The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is as eager as everyone else for Thursday's announcement as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff is glad to see more people questioning the purpose of Rick Perry's job-stealing trips, which do little more than spend tax dollars promoting Rick Perry.

This week, McBlogger tells the story of a man with no plan, who'll get no pay because he caused a delay. While others worked hard, his head was filled with lard. And then he tried to hide, so now we get to chide.

Somebody is going to have to do some dirty work if Wendy Davis is going to get elected governor, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs nominates the Castro brothers.

Sophia at Texpatriate got a special sneak peak of (Houston mayoral candidate) Ben Hall's newest television ad.

Ted Cruz doesn't think waiters and maids deserve health care. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme doesn't think Ted Cruz deserves to represent Texas.

Neil at All People Have Value made more posts at his new blog. All People Have Value is part of Neil's new website, NeilAquino.com.

Lightseeker at Texas Kaos offers another in his continuing investigation of the education wars. Check out Three Telling Articles on The Education Wars. Give it a look; Rick Perry sure will.

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John Coby mocks Ted Cruz as only he can.

Jason Stanford, on the other hand, sees Ted Cruz as a great gift for Texas Democrats.

Concerned Citizens stands up for San Antonio City city council member Diego Bernal, author of their new non-discrimination ordinance and much more.

Texas Redistricting reports that True The Vote wants to get involved in the voter ID litigation.

The TSTA Blog asks what "education reform" means to Greg Abbott.

Better Texas Blog points out the mental health care benefits of the Affordable Care Act.

The Castros as attack dogs for Wendy Davis

My response to this development Friday morning is going to be somewhat more politically incorrect than my usual.  (Hard to believe, I realize...)

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) said Friday that fellow Texan Sen. Ted Cruz's (R) presidential prospects were damaged by his 21-hour floor speech against Obamacare.

“I think what became clear this week is that he can’t be president and the reason is nobody will follow him, even people within his own party won’t follow him,” Castro said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And so I think in terms of his long term prospects it was fairly damaging."

The Texas Democrat noted that Cruz's speech had a polarizing effect. Some of Cruz's Republican colleagues were vocal about their disapproval: Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) on Thursday accused Cruz from the Senate floor of putting on a "show" instead of working to avoid a government shutdown.

"I think that he wanted to make a big splash and he certainly has," Castro said. "He's done something that I think is unusual, which is he's made Washington worse, he's made the polarization worse."

He had tweeted a similar sentiment during Cruz's speech.

Ted Cruz said he would go to Washington and change Washington. He has -- he's made it worse.
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) September 24, 2013

This is precisely what both Castro brothers are going to need to do to provide a proper assist to Wendy Davis' gubernatorial prospects.

Harvey Kronberg has already written about the nationalizing of the statewide elections, and that if Greg Abbott is going to run against Barack Obama, Wendy should campaign against Ted.  Since Congressman Joaquin and Mayor Julian were too cautious to take the 2014 plunge themselves, they must now be at the forefront of the attack on the Poop Cruz travelers.  And there should perhaps be a racial component to it (at least as a whisper campaign).  I decried that tactic when Gilberto Hinojosa did it last year, but the only truth in this race is that Democrats who really want to win had better be strong enough to fight fire with fire.  The Barbie crap simply cannot go unanswered.

The Castros have to speak with conviction to the Eddie Lucios among Latino Democrats, and they must directly address the concerns of those whose reticence will be heightened because of the millions of dollars Abbott will pump into Spanish language media.

Without collecting another dime, Abbott's already got enough money to spend two million bucks a month between now and November 2014.  If history serves as a guide, he's going to pour it on in TV ads at the end, as he did in 2006 when he ran against David Van Os, and in 2010 against Barbara Radnofsky.

This skirmish is one of the small but numerous critical components to the success of Davis and other Texas Democrats on the ballot: the Castro brothers and all Latino electeds -- not just prospective LG candidate Leticia Van de Putte, or Sen. Sylvia Garcia, but the titular heads of that caucus -- have to reinforce and grow the Democratic Latino base in the face of these gathering headwinds, and they cannot be shy about going on the offensive when it is needed.

