Bloggers are buzzing about the plan to bail out the nation's clay-footed financial giants. They're also recovering from Hurricane Ike, talking about politicians' disappearing acts and throwing a few bones to folks who are neither Republicans nor Democrats. And there's more, including an award for Headline of the Week!

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Sending Out an S.O.S.

"This bill is also a reminder of many other bills that were urged to pass quickly for the good of the country... I'M TIRED OF THIS!!!" writes Congressional District 31 Democrat Brian Ruiz. "At What Point Do We Resort To Tax Evasion?" sighs a frustrated Kevin Tracy. And "Am I in the right universe?" asks Redneck Mother, dazed by the White House's buyout plan, her sons' obedience and seeing county jail inmates brandishing weed eaters. ("You know who I think would look awesome clearing brush from flood-control ditches in orange and white stripes? The investment-sector jokers who want a great big financial cookie from me and my kids — and you and your kids — for their misbehavior," she adds.)

The University of Texas LBJ School blog rounds up articles on the financial crisis written by or starring in-house economist James K. Galbraith. Speaking of, UrbanGrounds attended a debate between Galbraith and conservative philosopher Daniel Bonevac. (Unsurprisingly, the conservative blogger ruled that his fellow right-winger won.) Here's a take on the same forum from Quid Nimis. And here's where you can find video of the event.

Texas Kaos likens the Treasury Department's plan to Nigerian e-phishing scams and makes note of a GOP platform plank: "We do not support government bailouts of private institutions."

No sir, I don't like it, says U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, basically. U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling's alternative proposals have garnered the admiration of a right-wing columnist, according to Tex Parte Blog. And "aides to [U.S. Sen. John] Cornyn have privately said he has misgivings about the bailout plan... " whispers Postcards from the Lege, the Austin American-Statesman's blog.

Postcards reports on a hard line of questioning to Fed Chair Ben Bernanke from U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, that had U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, confused as to "who the conservatives are and who the liberals are." Meanwhile, PoliTex quibbles with U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, over how many days God took to create the world. (We say the 24 hours of R&R should count.)

Tarrant County U.S. Reps have received thousands of phone calls and e-mails opposing the bailout, says the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's PoliTex, while The Jackalope's Voice uses the verb form of the word "demagogue" to describe verbal actions taken by U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco.

Yeah, right, whatever has a bunch of links to stories about the crisis. EconLog has a list of economists against the proposed bailout. Letters from Texas writes an epistle to President George W. Bush from the American people (or some of them, at least). And Texas on the Potomac, the Houston Chronicle's blog, analyzes Bush's reaction and has the full text of his speech on the crisis.

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Picking Up

A couple of highlights from Tex Parte: Lawyer has extra space to share with other attorneys, temporarily. And the Galveston Justice Center is slated to open to the public on Oct. 13.

Former Congressional District 22 GOP hopeful Alan Steinberg, now a University of Houston poli-sci student, talks about hurricane relief duty with the Texas State Guard. Meanwhile, a pair of Texas Kaos bloggers share their respective Ike-related meltdowns, here and here.

ABC13's Political Blog followed the mayors of Galveston and Houston to Washington, D.C., as they requested billions of dollars in federal aid money. The posts are here, here and here. And here's a pic from Lone Star Times.

After roughing it for a dozen days, Texas Rainmaker broke down and purchased a generator. Old Soldier regained power after 11 days with no electricity. He posted some photos of Ike damage and finally got his Internet back at home after having to blog from work for a couple of weeks.

In the "don't try this at home" category, Plowing, Sowing, and an Occasional Harvest took a picture of the rising sun while driving. And Texas Observer Blog has a post titled "Apres Moi, Le Deluge" — which is French for "I told you so."

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Aping Palin

Where in the world is Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth?asks KVUE's Political Junkie. He was skipping out on most of a Sunset Advisory Commission meeting concerning the Texas Residential Construction Commission, says Capitol Annex. A commenter replies that Brimer left early, not to avoid cameras, but to emcee a dinner for Tarrant County senior citizens.

Incumbent McCaul is turning down requests by the Statesman to participate in a debate pitting him against challengers Larry Joe Doherty (a Democrat) and Libertarian Matt Finkel (no relation to Ray Finkle, fictional or real). Out in El Paso, Republican Dee Margo won't participate in a debate with Democrat Joe Moody. Margo says he'd rather be block walking, and he'll be in plenty forums enough between now and November, according to the El Paso Times's blog Vaqueros & Wonkeros.

Meanwhile, Big White Hat hasn't blogged lately because he hasn't had much to say, he says.

