November.

The White House -- !?@*#!? -- is already kicking the unions when they're down. That's some shit, idn't it? kos:

The GOP establishment tries to nominate electable candidates, and gets sabotaged by the teabaggers. We're trying to nominate electable candidates, and we get sabotaged by the Democratic Party establishment.

All righty then. On to the Great West. First, California.

The Golden State's political history is clear: centrist Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pete Wilson (a moderate before he became an anti-immigrant demagogue) can win statewide elections. Right-wing Republicans cannot. The state is just too culturally liberal and too ethnically diverse. This year, GOP primary voters could have chosen a slightly dull, highly wonky, pro-choice former congressman named Tom Campbell. Campbell, according to a recent Los Angeles Times poll, would have led incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer by seven points in the general election. Instead, they chose former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who opposes the right to abortion, can't decide if global warming is real, won the endorsement of Sarah Palin, and according to the Times poll, trails Boxer by the same margin Campbell leads her. Fiorina didn't win the GOP Senate primary only because she is more conservative; she also bought it with her vast personal wealth. But her combination of conservatism and inexperience gives Boxer a chance to sneak back into office.

Fiorina wasn't the only former CEO who won a Republican primary last night. Mark McKinnon from the Daily Beast (who's only occasionally insipid):

In the California governor’s race, Meg Whitman’s victory over state insurance commissioner Steve Poizner places her in a faceoff against the quintessential career politician -- Jerry Brown, governor of California from 1975 to 1983, then mayor of Oakland and now the state attorney general. In the run-up to the primary, Brown sat on his campaign coffers waiting for the definitive insider-outsider battle to begin.

Whitman, who made history at the helm of eBay generating $8 billion in revenues, has said she is prepared to spend as much as $150 million to reach California’s 38 million residents. Those deep pockets will be necessary with statewide ads running $3 million a week.

More from HuffPo:

It also will set off an election season of big-money campaigns and high drama in the nation's most populous state, pitting two deep-pocketed Silicon Valley business stars against stalwarts of the Democratic Party establishment. ...

 The heated battle with Poizner to win over conservative GOP primary voters forced Whitman to move to the right on issues such as abortion and illegal immigration, moves that could hurt her against Brown in November.

Democrats and moderate independents comprise two-thirds of the electorate in California. Without a serious primary challenger, Brown has positioned himself as a moderate, pledging not to raise taxes and to make the kind of spending cuts that Whitman also campaigned on.

California is going to have almost as much fun as we are here in Deep-In-The-Hearta.

The Teabagger ladies won in Nevada ...

Exhibit B: Nevada, where everyone agrees that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is extremely vulnerable. But perhaps not quite vulnerable enough to lose to Sharron Angle, a woman who wants to abolish social security, the department of education and the income tax. Reid did his best to make Angle his opponent, spending heavily to undermine the more moderate GOP frontrunner, Sue Lowden. It seems to have worked. Angle is the perfect symbol of the Republican base in 2010: She's a fresh face; she enjoys grassroots support, and she wants to repeal the handiwork not just of Franklin Roosevelt, but of Theodore Roosevelt.

.. and South Carolina. Indeed, another Indo-American with an Americanized name and a changed religion (can you name the other one?) became the "new face" of Southern conservative extremism:

In what will no doubt go down in history as one of the nation's nastiest political primaries, Nikki Haley survived multiple allegations of marital infidelity to win the most votes in South Carolina's hotly contested GOP gubernatorial race. But initial vote totals show that she didn't garner enough support  to avoid what could be an even wilder June 22 runoff election. ...

With the runoff  just two weeks away, the most immediate question is whom (her vanquished GOP primary opponents) Bauer and McMaster will throw their support to. Bauer, for his part, was associated with one of the affair rumors that circulated about Haley — though he denied involvement, even to the point of submitting to a lie-detector test. McMaster was quoted this week calling the primary a total embarrassment. Will the tawdry rumors about Haley's marriage live on through the runoff?

More likely, the focus will turn to Haley's actual politics and policy stands. Though she's been championed by the tea party movement, Haley is extremely close to disgraced Gov. Mark Sanford — whose own infidelity has made him a political outcast in the state. Though she has positioned herself as an outsider, Haley was viewed as Sanford's political heir apparent and is even being advised by many of his former key campaign aides. One of her big early endorsements came from Sanford's estranged wife, Jenny.

For her part, Haley has gone to great lengths to avoid being associated with Sanford. Asked earlier this week by CNN's Peter Hamby if she's sought political advice from Sanford, Haley at first said she hadn't. But then later, she admitted they had talked "a couple of times" — and even then, she quickly added, never "on policy advice or strategy."

