Politics

With just one full legislative session under his belt, Rep. Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) is by all accounts the new speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.  All that remains is the formal vote on January 13.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, new chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has come out gunning for Democrat Majority leader Harry Reid.

Politico reported Cornyn saying:

Quorum Report is reporting that the Anybody-But-Craddick legislators (corrected to say "Republicans") have their consensus candidate for speaker of the Texas House, and it's Rep. Joe Straus (R-San Antonio).

QR is also reporting that 11 of the candidates who have filed have pulled out, except for current Speaker Craddick and Rep. Dan Gattis (R-Georgetown).  All this happened just after Rep. Brian McCall (R-Plano) got in the mix earlier this evening.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and that plans to celebrate the New Year are well under way. While we were all catching up on sleep (well, I was!) and eagerly celebrating Christmas last week, it seems the Texas House of Representatives was silently brewing new surprises for us all.  Of course, like most such gifts, it wasn't really a surprise so much as a confirmation of reality; the Democrats despise Speaker Tom Craddick, a bunch of Republicans don't know what to make of him, and January 13 will be a long day for political junkies, House staffers, and political media.  

It's well-known by now that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has formed an exploratory committee for the 2010 Texas gubernatorial race, and that Gov. Rick Perry has made clear that he will seek another term.  As they square off and Texas Republicans begin debating each one's merits for the governorship, others are scrambling to declare themselves candidates to replace Senator Hutchison.

Cook, Craddick, Gallego, Hochberg, Jones, Keffer, Kuempel, Merritt, Ritter, Solomons, Thompson and Turner. Everything but the partridge in the pear tree, it seems.  These are the twelve declared candidates for Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.  Seven Republicans, five Democrats.  

Looking through the recently-released Hill Research Consultants’ statewide survey of 636 Texas voters, “Beyond Bush: Texas Republicans in an Obama Era   can make a good Republican pretty depressed.

This was a statewide survey of registered voters. With Democrats making steady gains elsewhere, will it happen in Texas as well? It has and it will.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison took advantage of a slow news day last week when she announced the formal launching of her exploratory committee for the 2010 gubernatorial race.  Sen. Hutchison's intentions have been an open secret in Republican and political circles for awhile now, so the announcement came as no surprise.  An exploratory committee is not an official campaign, but it does allow a candidate to fundraise for a future campaign; Sen.

Nearly a month after the election, officials in State House District 105 are conducting a vote recount for the HD 105 race.  Currently held by State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown (R), this Dallas-area seat is being watched carefully, as the possible fate of the Texas House rests in the outcome.  

We are all familiar with the Hollywood blacklist of the 1950's. Wikipedia defines it like this:

Now that the national election is over, most people are settling back into their routines, getting ready for the Christmas season and ignoring the pundits' arguments and pronouncements concerning the incoming administration.  Politics is a seasonal hobby for some, a passion roused only every four years, and every eight if they're particularly lucky. 

From the Houston Chronicle:

I’ve written many times about this issue. I disagree with most of my conservative brethen that deportation is the answer to our illegal immigration problems. We looked the other way for decades in this country and were happy to have the cheap labor that came with illegal immigration. Now that problems arise with this many illegals in our country, we want them to leave. It’s not right.

Texas has gone Republican for President for three decades. This time wasn't any different. John McCain won the state. 

The Texans that voted for Obama were the same demographics as in other states, African Americans, liberal voters, under 30 voters and those making $50,000 or less.

It's pretty simple and it won't take me 30 minutes to tell you why you should vote for John McCain. Many many years ago I first read about John McCain in the pages of The National Review. I wasn't aware of his history as a P.O.W, and I read with fascination about his courage and strength.

In the past few days Senator Cornyn has received the endorsement of the Dallas Morning News, the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, and the Amarillo Globe-News.

Even The Burnt Orange report sees that things aren't looking good for state Rep. Rick Noriega: 

After the NRA endorsed John McCain yesterday, I decided to call up the Executive Director of the Texas State Rifle Association, James Dark, to get his reaction.  Mr. Dark sits on the NRA board of directors as well.

It seemed not too long ago that illegal immigration was the hot topic. Now we hardly hear about it. This Congress has failed us many times, but no more so than with illegal immigration. They could not manage to pass a comprehensive immigration bill. There are extemes on both sides and we all know that. I part with many of my conservative friends are what needs to be done. I have always felt that deporting some 12 million illegal immigrants in this country was not only impossible, but wrong in many ways.

Sen. John Cornyn is determined that our brave men and women serving overseas have their vote counted:

"Nearly 1,000,000 military and overseas absentee ballots were requested for the 2006 election, but only one-third of them were actually counted. That means that more than 660,000 interested military voters were ultimately not able to have their voices heard. This is unacceptable."

That is what this is beginning to feel like.

The week before Hurricane Ike hit the Galveston/Houston, the skies were blue with wispy white clouds. They were beautiful warm clear days that gave no hint at the disaster that was coming. That Monday I heeded the warnings on the radio and went to the grocery store to stock up on water, batteries, and food. No one else was doing the same. I figured they were waiting until the last minute. On Wednesday I filled up the cars with gas. No lines.