Texas Senate Race Update for January 3, 2012

January 3rd, 2012

Very soon the candidates should be crowing about how much money they pulled in during Q4. In the meantime, here are few variegated updates for your political junkie pleasure:

  • The Club for Growth releases an ad targeting David Dewhurst:

  • Moreover, they’re supporting the ads against Dewhurst and two other moderate Republicans with a half million dollars worth of ad buys.
  • Rick Perry gives a boost, in passing, to Dewhurst’s Senate bid in Iowa, with Dewhurst and other Texas officials present. It certainly won’t hurt Dewhurst’s chances, but it’s a bit short of a full-throttle endorsement.
  • Ted Cruz talks about the importance of electing Tea Party supporters to the Senate.
  • Craig James now has a website, a Twitter feed, and a Facebook page, though I don’t think Google is picking any of them up yet.
  • I’ve also updated the list of candidate’s websites.
  • James says he’s living on real street. “Only in politics is it possible for a former football star turned national broadcaster be able to make the claim how connected they are to ordinary people.”
  • KYFO in Lubbock did a poll asking people if they would vote for James in the Senate race. Right now a bracing 96% are voting no…
  • A not particularly insightful breakdown of the race. The Craig James-to-Jack Kemp comparison is particularly inapt; Kemp went straight from playing quarterback for the Buffalo Bills in 1969 to running for and winning a congressional seat from Buffalo in 1970. James’ last year of professional football was 1988, and being a cable sportscaster is a level of fame below even a Kardashian sister.
  • Democrat Paul Sadler gets more love from the Longview News-Journal. Sadler’s hometown of Henderson lies between Nacogdoches and Longview.
  • The Houston Chronicle also examines Sadler’s chances. Democrats have pinned their hopes on “a former six-term Texas House member who hasn’t held office since 2003, who has little statewide name identification and whose last race was a losing effort in a runoff election for the state Senate in 2004.” Indeed. But note that writer Joe Holley is incorrect when he says that Sadler “is among six other Democratic candidates,” as there are now only five Democratic Senate candidates. However, I can’t really blame him, as the Texas Democratic Party has never actually said why Eric Roberson and John Morton no longer appear on the list of candidates, nor have they answered my query on the issue.
  • And here’s another article that mentions Sadler, but none of his opponents in the Democratic primary. It’s almost as if the state’s lockstep MSM outlets have already picked their preferred candidate…
  • EmpowerTexas will be hosting a senate debate in Austin on January 12. Participants are Cruz, Dewhurst, James, Tom Leppert and Glenn Addison (which is the right five if you’re limiting it to five).
  • There’s also a Saddle Up Texas Straw Poll event in Houston January 12-14. Cruz, Dewhurst, Leppert, Addison, Lela Pittenger and Dr. Joe Agris are all scheduled to attend, as is Andrew Breitbart. Call me a cynic, but when an event has a list of sponsorship opportunities but no actual sponsors 10 days before the event, as well as $45 tickets (good luck with that), my gut feeling is that the organizers are going to take a serious financial bath. (Indeed, it gives off a whiff of The Ultimate Fantasy, a legendary Star Trek convention debacle I attended which also took place in Houston…)
  • I try to deal with substantive issues in coverage of the race, but every now and then it’s worth noting good old-fashioned politicking. Take, for example, the way Cruz celebrates every Texas university bowl win (U of H, Baylor, A&M, Texas) on his Facebook page, including team logos. Leppert comes close, but missed the Aggies. Dewhurst doesn’t seem to discuss sports on his Facebook page, despite including the Longhorns among his likes.
  • Curt Cleaver’s Twitter feed is now at https://twitter.com/#!/Cleaver4Senate.

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    Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »

    The Case for Rick Perry

    January 2nd, 2012

    Ace of Spades makes his case for Rick Perry here.

    Since that piece came out December 19, it’s hardly cutting edge news. But I’ve been ruminating on it for a while to try and figure out if I have anything more to add. I think I do. And with the Iowa Caucuses looming, I probably should.

    I haven’t covered much of the 2012 Presidential race, mainly because I’ve been focusing on the Texas Senate Race and everyone and their dog was blogging every twist in the POTUSA race.

    OMG! Ron Paul is up 3 points!

    Plus I don’t have cable, so I wouldn’t be able to watch the interminable numerous debates.

    Finally, a baseball team the Astros can beat

    Which is why I didn’t see Perry commit his brain freezes, of which there were many. (My theory is that he was still hopped up on goofballs from his back operation.)