It doesn't even matter who the Democratic opponent is, does it? This is South Carolina, after all.

Greens' benefactor may be illegal donor

Wayne Slater follows up.

One of the state's leading election experts says a petition drive funded through an out-of-state group to put the Green Party on the ballot this fall might have violated state law.

Party officials say the group, a nonprofit corporation, collected 92,000 signatures and delivered them as "a gift" so that the Green Party could field candidates in the November election. The arrangement for the petitions, set up by an Arizona Republican consultant, was revealed Sunday by The Dallas Morning News. ...

It's unclear who paid for the petition drive, but funding went through Take Initiative America, a Missouri nonprofit corporation. Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer and expert in election law, said Monday that such a transaction is illegal under state law.

"That corporation cannot make contributions to political parties in Texas. And to do so is a felony," he said. "It is also a felony for a political party to accept a corporate contribution."

[...]

Wood said that while an individual donor could legally bankroll petition drives to put a party on the ballot, corporations cannot. Wood has represented Democrats in litigation in which corporate money was illegally used to defeat political candidates.

In the case of the Texas Green Party, a Chicago-based petition-gathering company, Free and Equal Inc., gathered the signatures under contract with Take Initiative America.

It's unclear whether the petitions could be disallowed based on how the Green Party reports the donation. But the party and its leaders could face significant penalties if they are found to break the law.

And Harold Cook has a bit more:

But when the end result is that some of the voters who care most about the environment will get duped into voting for a candidate who won't get more than 5% of the total vote, helping the guy who calls the BP oil spill disaster an "act of God" win? That's just plain dirty pool, played at voters' expense.

[...]

Apparently, the Republican operative who organized the Green Party petition effort intends to list "Take Initiative America" as the donor of the in-kind contribution to the Green Party. That entity was organized in Missouri by a guy named Charles Hurth.

Who's Charles Hurth? I'm glad you asked. Meet Charles Hurth:

Apparently he's an ... um ... butt-biter. No, really.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is sitting in the shade with a cool drink as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

It's been a busy week in the Barnett Shale. TXsharon at BLUEDAZE: Drilling Reform for Texas has the TCEQ Timeline of Deception posted, which makes it more difficult for that agency to say "Oops!" Just in time for a summer drought we find that hydraulic fracturing seems to be contaminating Barnett Shale water.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants to know why the Texas Medical Board takes a year to suspend a doctor caught jerking off repeatedly in front of his office staff? And just suspension?

Lightseeker over at TexasKaos comments on Rick Perry's management of the Texas state bureaucracy. In short, it is a study in incompetence. Or as he has said elsewhere, if you hate government then no one should be surprised when you can't govern. Check it out....An Open Letter to Rick Perry: TCEQ screws up, lies about it - Gov.Perry has full confidence in them .

WhosPlayin is doing a server move this weekend and may not be back up by Monday, but wanted to spread the word about plans by Williams Co. to put a centralized gas production wastewater collection facility in Lewisville..

Off the Kuff looks behind the numbers of the recent UT/Trib poll on the ACA and the public schools.

McBlogger has never been a fan of self-aggrandizing politicians, which may explain his intense dislike of Todd Staples.

A federal judge in Houston wants all the lawsuits that will be filed against BP for damages associated with the Gulf oil disaster. Oh, and BP wants him to hear the cases as well. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs gathers some links on Judge Lynn Hughes.

Neil at Texas Liberal wondered how Houston mayor Annise Parker, a Democrat, could cite an article calling Houston a successful model of urbanism for the nation when 47% of Houston kids live at or below the poverty level? It is time for liberals, progressives and Democrats to ask more of Mayor Parker.

Texas Greens get an assist from an Arizona Republican

Via STC, this news is grating.

The liberal Green Party's uphill battle to get on the Texas ballot this fall has been fueled by a surprising benefactor: an out-of-state Republican consultant with a history of helping conservative causes and GOP candidates. ...

What's unknown is who paid for the previously undisclosed arrangement, pieced together by The Dallas Morning News. Green Party officials said they don't know who funded the effort. The Perry campaign denied any involvement. And Arizona Republican operative Tim Mooney, who set up the petition drive, refused to say.

Green Party officials said an outside group gathered the 92,000 signatures and gave them as "a gift" to the party, which delivered them to the secretary of state ...

Christina Tobin, who heads a Chicago-based petition-gathering company called Free and Equal Inc., said she was approached by Mooney to collect signatures for the Green Party of Texas.

Another group, Take Initiative America, based in Missouri, would provide payment, Mooney said.

Mooney estimated the cost at $200,000, but declined to give a specific figure or say who put up the money.