And if the Castros -- or anybody else -- choose to half-ass that effort, i.e. fail to fight back, there ought to be plenty of Democrats who remember that when it's their turn to run.

Let's give Joaquin credit for a good start and expect to see more like this.

Sunday Funnies

Saturday morning spitballing

-- Tea Party queen Debra Medina makes a transparent play for some of Greg Abbott's check-writers.

Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina could end up running again for the state's highest office, this time as an independent, she said Friday afternoon.

Medina, who has been exploring a race for comptroller for several months, told the Tribune earlier this month that she is having trouble raising the amount of money she thinks is necessary to mount a competitive campaign for that office. She cited a particular lack of interest from wealthy campaign donors who are typically pivotal in financing successful statewide races in Texas.

At the same time, in a development first reported by the Quorum Report, she said she has been hearing from potential donors interested in seeing her run as an independent for governor. Collectively, she has received pledges totaling millions of dollars, she said, and that has her wondering whether she ought to switch from one race to the other.

I would be stunned if Medina ran for governor.  As Texpate suggests, that would create so much momentum for Wendy Davis that it cannot be measured with modern technology.  What Medina really wants is for General Scooter's benefactors to open up their wallets and keep her out of the governor's contest.  And Greg Abbott will encourage them to do so, because he doesn't owe Harvey Hilderbran or Glenn Hegar a thing.

As for the still-just-prospective Democratic candidate's part, Davis needs some big money herself, she needs Abbott to screw up publicly a few more times, and she needs some glorious serendipity in order to be able to change her address to 1010 Colorado Street, Austin.  Medina in the race as an indy falls into the third category.

There's a case to be made for Mike Collier being the Democrat with the best shot at statewide victory if Medina is the Republicans' nominee for comptroller.  Her pet issue is overhauling the state's eminent domain laws; she spoke about it at the Independent Texans convention last weekend in Bastrop (where she likely was begged to run for governor).  That could be a hot topic again with rural, suburban, and urban Texas voters of all political stripes, as it was in 2006 with regard to the Trans Texas Corridor, but it's not a stance that's attracting wealthy oil company executives -- and their PACs -- who make large contributions to GOP political campaigns.  So there's that.

-- The Tea Pee also wants Louie Gohmert to primary John Cornyn.  Some people don't want to say so directly, so they're dropping The Dew's name.  Those are people who want one of the other three RWNJs to be lite guv.

Dewhurst can finish first in the primary he''s already in, but he might be unable to win the runoff with one of Staples, Patterson and (most likely) Patrick as his competition.

The conventional view of the race is that despite Dewhurst’s advantages, he is highly vulnerable. Down-ballot races are about getting your message out, and with his ability to self-fund, Dewhurst will have the biggest megaphone. But a four-way primary could easily result in a runoff, in which he would struggle, just as he did in the delayed primary against Cruz. His performance in that race also indicates that his constituency may not have the influence it once did.

Dewhurst is still haunted by his loss to Cruz. ... 

Go click and read that article.  And then you'll see things come full circle; Gohmert is the guy we all want to primary Cornyn.  Because then a Democrat might actually decide to run (and consequently win).

For the Republicans reading this and not getting it: splitting your party between crazies and "moderates" is how you will lose control of this state.  It's happened all across the country, and it's coming to Texas.  Sooner than later.

But please don't take my advice and vote for the 'sensible' person in your primary.  Please.

-- Ben Hall cranked up the slime to 10 yesterday.  Sue Davis threw a creampie back at him.  Both parties missed their target.  Update: Dr. Murray may think it's funny, but I sure don't.

Another thirty days of this... maybe sixty.

Update II:  I should have added San Antonio city council member and virulent homophobe Elisa Chan to the list of batshit nuts challenging plenty-conservative-enough Republicans from their right.