    Percocet makes me see tiny little Jim Hightowers, and I have to grab and crush each and every one of them

    Having lived in Texas for the entirety of Rick Perry’s tenure as governor, I can attest that he is not a perfect candidate. There have been times (Gardasil, the Trans-Texas Corridor) when he’s strayed from conservative principles. And he’s not as polished as Mitt Romney or as articulate as Newt Gingrich.

    But Perry isn’t running against the second coming of Ronald Reagan, or even Sarah Palin. Every other major Republican contender is not only at least as flawed, they’re considerably more so.

  • Despite cheer-leading from the likes of Kathryn Jean Lopez and Jennifer Rubin, Mitt Romney has always struck me as a phony without any real core convictions except that he should be in charge; sort of the Republican answer to Bill Clinton, without the charm or adultery. Pick an issue and Romney’s been on both sides of it at one time or another. He seems the most likely of all the major candidates to be praised by The New York Times and The Washington Post for “growing” in office. Romney is most likely to disappoint me in caving in to D.C.’s usual free-spending, pork-barrel log-rolling.
  • I could get behind voting for the Newt Gingrich of 1994, the one whose laser-like focus on the holding the Democrats accountable for their misdeed and promoting the Contract With America helped Republicans take the House and Senate, set the stage for a welfare reform and helped (temporarily) balance the budget. Sadly, that Gingrich is not up on offer. We have to deal with the idea-a-minute-and-many-of-them-bad, ex-lobbyist, “Big Government Conservative” Newt Gingrich of 2012, the one so devastatingly and accurately skewered by Mark Steyn in this week’s National Review. (As Bruce Sterling once said at a Turkey City Writer’s Workshop, “Cruel, but fair!”) No matter how many times he tries to sound like Reagan, there are all those other times when he sounds like everyone from Al Gore to Faith Popcorn. I imagine that I would be disappointed many times in a Gingrich Presidency. Unlike Romney, I’m sure Gingrich would find entirely new and innovative ways to disappoint me.
  • I could almost get behind Ron Paul, based on his absolute, rock-steady position on the biggest problem facing America: out-of-control government spending and ever-increasing size and power of the federal government. The debt bomb is an existential threat to American prosperity, and If we don’t shrink government and get the deficit under control, none of the other issues really matter. And I lean heavily on the libertarian side of the spectrum. But even given that, there’s just too much weirdness (what Kevin Williamson called “his Ronness”) about the rest of Paul’s policies: the newsletters, the footsie with racism, the conspiracy theories, the weirdness about gays and wishing Israel didn’t exist, the running against Reagan. Being just one of 435 House members was a great place for Paul to be, since he could bring up conservative and Libertarian issues without any chance that his wackier ideas would ever end up in legislation, but the Presidency is a different kettle of fish. Plus there’s the problem of his electability, or rather lack thereof. With all his diverse baggage, I believe that Paul is the GOP candidate Obama would have the best chance of defeating. Ignore all the hard-left liberals talking up Paul as a better choice than Obama; it’s just a smokescreen that would evaporate at the first excuse to jump back on the Obama bandwagon. William F. Buckley always said conservative should support the right-most viable candidate. I don’t think Paul is a viable candidate.
  • Michelle Bachmann’s star has faded even more than Perry’s, and she doesn’t have Perry’s executive experience or record on job creation. The fact she’s neither dumb nor crazy doesn’t mean the MSM won’t pull the Full Sarah Palin Treatment on her (Andrew Sullivan womb-diving optional) were she to get the nod.
  • Rick Santorum: Too little, too late, he lost his last election, and his strengths don’t lie in the economy and job creation.
  • Jon Huntsman: Which part of “Republican” was unclear?

    • By process of elimination, that leaves Perry. As I said before, Perry isn’t perfect, but he has a record on holding the line on government spending and enabling job creation that puts Romney to shame. One again, let’s go to the charts that the indispensable Will Franklin of Willisms has provided on Texas job creation:

    And the case for Perry over Romney (again thanks to WILLisms) is even more stark:

    More on the Texas job success story here.

    While I have criticized Perry’s campaign budget proposals for being too timid, Perry insisted on balancing the Texas budget without tax hikes. I assure you that California would love to have Texas’ budget. Indeed, adjusted for inflation, population growth, and federally-mandated spending, the Texas state budget has actually gone down under Perry. His guiding principle has been “don’t spend all the money,” and it’s one that Washington desperately needs.