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Third Wheels

Libertarian nominee Bob Barr and independent Ralph Nader both want in on presidential debates, says PoliTex. Meanwhile, Chronic, the Austin Chronicle's blog, publishes statements from Texas Libertarian Party chair Pat Dixon and Texas Democratic Party chair Boyd Richie on the Texas Supreme Court's rejection of Barr's bid to remove John McCain and Barack Obama from the state's ballot.

And 1988 Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul punks Barr in favor of Constitutionalist Party nominee Chuck Baldwin, says PoliTex. Blogger Libertarian Republican, a former Paul staffer, says Paul's decision could be a signal that he's ready to retire from Congress, or an impetus for GOPers to knock him out of the 2010 primary or even replace him as their nominee on the November ballot. (Paul defeated Chris Peden this spring 70 to 30.)

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Potpourri

Greg's Opinion posts two campaign videos by Democrat Bill Dingus, who's challenging House Speaker Tom Craddick. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee says it's "essential" that state House candidates Diana Maldonado and Chris Turner win their respective races, says Eye on Williamson.

TexBlog PAC, a group of liberal bloggers, is endorsing House District 101 Democrat Robert Miklos , reports Off the Kuff, who interviews Rep. Martha Cohen, D-Houston.

Kuff has the best blog in Houston , according to the Houston Press. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas might pay attorneys up to $750 per hour for their services, says Tex Parte. ("Bet the teachers wish they made that much money.") Meanwhile, Brains and Eggs gives detailed details about the Harris County ballot he learned from the county clerk.

And TFN Insider wins Headline of the Week Award for a post on Don McLeroy titled, "SBOE Chairman: Dentist, Science Guy."

This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who hails from Victoria but is semi-settled in Austin. We cherry-pick the state's political blogs each week, looking for news, info, gossip, and new jokes. The opinions here belong (mostly) to the bloggers, and we're including their links so you can hunt them down if you wish. Our blogroll — the list of Texas blogs we watch — is on our links page, and if you know of a Texas political blog that ought to be on it, just shoot us a note. Please send comments, suggestions, gripes or retorts to Texas Weekly editor Ross Ramsey.

The two national governors' associations — one for the Democrats and one for the Republicans — hold hands and tell Congress to vote out a plan.Govs. Rick Perry of Texas and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the heads of the Republican and Democratic governor's associations, fired off a letter to the House and Senate majority leaders telling them to put their party hats away and work out an economic fix. The letters are identical -- here's one that went to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:

Texans in the U.S. House voted strongly against the bailout in the first round, and all four members who face serious challenges voted against it, including Democrats Nick Lampson of Stafford and Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio and Republicans John Culberson of Houston and Michael McCaul of Austin.

The Ayes of Texas in that round were Republicans Kevin Brady of The Woodlands, Kay Granger of Fort Worth, Pete Sessions of Dallas, and Lamar Smith of San Antonio, and Democrats Chet Edwards of Waco, Charlie Gonzalez of San Antonio, Ruben Hinojosa of Mercedes, Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, and Silvestre Reyes of El Paso. That's five Democrats and four Republicans. The rest of the Texans — eight Democrats and 15 Republicans — voted No.

The U.S. Senate race is closer than you think, according to a new Rasmussen Poll.

That outfit has Republican John Cornyn just seven percentage points ahead of Democrat Rick Noriega, 50 percent to 43 percent. They've had the distance between the two in the double-digits since June (a May poll by Rasmussen put it at four points before the June measured the gap at 17 points). That survey shows Cornyn with higher favorable ratings and lower unfavorable ratings than the Democrat. By Rasmussen's measure, 57 percent of voters have either a very or somewhat favorable impression of Cornyn, as against 46 percent for Noriega. Negatives? For Cornyn, 30 percent; for Noriega, 36 percent.

That polling firm has John McCain nine percentage points ahead of Barack Obama in Texas, the same margin that's separated those two since June. Their latest reading has McCain at 52 percent and Obama at 43 percent. McCain has left voters with a better impression, they said, getting favorable ratings from 63 percent of Texans. Obama's corresponding number is 52 percent. Unfavorables McCain were at 37 percent, as against the Democrat's 46 percent. And Texans, in this poll, like Sarah Palin more than they like Joe Biden. Her favorable/unfavorable percentages in Texas are 55/43; his are 46/48.

Those results are from the same survey, a telephone poll of 500 "likely voters" done on September 29, with a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percent.

Clinton & Palin & Boehner, Texas bound...

