Tag Archives: Texas GOP

Vote!

Early voting turnout in the most populous Texas counties has been remarkable.  Apparently both sides are motivated to turn out the voting.  In the 30 counties that comprise about 78% of Texas voters, early turnout has already surpassed the total votes cast in the 2014 midterm elections.  Early turnout in these counties has been about 4.8 million votes case as compared to just over 2 million early votes in 2014.

The rule has always been that bigger turnout favors Democratic candidates.  But Red suspects that the surprisingly exciting Senate race pitting Beto v. Lyin’ Ted has a lot to do with this surge in turnout.   Red will be a winner either way in this race.  If the charismatic Beto wins then Texas will be represented by someone who actually cares about the state – rather than the current occupant whose agenda basically consists of the greater glorification of all things Ted Cruz coupled with the most naked ambition witnessed in several decades of watching Texas politics (LBJ can hardly hold a candle to Lyin’ Ted).  But if LT wins, then Red still has someone to kick around for another 6 years – and kicking Ted is like shooting alligators in swimming pool.

Texas voters are likely also casting their ballots in a referendum on the first two years of the Reality TV Show Joke of a Presidency aka the Trump Administration.  Those who really like reality TV and disfavor actual reality (or “fake news” in Trumph parlance) are coming out to support Trumph.  On the other side, those who have been horrified by the continual onslaught of daily falsehoods, fabrications and duplicity, and the racist fear-mongering, hatred, maniacal egotism and rampant nepotism and profiteering that are the hallmarks of the current White House occupant are also out in force to be heard – even in deep red Texas.

So regardless of your particular stripe, Red urges you to go and vote if you have not exercised the franchise already.  The people get the government they deserve and in Texas we have been getting a lot of it for a long time.  All Red knows is that Tuesday will either be exciting and down to the wire or same old story of one-party dominance in his beloved Texas.  So go out and vote – or cease complaining.

Bunni Pounds – Swamp Creature Running to Join the Swamp

The Texas Observer reports on Bunni Pounds’ run to replace retiring Rep. Jeb Hensarling (TP-Flower Mound).  TO takes issue with Pounds’ claims that she is headed to Washington to help clean up the swamp after a full decade of groveling for money for Hensarling and others from well-heeled GOP donors in North Texas.

Pounds set up her own political fundraising and consulting shop in 2015 and within two years had turned it into a half-a-million-dollar business with nine employees, according to her campaign website. The site also boasts that Pounds “is now seen as one of the top fundraisers in North Texas from Fort Worth all the way to Tyler.”

This background raises questions not only about Pounds’ qualifications for office, but about whose debt she’ll be in should she become a member of Congress. Groveling to donors day in and day out is enough to compromise your average politician, to say nothing of someone whose expertise that was before they became a politician.

 

Texas’ Most Endangered Species – Thoughtful Republicans

The Republicans who represent a good chunk of the Texas Panhandle in the Texas House and Senate are facing ultra-right wing challengers in the upcoming GOP primary.  Merely being a somewhat thoughtful conservative or even considering a Democratic proposal is a dangerous game to play in the Tea Party dominated Texas GOP.  If you are unwilling to lick the boots of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, you might just find yourself back home wondering how you aren’t quite conservative enough.  Senator Kel Selinger and Representatives Ken King (Lubbock) and Four Price (Amarillo) may be unseated in March.  The Texas Observer has more on the far right movement to take down any such “Establishment Republicans.”

The challengers are generally following a playbook developed by Empower Texans, a right-wing enforcement group that targets what it considers establishment Republicans: claim that you are unequivocally conservative and that the other guy is basically a Democrat, all the while vilifying bipartisanship and accusing your opponent of being a big-government patsy who’s soft on abortion.

Far-right groups, including Texans for Vaccine Choice, Texas Right to Life and Grassroots America — We The People are working to knock off the incumbents. And while the Panhandle is one of the reddest parts of the whole country (Trump took 90 percent of the vote in some of the counties here), the area continues to elect Republicans with a pragmatic streak. For instance, King has sought to secure funding for struggling rural schools; Price has been a champion for mental health care; and Seliger refused to divert money from public schools for private school vouchers. Wielding accusations of perceived liberalism, challengers have made the region a battleground in the civil war raging within the Texas GOP.