    One final, very big reason to support Perry: He can win. Perry’s never lost a race, because he’s a tough and tenacious campaigner who’s not afraid to hit his opponents hard. Everyone thought Kay Bailey Hutchison was going to cream Perry in the 2010 governor’s race, and he beat her like a rented mule.

    Or maybe a rented donkey.

    In the general election against Bill White, he ran an ad featuring a police widow talking about how her husband had been killed by a multi-arrested illegal alien while White was touting Houston as a “sanctuary city.”

    Even professional MSM Perry hater Paul Burka says that Perry is a hard man. “He is the kind of politician who would rather be feared than loved.” Perry will have absolutely no fear of taking the fight to Obama and going negative early and often, and he won’t let political correctness cow him into treating Obama with kid gloves.

    Will the media savage Rick Perry for his flubs? Of course they will. But, as Ace noted, they’ll always find a way to crucify any Republican candidate to make Obama look better. They’ll use the same “he’s an idiot” line of attack they used on Reagan and Bush43…and you saw how far that got them.

    If you’re still undecided on Perry, this video should at least give you a more rounded picture of him:

    For those who think Perry is already out of the race, remember that at this point in 2004, the consensus was that Howard Dean was going to be the nominee. There’s a reason Americans actually get to vote, and they frequently prove the pundits wrong.

    One final reason to vote for Perry: he’s a pretty good shot.

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    Posted in Budget, Elections, Guns, Obama Scandals, Republicans, Texas | 4 Comments »

    Dave Barry Brings The Funny

    January 2nd, 2012

    With his annual year in review. This year’s theme (ever so appropriate for the Obama Administration): “The Festival of Sleaze.” Some highlights:

  • “The month’s biggest story is a tragedy in Tucson, where a man opens fire on a meet-and-greet being held by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The accused shooter turns out to be a mentally unstable loner with a history of drug use; there is no evidence that his actions had anything to do with uncivil political rhetoric. So naturally the blame for the tragedy is immediately placed on: uncivil political rhetoric.
  • “In Europe, the economic crisis continues to worsen, especially in Greece, which has been operating under a financial model in which the government spends approximately $150 billion a year while taking in revenue totaling $336.50 from the lone Greek taxpayer, an Athens businessman who plans to retire in April. Greece has been making up the shortfall by charging everything to a MasterCard account that the Greek government applied for — in what some critics consider a questionable financial practice — using the name ‘Germany.'”
  • “The European economic crisis worsens still further as Moody’s downgrades its credit rating for Spain following the discovery that the Spanish government, having run completely out of money, secretly sold the Pyrenees to China and is now separated from France only by traffic cones.”
  • “A major crisis is barely avoided when Congress, after frantic negotiations, reaches a last-minute agreement on the federal budget, thereby averting a government shutdown that would have had a devastating effect on the ability of Congress to continue spending insanely more money than it actually has.”
  • “Things are even worse in Europe, where Moody’s announces that it has officially downgraded Greece’s credit rating from ‘poor’ to ‘rat mucus’ following the discovery that the Acropolis has been repossessed.”
  • “May: the big story takes place in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden, enjoying a quiet evening chilling in his compound with his various wives and children and porn stash, receives an unexpected drop-in visit from a team of Navy SEALs. After due consideration of bin Laden’s legal rights, the SEALs convert him into Purina brand Shark Chow; he is then laid to rest in a solemn ceremony concluding upon impact with the Indian Ocean at a terminal velocity of 125 miles per hour. While Americans celebrate, the prime minister of Pakistan declares that his nation (a) is very upset about the raid and (b) had no earthly idea that the world’s most wanted terrorist had been living in a major Pakistani city in a large high-walled compound with a mailbox that said BIN LADEN.”
  • “August: Standard & Poor’s makes good on its threat to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, noting that the federal government, in making fiscal decisions, is exhibiting ‘the IQ of a turnip.’ Meanwhile Wall Street becomes increasingly jittery as investors react to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Bernanke’s surprise announcement that his personal retirement portfolio consists entirely of assault rifles.”
  • “President Obama returns from his Martha’s Vineyard getaway refreshed and ready to tackle the job he was elected by the American people to do: seek reelection. Focusing on unemployment, the president delivers a nationally televised address laying out his plan for creating jobs, which consists of traveling around the nation tirelessly delivering job-creation addresses until it’s time for another presidential getaway.”
  • “Mitt Romney unexpectedly exhibits a lifelike facial expression but is quickly subdued by his advisers.”
  • “An International Monetary Fund audit of the 27-nation European Union reveals that 11 of the nations are missing…Meanwhile in Greece, thousands of rioters take to the streets of Athens to protest a tough new government austerity program that would sharply reduce the per diem rioter allowance.”
  • “Attorney General Eric Holder announces that the FBI has uncovered a plot by Iran to commit acts of terror in the United States, including assassinating the Saudi ambassador, bombing the Israeli Embassy, and—most chillingly—providing funding for traveling productions of ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.'”