No offense meant toward bat guano.

Here we go.

Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis and her advisers have begun informing influential Democrats that she intends to run for governor in 2014, according to multiple sources familiar with Davis’s conversations. [...]

Davis advisers declined to confirm that she will enter the governor’s race, but Davis consultant Hector Nieto said the senator has made up her mind about 2014 and will unveil her plans next week.

“Sen. Davis has decided what she will do and she looks forward to making that announcement with her grass-roots supporters on Oct. 3,” Nieto said.

I have to first say that I'm disappointed that Davis has sought the advice and counsel of the Matt Angle brain trust.  This man and his acolytes -- last responsible for the glittering state party chairmanship of Boyd Richie -- have filled the yawning leadership vacuum in this state for much too long.  I was hoping Battleground Texas might be growing up enough to wrest control of things away from them.

Davis really does need some people who have won some races, which is to say no Texas-based consultants with any real authority.  (This is the nicest thing you will ever read me write about political consultants.)  Trust that I will be critical of her campaign if I disagree with it.

But no matter what happens, Davis amps up the wattage for 2014 to a national intensity, brings along a few of her Senate colleagues on the ticket, and lifts the boats and the spirits of Democrats down the ballot and across the Lone Star State.  None of that is a bad thing.

What is a bad thing is the "baby-killing Barbie" bullshit that's already flying in from the starboard side.  Fourteen months of that garbage is going to try men's and women's souls.

I promise to keep things fair and balanced; every time I read something derogatory from a child doll fetishist about a woman's reproductive freedom, I'm going to post a cripple joke.  I was forced to start early with the payback, if you recall.

Texas Monthly's already got General Scooter on the cover.

I thought he had two legs?  Who pushed him out in the middle of that field?  Must he wear a seatbelt or a harness when he fires that shotgun in order to avoid dumping himself out of his chair?

Anyway, things should be lively going forward.  Despite the senator's moderate record overall -- never mind, once again, what Mark Jones says -- I'll host some moneybomb efforts and make a small contribution myself.  And that will be because the right wing freaks in this state need to be made to understand that they aren't going to be in charge much longer.

Update (9/29): Thanks to Mike at Crooks and Liars for including this post in his roundup. Those visiting here for the first time might also want to see here for the latest development in the Texas governor's race.

Things I would rather not blog about

-- Ted Cruz ruining my Green Eggs and Ham, because the moral of the story zoomed over his head.  If this putz is the smartest TeaBagger in the country, then what's the real problem?  Why, it's that all the rest of them are so much more stupid than him, of course.

-- Greg Abbott filing his thirtieth lawsuit against the Obama administration, this time over a UN treaty.  Another guy who panders to the worst elements in society -- conservatives clinging and crapping their pants in fear of 'the other' -- because he understands that these morons can be manipulated so easily that he can ride that wave right into higher office.

-- Meanwhile, in a nation where Democratic base voters are yet to be fully convinced that voting in every election could, you know, change things like this... Republicans brag about the fact that they won't.  (This also factors into the reasons why elected officials think the people who elected them are more conservative than they actually are.)

Republicans are literally daring us to vote them out of office at this point.  Because they don't think it will happen.

-- I'd also rather not blog about Ben Hall's latest teevee commercial, because while it's less weird and more on target than his previous efforts -- a politician who became a millionaire while in office is a legitimate, populist, and effective argument against career politicians -- Ben Hall is just the wrong messenger.  It doesn't matter how hard his tail hit the ground when it fell off, either.

It does make me want to vote for the Socialist or the Green, however.  Somebody who's actually not capable of being bought off.

But keep in mind that Parker and Hall are sitting on fat wads of cash, they don't like each other a lot, and your television and mailbox are on the verge of being inundated with their focus-grouped, consultant-produced slime.

You want to know the worst part?  People will still be led to believe that the best way to evaluate a politico's electoral prospects is to see how much money they can raise.

Now do you see why I didn't want to write any of that?