Will Mostyn fund Medina?

Robert Miller.

An ancient Arabian proverb says the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The concept is that two parties, opposed in most respects, unite against a common opponent. In Texas, it has aligned Steve Mostyn, a passionate liberal and prolific contributor to Democrats, with Debra Medina, a libertarian Republican now contemplating a run for governor as an independent in 2014.

Mostyn began supporting Medina because she opposed Gov. Rick Perry in the 2010 Republican primary. Mostyn also created the Back to Basics PAC and contributed almost $4 million in 2010 to attack Gov. Perry.

I trust Miller's hunches and sources and instincts and whatever else he uses to blog with when it comes to Republicans. I have to question virtually everything he writes when it comes to Democrats; his track record is poor in that regard. He's actually trying to follow money that hasn't been donated (yet).

(A)ccording to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Medina “has received millions of dollars in pledges on the condition that she instead run for governor as an independent.” It doesn’t take a Rice graduate to figure out the source of those pledges. Steve Mostyn and his wife, Amber, are fervent backers of Sen. Wendy Davis and her gubernatorial campaign. It is a time-honored political tactic to entice other candidates into a race to siphon votes from the frontrunner, in this case Attorney General Greg Abbott.

I beat Miller to the punch on this last week, and the news first appeared over two weeks ago in the TexTrib, which credited Harvey Kronberg's Quorum Report for breaking it.  Miller, then, is spitballing here by throwing the Mostyns' name in; they have a ton of money set aside for political causes, but they also have a lot of folks in line with funding requests in 2014 besides Davis.  There's BGTX and there will soon be LVDP and other Democrats on the statewide ballot in due time.  I don't think even Steve and Amber are made of that much green.

Speaking of Green, Miller's scolding of Medina rings extremely hollow considering that Republicans have ALWAYS played this "muck with the other primary" business, and his morality appears to have been misplaced during those times.  If you read those links you'll pick up on my own disgust with the tactic; I wasn't much of a Green at all until well after then.

I'm still convinced, as I wrote previously, that Medina wants Greg Abbott to tell his benefactors to cut her a fat check to keep her in the comptroller's race.

It would make a great deal of sense for the Mostyns to pledge money to Medina, if for nothing else than it seems to piss off Republicans.  So I actually hope I'm wrong and Miller is right (I mean correct).

Update: Miller has appended his post with an unequivocal denial from the Mostyns' representative.

I want to state unambiguously to you that your post claiming the Mostyns have committed financial or political support to Debra Medina -- should she choose to run for Governor in 2014 -- is incorrect.

To be clear, the Mostyns have not spoken with Ms. Medina about any campaign for any office in 2014. Neither they, nor I on their behalf, have suggested that they would provide any kind of financial or political support to Ms. Medina in a 2014 gubernatorial run.

The Weekly Wrangle

With the kickoff of the Wendy Davis for Governor campaign last week, a Houston mayoral debate coming this week, and a nice fall cool snap, the Texas Progressive Alliance is feeling pretty damn good about now as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff shared a personal story from a friend about how Obamacare and the insurance exchanges will make a big difference in his life.

In the Houston suburbs live some of the absolute worst conservatives in the United States, and the Associated Press found one and told his miserable story. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs knows that when Republicans can't tell the difference between soil and dirt, ignorance is the biggest hurdle to Wendy Davis' chances of being elected governor of Texas.

Texas Leftist knows that blame for the current government shutdown rests ENTIRELY on the GOP's shoulders. But just in case anyone is unsure, Rachel Maddow has an epic takedown as proof positive. Do today's Republicans even believe in government??

Neil Aquino wrote about militarized police at his new blog, All People Have Value. All People Have Value is part of Neil's new website, NeilAquino.com.

Noah Horwitz at Texpatriate began a series of intermittent updates on the state of the Texas governor's race. He published three this week, the first of which appeared last Wednesday.

David Dewhurst tries to obfuscate about the racist DPS checkpoints in the Valley. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme and every other sentient being in the Valley knows he spews BS.

Over at TexasKaos, Libby Shaw names names. It is on you, Ted . Give it a read.

=========================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

John Coby invites Ted Cruz to join his new club.

Concerned Citizens wants to know what the 2014 election is going to be about.

Juanita introduces us to the next Republican member of Congress from Texas to make a fool of himself on TV.

New Media Texas posts video conversations with three Houston mayoral candidates.

Nonsequiteuse reminds us that there are many ways to volunteer for a campaign.

BOR analyzed Proposition 6, the water infrastructure amendment, as part of a series of analyses of the nine constitutional amendments on the ballot this year.