Rick Noriega got an endorsement — and more importantly, a fundraising visit — from U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who came to McAllen to front a fundraiser for the Senate hopeful. That area was one of Clinton's strongest in the presidential primary last March, and the visit offsets a string of South Texas endorsements for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the Republican Noriega is challenging.

Sarah Palin's first two gigs after the vice presidential debate will be in Dallas. She's scheduled to be at breakfast meeting with Hispanic leaders Friday morning, followed by a lunch in the same building with to help the Republican National Committee raise money.

And House Minority Leader John Boehner will be in the state over the weekend to help raise money for Pete Olson, the Republican challenging U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford. That is, as you can see, one of the national GOP's target races this year.

She hasn't firmed up the number yet, but Secretary of State Hope Andrade expects to have more than 13.2 million Texans on the voter rolls for this election and expects a "huge turnout" in November, partly because of growth in the state and partly because of high interest levels in both major political parties.

Monday, October 6, is the last day Texans can register to vote. Early voting starts two weeks later (on October 20), and Election Day is now less than five weeks away. Once they've got voter rolls and see how early voting is coming along, her office will make some predictions about election turnout. But everything else has been big this year, and she's anticipating more of that.

The 13.2 million number isn't huge, historically, though it would be a record. Nearly that many — 13.1 million — were on the rolls two years ago, before the gubernatorial elections. And Texas had 13.1 million voters registered as of the 2004 general election for president. Andrade's number might prove to be conservative.

As of September 22, 13,187,823 voters were registered in the state, according to Andrade's office. That number includes 2.9 million Hispanics. About two-thirds were over 40 years old. Women outnumbered men by about seven percentage points (though one in eight voters didn't check off the optional gender ID box on their registrations).

Andrade says voting officials in parts of the state hit by Hurricane Ike are fairly optimistic about the elections and says that Galveston and Chambers counties in particular had contingency plans and are telling her they'll be ready to go. Her office is also trying to get word out about voting by mail for people displaced by the storms (and anyone else who wants to vote that way). "Those that are displaced will have a way to vote," she says. "We're going to be very proactive, reaching out."

Uncertainties over the presidential race, Hurricane Ike's after-effects, and the rapidly changing economic news have political people on both sides of the aisle looking at bloated lists of hot races in the Texas House.

With all those moving parts, it's difficult to tell what's really in play and what just appears to be competitive. It'll thin out some, but it's late in the game to be looking at so many races. The next finance reports, due next week, will clear the air, as will (maybe) some of the polling both parties are doing in various districts. We'll thin our own lists after a look at those reports; the most recent version is available in our Files section.

Four congressional races are still on the list, and three Senate races. And there are 19 to 21 House races that, depending on your informant, are worth considering. So is this: Consultants on both sides are expecting only incremental change in the makeup of the House. A pickup of more than two or three seats would be a big day for either party.

But there's still a month to argue about it.

The polls and partial polls that've been shared with us aren't at all clear. In the Panhandle, Rep. Joe Heflin, a Crosbyton Democrat, is trying to win reelection in a House district where John McCain and John Cornyn — the Republicans in the top two races on the ticket — have two-to-one leads over their Democratic opponents. But Heflin, according to some of those same polls, is far ahead of Republican Isaac Castro of Hamlin.

Republicans are chattering about East Texas polls that show those same two top of the ticket Republicans well ahead in districts with incumbent Democrats — so-called WD-40s, or White Democrats over 40 years of age. They're pondering late investments in the challengers to Reps. Stephen Frost, MarkHomer and Chuck Hopson. Democrats with similar numbers in hand are taking things seriously but aren't having a cow about it: They point out that all three incumbents won in those districts when George W. Bush was stomping John Kerry there four years ago. Ballots in areas like those tend to be red at the top and blue at the bottom.

That tendency is purely local. In El Paso, Democrats are trying to take away a House seat that's been in Republican hands for years and year. It's a Democratic town in a Democratic county, but the local favorite in the presidential race, Hillary Clinton, lost the presidential primary. A sizable military population in HD-78 might look favorably on McCain. And there's this weird proximity thing going on. New Mexico is a swing state in the presidential election and also has a hot U.S. Senate race going on. If you're a candidate running television ads in New Mexico, you put ads on broadcast stations in El Paso to reach the southern half of that adjacent state. El Pasoans, as a result, are getting a run of presidential campaign ads that voters in the rest of the state will never see. That could drive up turnout. Dee Margo, the Republican who unseated Rep. Pat Haggerty in the primary, hopes it turns out his voters. Joe Moody, a Democrat whose father has won judicial races in the district, is hoping his locally known ballot name will out. Bush got 56 percent of the vote in 2004. And Gov. Rick Perry, who got only 39 percent statewide two years ago, won 53 percent of the vote in this district.