"Take Initiative America, being a nonprofit, doesn't disclose its donors, nor is it required to," said Mooney, who has little history of working in Texas. "Take Initiative America is a nonpartisan organization. They'd like to see everybody have a chance to get on the ballot – the more choices the better."

More from the Examiner:

Names of private citizens, especially Texan Republicans, are being bandied about, including but not limited to billionaire Harold Simmons of Dallas. Simmons could certainly afford it and there are those who point to the $3 million he contributed to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, to defeat John Kerry. Certainly as a man who likes to be known as someone who knows "more than a thousand ways to skin a cat", this would be an easy and relatively inexpensive amusing  last-minute surprise for Simmons, who has been called both Dallas' Angel of Grace and  Most Evil Genius. 

Whatever satisfaction one might take in the idea that additional choices are good for "little d" democracy is outweighed by the premise that the whole ploy is a result of conservatives being so afraid that Rick Perry will lost to Bill White that they had to resort to dirty tricks.

Update: Boyd Richie reacts ...

“The Green Party has become just another arm of the Republican Party and Governor Rick Perry's re-election effort and the Republican/Green Party coordination is a blow to the integrity of our election system,” said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. “The signatures gained through this Republican effort should be withdrawn and Green Party candidates, officials and supporters should save their integrity and repudiate petitions that undermine democracy and fair elections.”

... as does Burnt Orange.

Update II: Harvey Kronberg's commentary for News8Austin ...

The first mystery money in the 2010 election surfaced just this week. According to Wayne Slater at the Dallas Morning News, a secret out-of-state benefactor has coughed up an estimated $200,000 to pay for a petition drive to get the Green Party on the November ballot. The secret money was laundered through an Arizona Republican political consultant who won’t identify the actual source.

A Green Party slate will siphon off a few votes from Bill White and other Democratic candidates. A handful of votes can be significant. Republicans retained control of the Texas House last year when they won a single legislative race by seventeen votes.

Here we go again. Mysterious out-of-state money from secret sources poisoning Texas elections.

Sunday Funnies

Renew Houston, Stephen Costello, and Houston's flooding and drainage issues

I was part of a blogger gaggle this past week assembled by Renew Houston, which has a mission of placing a referendum on the November ballot dedicating a revenue stream to to fix -- over the long haul -- Houston's mobility infrastructure relating to flooding and drainage.

(Public policy isn't my area of expertise, but when pols and bloggers gather over a free lunch -- even when it's only Subway -- I will find a way to be there.)

There's a lot of this data at their site containing 'change-your-thinking' information, such as challenging the premise that Houston is a "new" city. It isn't. Even the suburbs that define Houston -- first Meyerland and then Sharpstown, then Clear Lake, Kingwood, and the western edge of Houston around the Energy Corridor -- are between forty and fifty years old. Then there's the fact that it takes twelve years in this town to go from a decision to rebuild a street to the beginning of the work to do so, because of a lack of necessary funds. This work is paid for out of the city's general revenue account, 60% of which is absorbed by public safety. So what results is patchwork, piecemeal measures ... which isn't really fixing anything.

Twelve years is, of course, completely unacceptable. But that happens when you have mayors and council members who are term-limited to six total years; greater focus on the short-term problems, less on the long-term ones. (I'm not advocating here for the abolishment of term limits, like others.)

I have written some harsh things about Councilman Costello (as have others), so I approached this meeting with an intent to have an open mind about an engineer who has made a lot of money from municipal contracts elected to city council, who then proposes a pretty vast public works program -- funded by a new fee -- from which his company stands to benefit greatly.

Whatever Costello gains politically or financially from the charter amendment Renew Houston proposes, the effort is worthwhile and the voters can decide the issue in November.

I signed the petition, and so should you.

Other coverage ...

The Chronicle -- here, here, and Rick Casey here

Off the Kuff (links to more there)

I sat next to Tory Gattis, so he will undoubtedly have something shortly. John's getting his wit on.

Houston Community Newspapers

ABC-13

Channel 39 (video link, has some really hilarious lost paperwork at the end)

Fox Houston

Calling all BP lawsuits: Judge Lynn Hughes

As some judges in New Orleans disqualify themselves from handling lawsuits over the Deepwater Horizon rig deaths and oil spill, a Houston judge Friday made it clear he's willing and able.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, whom BP lawyers requested by name to oversee pre-trial matters in all the federal lawsuits, met with lawyers on the first case filed in Houston federal court and talked about joining it with other lawsuits.

Hughes told the lawyers that he's handled complex matters before and that he has no conflict like the handful of judges in New Orleans and elsewhere who've recused themselves because of financial holdings or family ties to employees of the defendant companies or lawyers for those companies.

