Political types are talking into microphones this week, while bloggers take notes on every word. Also making headlines are gubernatorial contenders, other campaigners and folks who don't have to run in order to take office. The final section includes posts on a controversial canine columnist and other subjects.
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Is This Thing On?
Gov. Rick Perry went on the Hugh Hewitt radio show last week, and his Texans for Rick Perry posts a transcript. Topics: Hutchison voted for the federal bailout; Texas is a "haven" during the recession; Texas is better than California; the Guv's five-point plan for economic success (including the importance of investing in public education); the dangers of Obamacare and cap-and-trade; plus, Pery's take on the state's prevailing bipartisan climate. Perry says, "We're a Republican-controlled state, but we've worked well together, and we've created, again, at the end of the day, this is about Texas. It's not about Republican or Democrat parties."
KUT's Notes from the Lege teams up with a couple of Austin American-Statesman reporters to produce a joint podcast on Texas politics. The "Political Babble On" is supposed to take place every Friday morning from now on. Meanwhile, after being denied access to a meeting of the "secretive" Council for National Policy in Austin last week, the Statesman's Postcards got their hands on a video from said meeting, featuring remarks by Focus on the Family's James Dobson upon receiving a lifetime achievement award.
Refuse the Juice picks on GOP Congressional candidate Tim Besco (he's taking on U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso) for going on a local radio show that only has "three listeners and they are certified as the dumbest people in town." (We wonder who the other two listeners are, in addition to the blogger.)
As part of their weekly podcast, the Houston Chronicle's Texas Politics sits down with two folks running for Texas GOP chair, Cathie Adams and opponent Melinda Fredericks. Pondering Penguin isn't a supporter of the Texas Eagle Forum's Adams. "This is not a voice Texas Republicans need to be heard on a national stage," the blogger says. However, Adams does have her fans, including Ellis County Observer.
Brains and Eggs isn't swayed by U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert's videotaped argument that protecting homosexuals under the hate crimes bill would crack the door open to immunity for bestiality, necrophilia and pedophilia. And ABC13's Political Blog had a camera handy when Houston Mayor Bill White received an award in Houston.
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Kay v. Rick
The Statesman's First Reading mused on the timing of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's resignation. His take, in brief: The candidate filing period runs from Dec. 3-Jan. 4; Candidates can't take their names off a primary ballot after Dec. 30; if Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst puts his name in for re-election, then is appointed to the U.S. Senate (or decides to run for U.S. Senate) after Dec. 30, his name will remain on the primary ballot; if Dewhurst wins the March primary for Lt. Gov., then the State Republican Executive Committee gets to choose the new GOP nominee; if the SREC chooses someone's who's already been nominated for another office, they get to pick that person's replacement; and so on.
BurkaBlog thinks it's weird that few legislators have picked sides in the Perry-KBH throw-down and that neither has been on TV yet. His speculation: Money is tight; Hutchison will get more endorsements than Perry; and, both campaigns will sprint to the finish after New Year's. In the meantime, Attorney General Greg Abbott appears to be playing it conservatively, according to Postcards, relaying a video by the Abbott campaign that's been floating around.
The Dallas Morning News' Trail Blazers talks about the politics being played in Austin and Washington concerning Hutchison's prison cell phone jamming bill. Elsewhere, Kinky Friedman and Hutchison ran into each other at Houston Hobby airport, and paused for a photo together (she's the one who's smiling), the Houston Chronicle's Texas Politics reports. Long story short, Dog Canyon thinks Friedman should bow out of the gubernatorial race.
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Poli-my
Blue Dot Blues breaks out Texas Association of Business scores for Austin-area legislators. The scores range from 40 percent for Rep. Valinda Bolton to 67 percent for Sen. Jeff Wentworth. The Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac analyzes the strength of U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards' perch in the 17th District, while A Capitol Blog peruses a list of elected officials with Twitter accounts.
The Texas Cloverleaf attended a Stonewall Democrats rally in Denton. And former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove is backing Marco Rubio for Florida governor over incumbent Charlie Crist, Trail Blazers says. (In Texas, Rove likes Hutchison over Perry.)
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Making Appoint
It's been a good 2009 for Perry's newest appointee to the Texas Supreme Court, Houston judge Eva Guzman. Apart from her new job, Tex Parte reports that she won judge of the year awards from the Hispanic National Bar Association and the Mexican American Bar Association of Texas.
Tex Parte Blog has the dish on the dueling U.S. Attorney recommendations from Texas Republicans and Democrats. (The only appointee the two sides agree upon is San Antonio's Michael McCrum for the Western District, FYI.) And TFN Insider takes a red pen to reports by the state school board's designated social studies experts, circling errors that include misspellings, misstatements and mis-identifications.
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Man Bites Dog
Headline of the Week award goes to the Texas Observer's The Contrarian for an article titled, "Gone to the Dogs," which pokes fun of a Waco Tribune-Herald column written, purportedly, by the new publisher's pooch. "These are dark days for newspapers," the blogger says. "We can only hope this experiment continues," the Houston Press's Hair Balls comments wryly.
Brazosport News is paying attention to a Twitter spat between Sports Illustrated's Peter King and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. (King didn't know what HDNet is. Cuban, who also owns that, took offense.)
Regardless of whether the Trans-Texas Corridor still exists, Burka says a relief route to I-35 "has to be built." Texas Watchdog lets readers in on a database of federal grants to airports. "Abilene, Brownsville, Amarillo, Harlingen — your airports all got money. Go on and take a look," they say.
Postcards lists the slowest food stamp offices in Texas. And Rhymes with Right is concerned about new Federal Trade Commission rules on blogs.
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.