Endorsements, strange bedfellows, etc.

Rigo Villarreal, chief of staff to Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas, took a leave of absence to help with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's campaign. The man-bites-dog bit here is that Salinas is a Democrat and Cornyn is a Republican. The Villarreal hire was part of a Cornyn announcement that 40 South Texas leaders from both parties have endorsed his reelection effort against Democrat Rick Noriega, a state representative from Houston. Salinas isn't on the list himself, but former Webb County Judge Mercurio Martinez and current Jim Hogg County Judge Lupe Canales both are. And there are a dozen sheriffs among the people on that list.

• The Texas Parent PAC likes Democrat Donnie Dippel in the race to replace Rep. Robby Cook, D-Eagle Lake. That group disagrees with the Republican, Tim Kleinschmidt, on publicly funded vouchers for private schools. He's not against them, apparently, and that's their key issue. Kleinschmidt, meanwhile, picked up an endorsement from the Texas Farm Bureau's AGFUND over Dippel, a longtime employee of the Texas Department of Agriculture.

• The Parent PAC also endorsed Sam Murphey, the Democrat in the race to replace Rep. Dianne White Delisi. The Republican in that contest is Ralph Sheffield.

• Joan Huffman won over the Texas branch of the National Federation of Independent Business in the special election in SD-17. She's one of four Republicans in that six-candidate race to replace Republican Kyle Janek in the state Senate. Chris Bell, one of the two Democrats, snagged the endorsement of the Houston Professional Firefighters Association.

• Greg Meyers has a list of educators who are endorsing him over Rep. Hubert Vo, D-Houston, and it's got a few Democrats on it. One is Houston Federation of Teachers President Gayle Fallon; another is former state Rep. Diana Davila of Houston. Meyers, a Republican, is a former Houston ISD trustee. Vo, meanwhile, got the endorsements of the Texas Federation of Teachers (HFT's parent), and the Texas State Teachers Association.

It turns out there's a section of the state's property tax law that lets local governments ask for reappraisals of property after hurricanes and other disasters.

That would lower the tax bill for a property owner whose building was damaged or destroyed by, say, Hurricane Ike. And Republican Austen Furse got the jump on everyone, calling on governments in the 17th state Senate district to give the break to property owners there. Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, and Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, quickly joined the chorus. It has to be in an area declared a disaster by the governor (check). The taxing entity — school district, hospital district, whatever — has to call for reappraisals (not yet). Then the tax bills are prorated for the part of the year affected. In the case of Ike, that would mean taxes on the old property value for 256 days of the year, and taxes on the new value for the remainder of the year.

• Consider the source, but Mike Anderson's campaign says his polling shows he's well ahead of Democrat Robert Miklos in HD-101. The poll, done by Austin-based Shaw Research, has the former Mesquite mayor up by 13 points. They think they found the reason: Only one in eight of the respondents had heard of the Democrat.

• Same caveat, different race: Democrat Larry Joe Doherty's new poll shows him, he says, within five percentage points of U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Austin. He says McCaul's "reelect" number — the measure of how many people want him back — is under 50 percent. And two-thirds, Doherty says, don't know the incumbent's name.

• A group of groups has formed to promote career and college readiness in public schools, better career and technical education, and incentives for teachers. The members of the new Texas Coalition for a Competitive Workplace include the Texas Association of Business, the Texas Institute for Education Reform, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the Governor’s Business Council, and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. They'll be pushing for new accountability measures to track student progress, for curriculum changes aimed at getting students ready for college, and for "pay for performance" grants to schools that do the best job.

• Flip on the oven light, peek: A Dallas appellate court heard arguments in Sen. Kim Brimer's lawsuit seeking to knock Wendy Davis off the ballot, but there's no decision yet. Brimer, the Republican incumbent, says Davis wasn't eligible to challenge him because she was still on the Fort Worth City Council after the filing deadline. It's too late to take her off the ballot if he's right, and a lower court disagreed with him this summer. No indication when the Dallas court might rule.

Texans in Congress voted 15-17 on the bailout the second time around, after voting 9-23 the first time. If there's an asterisk next to a name, that's a member whose vote changed from the first vote early in the week to the second on Friday.

Democrats — 9-4

Aye: *Henry Cuellar of Laredo, Chet Edwards of Waco, Charlie Gonzalez of San Antonio, *Al Green of Houston, Ruben Hinojosa of Mercedes, *Sheila Jackson-Lee of Houston, Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, *Solomon Ortiz of Corpus Christi, and Silvestre Reyes of El Paso.

