This week, bloggers are posting about people coming into and leaving various races, offices and positions, talking about House Speaker's race developments, and surveys on a variety of subjects. At the end, the opinion section.
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In and Out Bloggers
The Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac posts a political cartoon about U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's 2010 challenge to Gov. Rick Perry. "Bring it on," says Perry, according to Trail Blazers. (Here's a related clip for nostalgia's sake.) Hutchison tells Trail Blazers that she'll stick around in the Senate until late '09. Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog, has a podcast featuring her view on the subject.
Capitol Annex looks at some possible replacements for Hutchison if she steps down and Perry gets to do the appointing. Trail Blazers says a certain former Democratic comptroller might be eyeing Hutchison's Senate position if she leaves.
Freshman Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt, R-Lexington, is the lowest man on the totem pole in terms of House seniority, says the Austin American-Statesman's Postcards from the Lege, meaning that if they run out of desks in the chamber, he's the one who gets to stand. KVUE's Political Junkie has the complete list of office selections. And A Capitol Blog comments on the seniority rankings and posts a photo of the House's Christmas tree.
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, along with a bunch of other prosecutors, got canned by new D.A. Pat Lykos. The blogger was a vocal supporter of Lykos's opponent and never had much nice to say about Lykos. No word on if a name change is in the works for the blog, but for the record, the blogger's name is Murray Newman.
Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt is quitting his job after being reelected in November. ABC13's Political Blog has his statement (released on Friday evening) and wonders if he stayed on to ensure a Republican successor.
A Trail Blazer got pzwn3d by outgoing Pres. George W. Bush, and a future neighbor of the future former president talks about the neighborhood to Tex Parte Blog. Meanwhile, mean rachel is moving into Democratic Rep. Elliott Naishtat's Austin district. Where's your website? she asks.
And the newest Texas Kaos front-page blogger is the proprietor of Left of College Station. Here's his first post.
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It's No Secret
The State Republican Executive Committee held a meeting to urge House members to pick a Republican Speaker using an open ballot, which some see as a de facto endorsement of Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland. Trail Blazers was present at that meeting — or more accurately, was standing in the hallway outside the meeting.
Nearly every BurkaBlog post this week is devoted to Speaker's race. He talks about splits in the GOP, the "test vote" for Speaker that will take place Jan. 13, the import of a letter by Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, and two eyewitness accounts of the SREC meeting.
A Postcards commenter posts a response to Solomons's letter allegedly by Rep. Harold Dutton , D-Houston. And Trail Blazers wonders if Rep. Ed Kuempel, R-Seguin, or Rep. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, will throw their hats into the Speakers' race.
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Surveys Say
The Woodlands' Hill Research Consultants came out with a poll that paints a bleak picture of the Texas Republican Party. (We talk about it here.) PoliTex points to columns about the survey by pollster David Hill appearing in the Washington, D.C.-based The Hill newspaper (no relation), and Texas Politics has a presentation by Hill (the pollster). Burka folks talk about the survey in a video, while Texas Observer Blog says, "The details are stunning."
Lone Star Times blogger David Benzion, who's a senior research analyst for HRC (that's Hill, not Hillary Rodham Clinton) in real life, is seeking readers' opinions and thoughts on said survey. Read the comments for the opinions. A "series of focused conversations" will take place on the blog this week. And on a nonpolitical note, LST announces the winners of the Kosher bacon-flavored recipe contest. (Spoiler: It's "Seafood Salad a la Swine.")
Letters from Texas readers say the biggest losers of 2008 are John McCain/Sarah Palin, Wall Street, George W. Bush and Eliot Spitzer. (Incidentally, the losers of the biggest losers poll are Rush Limbaugh and Tina Fey naysayers.) And Refuse the Juice takes a look at the El Paso Times' Best of the Border awards, noting "that everything to do with EP Times won in each category for the non-food related stuff. That's fishy. Real fishy."
Whosplayin is taking submissions for Texan of the Year. A Keyboard and a .45 has a poll on firearms and parking lots. Defending People is in the mix for the American Bar Association's top 100 criminal justice blogs, says Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center. And Rightwingsparkle is the 138th-or-so top conservative tweeter. Click here to find out what that means.
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Whatchoo Talkin' 'Bout?
Potomac runs a column by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, on the auto bailout. "It won't work. It can't work," says Dr. No. Meanwhile, in a post on how to fix the American auto industry, blog maverick uses one of our favorite quotes from 1987's RoboCop: "That's life in the big city."
The Ellis County Observer has an update on the status of former Williamson County Libertarian U.S. Rep. candidate Barry Cooper, who successfully baited Odessa cops into trying to bust him for growing Christmas trees indoors. It's all part of his latest business venture called KopBusters.
Grits for Breakfast readers weigh in on various criminal justice issues in light of the upcoming session. Meanwhile, Rep. Charles "Doc" Anderson, R-Waco, has a bill aimed at reducing paperwork by school districts and teachers, says Mike Falick's Blog. And here's commentary by Campaign Legal Center Blog about former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's adverse effect on Texans' Congressional clout.
And Rhetoric & Rhythm wins Headline of the Week award for a post on a word the San Antonio Express-News sometimes doesn't think about not using, apparently: "That's bitchin'."
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.