    • Not that I need to tell you, but read the whole thing.

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    Posted in Budget, Foreign Policy, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »

    Federal Judge Stays EPA Cross-Border Rules

    January 2nd, 2012

    In all the pre-New Year’s Eve excitement, I missed Friday’s news that D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals enjoined the EPA from implementing its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) until the court completed its review of the legal challenges against the rule.

    This is good news, especially if the rules is invalidated, since that would prevent Texans from dying, as might well happen should older power plants that can’t meet the new rules be unavailable to provide power during peak summer days. (And remember that a 2003 heatwave killed more than 14,000 people in France.

    Thanks to the Texas Public Policy Foundation (which has been following the story closely) for the heads-up.

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    Posted in Texas | 2 Comments »

    I Would TOTALLY Kick Mike Tyson’s ASS (if he hadn’t left this bar five minutes ago)

    January 1st, 2012

    Insta linked to this Taylor Marsh piece about how she, as a liberal, is Totally Fed Up with Obama and the Democratic Party. I’m a bit less impressed with its significance (or sincerity) than he was, even ignoring the usual parade of liberal straw-man conservatives, mainly because of the sheer cringing cowardice of the timing. It’s like a scrawny guy at a bar going “Did you hear Mike Tyson call that woman a bitch? If he were here right now, I’d totally kick his ass!” five minutes after Tyson left.

    Sure you would, champ.

    Obama and other top Democrats have proven that their main priority is increasing the size and scope of the federal government, and using the benefits of that increased size and scope to rake off profits and pay off their cronies and interest groups. They’ve been doing that for three years, just like they’ve been ignoring that progressive wish list (closing Gitmo, ending predator drone strikes, ending the Bush tax cuts, etc.) for the same period of time, and now is when you’re finally fed up?

    Right.

    You know when your cries of outrage might have had an actual effect? Three to six months ago, when it was still possible for Obama to face a serious primary challenge from the left. But for all their theatrical outrage over “secret Republican” Obama, not a single high profile liberal Democrat stepped up to challenge him in the Democratic Presidential Primary. Not one. And now that it’s absolutely too late for that to happen, Taylor Marsh makes high-minded, ego-flattering noises about how she’s willing to leave the Democratic Party.

    Sure she is.

    You know why the Republican establishment had to take the Tea Party seriously? They took scalps. Marco Rubio kicked Charlie Crist to the curb, Christine O’Donnell knocked off Mike Castle, and Joe Miller forced Lisa Murkowski to run as an independent. That’s when the GOP establishment knew the Tea Party was too dangerous to take for granted. Micky Kaus noted that those challenges are what probably killed the illegal alien amnesty DREAM act: “By my count, Miller’s primary coup may have helped gain around ten votes by terrifying GOP incumbents who might otherwise have been tempted by the prospect of a feel-good, bipartisan, MSM-approved pro-DREAM stand.”

    Until liberals are willing to mount real primary challenges to big-name Democrats, all their talk of disenchantment with the party is just so much vainglorious posturing. And as for their votes being “up for grabs” in November? Please. Not a single one of them will be pulling the lever for Rick Perry or Mitt Romney to spite Obama. They know it, we know it, and Obama knows it.

    Maybe at some point down the line liberals really will become fed up with being taken for granted by the Democratic Party (not to mention the endemic crony capitalism corruption), and put some actual skin in the game. Until then, they’re just lap dog Chihuahuas pretending they’re Dobermans.

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for December 29, 2011

    December 29th, 2011

    The year winds down, and I have a bunch of more-or-less lengthy posts in various stages of completion. You know what that means? That’s right! LinkSwarm!