Nay: Lloyd Doggett of Austin, Gene Green of Houston, Nick Lampson of Stafford, and Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio.

Republicans — 6-13

Aye: Kevin Brady of The Woodlands, *Michael Conaway of Midland, Kay Granger of Fort Worth, Pete Sessions of Dallas, Lamar Smith of San Antonio, and *Mac Thornberry of Clarendon.

Nay: Joe Barton of Ennis, Michael Burgess of Flower Mound, John Carter of Georgetown, John Culberson of Houston, Louis Gohmert of Tyler, Ralph Hall of Rockwall, Jeb Hensarling of Dallas, Sam Johnson of Plano, Kenny Marchant of Coppell, Michael McCaul of Austin, Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock, Ron Paul of Lake Jackson, Ted Poe of Humble.

Texas Libertarians, for the most part, don't like the bailout approved by Congress this week. And their party collected their comments and sent them along. Here they are, unfiltered:

AUSTIN - October 3, 2008 - Many Texas Libertarian candidates for Congress have confirmed their opposition to the massive bailout bill that was passed in the U.S. House this morning.

Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Yvonne Adams Schick has stated her opposition to the bailout bill. Both her Republican opponent, John Cornyn, and Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison voted for the bill.

District 8 candidate Brian Stevens said, "I oppose the bailout as proposed because it does not assign responsibility to the culpable parties nor does it remedy the root causes of the problem." (District 8 congressman Kevin Brady voted for the bill.)

District 15 candidate Gricha Raether commented, "This is absolutely ridiculous." (District 15 congressman Ruben Hinojosa voted for the bill.)

District 17 candidate Gardner C. Osborner confirmed his opposition. (District 17 congressman Chet Edwards voted for the bill.)

District 21 candidate James Arthur Strohm said, "I condemn [Lamar Smith's] vote FOR this bill on its first round in the House, as I condemn the vote of any Congressman who thought it was a good enough idea to vote for." (District 21 congressman Lamar Smith voted for the bill.)

District 27 candidate Robert E. Powell confirmed his opposition. (District 27 congressman Solomon P. Ortiz voted for the bill.)

District 28 candidate Ross Lynn Leone said, "This is the beginning, make that the middle, of the path to socialism, and the fact both parties backed this scheme shows there is no real difference in the Dems and Reps." (District 28 congressman Henry Cuellar voted for the bill.)

Libertarian candidates for Congress in districts 3, 5, 22, 23, 24, and 25 also confirmed their opposition to the bill.

District 11 candidate John R. Strohm said, "I have no formal comment until I've had time to read the actual bill." (District 11 congressman Michael Conaway voted for the bill.)

Other Libertarian congressional candidates have not been reached for comment.

The Libertarian Party of Texas (LPT) has nominated candidates for U.S. Senator, and for 29 of the 32 congressional districts in Texas.

Scratch U.S. Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio from the fundraising team at a weekend event for Republican Pete Olson. He got tangled up in the bailout talks and votes and all, and won't be there. Olson is running against U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, in CD-22.

• U.S. Sen. John Cornyn raised $1.9 million during the last three months and entered the last month of the campaign with $7.2 million on hand. That's from a press release; reports will be filed with the Federal Election Committee next week. Cornyn is running for reelection against Democrat Rick Noriega, a state representative making his first statewide run.

• Republican Tim Kleinschmidt won the endorsement of the Texas wing of the National Federation of Independent Business. He's the Republican in the open seat HD-17 contest to replace Rep. Robby Cook, D-Eagle Lake. And he's promising that, if he's elected, he'll use "some of the project $10 billion state budget surplus to lower local property taxes and exempt more small businesses from the state business tax." You'll find some argument in Austin about those numbers, but the NFIB apparently likes the sentiment.

• What a difference a debate makes. Veep candidate Sarah Palin is scheduled to headline a fundraiser in San Antonio this weekend, and state Rep. candidate Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi is going. And he'll meet her. And he put out a press release telling us about it.

• Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyoming, is apparently an old friend of Bill Dingus' and endorsed the Midland Democrat's challenge to House Speaker Tom Craddick. Dingus has a Simpson video up on his website.

• This is what happens to people who work in gubernatorial press offices after those glory days are over. Ted Royer, who moved to sunny California after working for Gov. Rick Perry, is now working with movie people. And instead of spinning for politicians, he's spinning for political movies. He's trying to get us to write about a conservative spoof called An American Carol that opened in Texas this week. We're not gonna.