Hughes said he's posted his public financial disclosure on his own court website. Hughes owns some mineral rights and oil company stock but has no interest in the companies involved in the blowout and explosion that killed 11 and is wreaking economic and environmental havoc in the Gulf.

Do NOT miss the reader comments there. More on Hughes, first from the 1992 Houston Press' "Best of" reader poll/publication recommendations:

Republican Lynn Hughes hardly blinked when he advanced from his state district court (a civil one, no less) to the federal bench some 12 years ago. That characteristic aplomb has yet to be erased by some of the most demanding cases at the federal courthouse. He's coupled a healthy disdain for the traditional veil of legalese with a quiet but firm demeanor that has established him as one of the most independent jurists anywhere. Hughes demanded answers in a shady immunity deal for the notorious Graham brothers. And he didn't shy away from forcing the government to admit to submitting a false affidavit against an ex-CIA agent and lying to a grand jury in a bank fraud case. By now, his straightforward search for the truth is legendary among lawyers.

And Tom Kirkendall, from 2006:

First, he hammered the FDIC with a record sanctions award in the long-running case against Maxxam chairman Charles Hurwitz.

Then, he challenged the Enron Task Force's bludgeoning of a plea bargain from a mid-level former Enron executive.

Now, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes accused federal prosecutors of "reckless and conscious indifference" for bringing a fraud charge against Oklahoma lawyer John Claro and said he would award attorney's fees to Claro under the Hyde Act that provides sanctions for bad-faith prosecutions.

Lastly, Judgepedia. Scroll to the bottom and click on "The Robing Room" for some entertaining comments from those who've tried cases before Judge Hughes.

My personal opinion is that BP plaintiffs could do a lot worse than Hughes, whose no-bullshit reputation likely translates into rejecting a lot of claims he deems 'frivolous' associated with litigation requesting being 'made whole'.  Which is probably why BP likes him so much.

SCOTX issues emergency stay in bloggers' anonymity suit

On June 4, 2010, the Texas Supreme Court issued a highly unusual emergency stay in a case in which Beaumont trial judge Donald Floyd had ordered internet search giant Google to reveal the identities of two anonymous bloggers whose websites criticize notorious east Texas public figure Philip R. Klein. The high court’s order trumps the April 29, 2010, ruling by Beaumont’s Ninth Court of Appeals and prevents Judge Floyd’s order from being enforced.

“We are pleased that the Supreme Court recognizes the important First Amendment right to criticize public figures anonymously,” said Houston constitutional attorney Jeffrey L. Dorrell, who represents the bloggers. Klein argued that websites operationkleinwatch.com and samtheeagle.com content were “pure defamation” and not entitled to constitutional protection.

“Satirical parody is sometimes harsh, but if Jay Leno or David Letterman were sued every time they cracked a joke about Barack Obama or Paris Hilton, television would be a pretty barren source of amusement,” said Dorrell. Today’s ruling was the latest in a lawsuit in which Klein alleges that he has been defamed for, among other things, a parody of Dog Fancy magazine in which he was depicted under the caption, “Fat Men Who Love Their Dogs Too Much.”

The backstory ...

A political blogger in Southeast Texas has alleged that two other local bloggers have defamed and harassed him through their Web sites.

Philip R. Klein writes the Southeast Texas Political Review, a site that includes news and commentary about area elected officials and community leaders. "The story behind the story in East Texas politics," reads a banner describing the Web site on its home page.

As PRK Enterprises and Klein Investments, Klein sued the Operation Kleinwatch and Sam the Eagle blogs, as well as Google and its subsidiary blogger.com on Aug. 26 in Jefferson County District Court.

In the suit, PRK and Klein Investments are asking Google and blogger.com to identify all people responsible for running www.operationkleinwatch.blogspot.com and www.samtheeagleusa.blogspot.com.

They are also asking for the identities of all people who provided money or literary substance to the Web sites, who posted comments on the Web sites and those who are in any way affiliated with the Web sites.

[...]

The Web address www.samtheeagleusa.blogspot.com, first leads to a page containing a beach scene, soothing music and the words "Welcome to Sam the Eagle Center for peaceful meditation." To access the actual site, a user must click on "learn more about meditation" or instead go directly to http://www.notthisonetoojacques.blogspot.com/.

Then a home page pops up that appears similar to the Southeast Texas Political Review's home page, but with various satiric remarks scattered throughout.

At the moment it's not a beach scene but a picture of puppies, and you have to click on the link that isn't for puppies. Nor kitties.

So anyway, if any my fellow bloghermanos are ever in need of a lawyer, I can recommend one. And if you think I'm a nasty bastard ...

The minority of the opulent will always protect itself against the majority