  • Even profitable firms are leaving California for Texas.
  • Charles Murray concludes that more prisons means less crime. “Higher imprisonment was the necessary condition for 100 percent of the reduction in violent crime.”
  • Riot at the Mall of America.
  • My amazing psychic powers prove accurate again.
  • Some good news: ethanol subsidies have finally expired. Now let’s make sure to keep them dead.
  • That’s a Heller of a lot of money.
  • Michigan men: Are you living with someone who’s pregnant? Congratulations! If this proposed law passes, you’ll be a slave.
  • “”The Occupy movement is alive and well and kicking, and doing precisely what it was intended to be: The Re-Elect Obama Campaign. Period.”

    • Hat tips: Insta, and a smattering of others.

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    Posted in Budget, Crime, Democrats, Guns, Regulation, Texas | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for December 26, 2011

    December 26th, 2011

    Still getting back up to speed after Christmas, so here are a few links that I’ve been squirreling away like nuts for winter:

  • Is Obama preparing for war with Iran? This interview with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta sure makes it sound that way…
  • If I’m reading these tea leaves correctly, Gary Johnson is about to give up running as a Republican and run as a Libertarian. Which is a shame, because the Republican Party needs more libertarians. But his campaign never caught fire. Alternately, he’s going to pull out and endorse Ron Paul, which his front page sort of hints at.
  • To clear the air on Ron Paul: He’s not an Anti-Semite, he just wishes Israel didn’t exist, and he’s not a homophobe, he just refuses to shake gay’s hands or use their bathrooms.
  • Amy Alkon gets a TSA agent patdown. And by “patdown” I mean “repeatedly stick their fingers in her vulva.”
  • Jill Stanek on Christopher Hitchens and abortion. And Hitchens’ own, fairly conflicted thoughts here.
  • The Zeta Drug cartel has built their own national radio system. Let’s hope that Eric Holder didn’t give them that as well. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Rebel Syrians holding a sign slamming Obama and praising Bush. Real, or Photoshop? I try to have a healthy suspicion of things that fit too neatly into my worldview.

    • Additional hat tips to Insta and Ace.

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Regulation, Republicans | 1 Comment »

    Dropping Like Flies

    December 25th, 2011

    On December 19, I reported two additional Democrats, Eric Roberson and John Morton, joining the Senate race because their names appeared on the official list of Democratic candidates, bringing the total of Democratic candidates to seven.

    However, the next day, Eric Roberson would be off the list, having filed for another race.

    Strangely enough, today the name of John Morton is no longer found on the official list of Democratic candidates. No explanation for his disappearance, though I have sent a query to the Texas Democratic Party for clarification.

    That leaves five democratic candidates: Sean Hubbard, Daniel Boone, Jason Gibson, Paul Sadler, and Addie Dainell Allen.

    At the current rate, all Democratic candidates will be off the ballot by mid-January…

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas | 2 Comments »

    Texas Senate Race Update for December 22, 2011

    December 22nd, 2011

    Like everyone else, political wonks are taking off for Christmas, so just a few tiny bits of Senate race news:

  • Tom Leppert appeared on the Janet Mefferd Show:

  • With Ricardo Sanchez out of the race, Texas Democrats face a Latino problem.
  • So how do you write up a summary of the Senate race, and manage to list every Democrat in the race except Sean Hubbard, and every Republican in the race except Glenn Addison and Lela Pittenger, and misspell Curt Cleaver’s name to boot? Did the Wichita Falls Times Record News let all their fact checkers take the week off for Christmas?
  • Of all the declared longshots who failed to file for the race I queried as to their intentions, only Andrew Castanuela wrote to say he was pursuing a campaign as a write-in candidate, which seems a fairly futile course of action for someone whose last name is not Murkowski.
  • Ted Cruz turns 41 today. Happy birthday, Ted!

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

    From The Nanotechnological Violins Department

    December 21st, 2011

    “Your liberal organization isn’t sustainable!”

    MoveOn.org says it needs $400,000 or it will have to close its doors.

    Of course, this is probably just a fundraising ploy. Surely the organization born with the express purpose of sweeping Bill Clinton’s perjury under the rug can depend on Bubba leaning on a few cronies to throw them some scratch, And there’s always George Soros, assuming he’s not tapped out from helping other arms of the Democratic Party like Media Matters, Barack Obama, and The Texas Tribune.

    But it would be quite satisfying to see Nutroots Patient Zero (as far as I know; feel free to offer better candidates in the comments) go the way of Geocities and John Edwards’ political career…

    (Hat tip: Sipsey Street.)

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    Posted in Democrats | No Comments »

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