And finally, Blog con Queso published a recipe for Dr. Pepper sheet cake. Because you can't get any more Texas than that.

The difference between soil and dirt, explained for House Republicans

The thirty-two Republican Congress critters who have joined the kamikaze mission of Tail Gunner Ted Cruz in taking down the United States government include the following Texans:

John Carter, John Culberson, Louie Gohmert, Randy Neugebauer, Steve Stockman, and Randy Weber.

Their names come from the list James Fallows references.

Two more quick instances of the wanton damage that 30-odd legislators (named here) are doing to Americans at two levels: those running small businesses, and those working in the large research institutions on which so much of our long-term wealth and well-being depend.

And from there, Scott Slesinger of the National Resources Defense Council has this account from a virologist at an East Coast university.

Just don't get the flu next year and you will be OK. I happen to be vetted for a Federal committee that decides on which influenza antigens to use in next year's vaccine.  It doesn't take much imagination to figure out how fast this is going during The Shutdown.

[This researcher's lab is internationally recognized for having discovered two different viral causes of cancer, and yet] our research funding has been cut, a moving target, but somewhere between 10 and 25%.

I just received an email from one of my more talented post-docs who took a job at FDA as a scientist several years ago.  They couldn't hire him on as permanent science staff because of temporary hiring blocks, "The Sequester", and so forth.

Since they are no longer giving him a paycheck, he says to hell with it and he is looking for a job in private biotechnology.

The problem with Congressional Republicans is that they do not know the difference between soil and dirt.  If you put soil in your oven and bake it at 450 C for an hour, it turns into dirt.  It doesn't matter how much manure you throw on dirt, it won't become soil again.   It's dirt with shit on it.

Fallows, back with the moneyshot and the action item.

Like Robert Costa of National Review, whose reporting on the Republican hard-line faction has clarified why they are willing to wreak so much damage on so many fellow citizens, McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed has been very well sourced among Republicans. Read his account "Where Ted Cruz Is Coming From" for an understanding of how irrelevant any normal concept of "compromise," "leverage," or "public opinion" is with the hard-line faction. And also how contemptible John Boehner* is for protecting his own job, by catering to these people, at the costs of hundreds of thousands of jobs around the country. Coppins writes:

From its genesis in 2009, the Tea Party movement has been fueled by the rhetoric of revolution.... While Nevada Senate candidate Sharon Angle outraged mainstream political observers when she suggested people may start looking for “Second Amendment remedies” to the country’s problems, one recent survey showed that nearly half of Republicans believe armed insurrection might be necessary “in the next few years.”

Data points like those have long been Democrats’ bread and butter as they work to cast the Tea Party as “extreme.” But they also show just how extreme conservatives consider America’s current peril to be. To believe an armed revolution could realistically be on the horizon is to live with the genuine suspicion that your government could, at any point, be overtaken by tyranny. In that context, some temporary furloughs seem like a small price to pay....

[M]any Tea Party lawmakers view Obamacare as such a catastrophic threat to the country’s healthcare system and long-term economic health that it’s worth the high-stakes legislative brinksmanship to try to slow it down.

At least, that’s what they hear when they return to their districts.

* Why do I single out the affable-seeming Boehner for contempt? He obviously is not a Tea Party hardliner himself. And it is within his power to end this damage in a minute, simply by allowing the House to vote on a "clean" budget measure (which would pass). That would probably cost him his job as Speaker — but his failure to do so is costing many other people their jobs, not to mention longer-term effects.

Here's the list of Republicans in Congress who are willing to vote right now in favor of a clean CR.  (Note that no Texans appear on that list.)

This has gone beyond ludicrous and straight to Insane.

If the only constituents the Congressional conservative sociopaths are hearing from are themselves exclusively motivated by revolution at this point, then that is quite obviously at the crux of our national problem.  So you know all those e-mail appeals you're getting about telling Boehner to take a vote?  The ones that say 'Call your Congressman'?   Maybe it's time to do those things.  Again.  And tomorrow also.  Maybe the day after that, if this shutdown continues.

Besides the real physical danger Americans are facing, the economic ramifications are also swelling.  Republicans are supposed to be the party of business, and even the 1% are figuring out they're getting screwed... along with all the rest of us.

There needs to be a cost to the terrorists responsible (once more, their names are at the top of this post) for the damage being done -- indeed, the lives that will be lost -- due to their wanton irresponsibility.  That cost needs to be extracted now, and again in 2014.

We cannot continue to let the Dale Hulses of Harris County and Texas elect the kooks who run this great state and nation.

Updates (this morning):

Boehner says "not enough votes" for clean CR

GOP in grave danger of losing House in 2014, polls say