 

Texas GOP in Turmoil

The Texas Tribune reports that members of the so-called Freedom Caucus sabotaged more than 100 bills in the Texas House last night in retribution for not getting their way in attempting to restrict abortion rights even more, make sure that everyone has a gun and that good God-fearing white people are not abused.   It’s all too complicated and inside baseball for Red to explain, but it does show that there is no Republican solidarity in Texas and that the ultra rightwing of the party is willing to do anything to inflict punishment on those who will not go along with their attempt to turn Texas into the largest Christian Church in the country where the good ol’ boy whiteys are running the show.

Ken Paxton – Vexatious Litigant (cont.)

Embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just can’t help himself from continuing to waste taxpayer dollars on important issues like who gets to pee where.  One might think that Paxton was merely trying to draw attention away from his own considerable legal woes – but then one would be a small petty-minded type of person – like Red.

But the chances that Paxton would shy away from the most important legal and moral issue of the day, involving – as Red so crudely puts it – which hole gets to go in which hole, were slim to none.  Apparently there is not a single action of the federal government that Paxton does not feel up to challenge – at least until another Bush becomes President.  Paxton reflexively must challenge anything that might possible offend or cause the slightest consternation amongst his Tea Party followers – all the while maintaining his innocence in the face of what the legal experts refer to as “pretty damn good evidence” that he himself is the real lawbreaker.   Thus despite the lack of a shred of evidence that allowing the various varieties of our transgendered Texans to decide where they would like to evacuate their various by-products of human existence has endangered anyone or caused any of the Baptist women to cry “Oh, my!”, Paxton bravely soldiers on in the belief that only he knows best and that the very fate of the constitutional republic hangs in the balance on his briefs (no pun intended).

Red for one expresses no opinion (as yet) on the constitutionality of the Obama administration’s rule on bathroom equality.  What is clear, however, is that Paxton and ilk truly believe that this is the issue that will re-ignite the Tea Party movement (not just their bowels) and lead them back to national prominence in the wake of seeing their influence eviscerated by Donald Trump’s emergence (from the anus of the political sphere).  The right must have a bogeyman – real or imagined – and fear is the only thing they know how to properly manipulate into a position of power.  If not the Red Menace washing upon our shores, or the Hippies destroying our social fabric, or the Welfare Queens taking us to the cleaners, or Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll corrupting our youth anymore, then there must be a new cause.  And with the so-called War on Terror falling out of fashion after a sort, what can the denizens of the right latch onto now.  Aha, bathroom safety.  The terrifying image of a grizzled child molester tarted up in a chemise and sporting some f*#k me pumps coming in to the Women’s room to terrorize Ted Cruz’s daughters will certainly get the base riled up.  Except maybe enough Americans are not quite stupid enough to believe such nonsense.  And no one will ever accuse Ken Paxton of not being stupid enough.

The GOP Voters Disappoint Red

The voters in the GOP primary run-off elections did themselves and Red a great disservice by rejecting Mary Lou Bruner for a position on the State Board of Education.  Readers may recall that Bruner, a Tea Party stalwart and former school teacher, had claimed that President Obama had been a gay prostitute in his youth to pay for his drug habit.  That’s just an extraordinary dose of crazy that very few politicians can deliver.  But Bruner kept the hits coming when she also claimed that the Noah’s Ark flood had extinguished the dinosaurs and that the Democrats had killed President Kennedy.   Such crazy talk did not keep Bruner down as she nearly won in the GOP primary in March and would surely have been elected to the SBOE in the fall despite her lunatic fringe beliefs.  But alas, Bruner went down in flames Tuesday night losing the run off by 18 points to local school board president Keven Ellis.  So unfortunately, Red will not be able to parade her around as the poster child for the band of right-wing zanies that goes by the name of the Texas GOP.

We Haven’t Heard the Last of “Lyin’ Ted”

Christopher Hooks of the Texas Observer has been following Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) for quite a while and is convinced that Cruz’s quest for the White House has just barely begun.  Hooks examines Cruz’s non-concession speech after getting drubbed in Indiana and sees Cruz planting the seeds for another run in 2020.

Approximately three minutes and 30 seconds into Ted Cruz’s Indiana speech announcing the end of his 2016 presidential campaign, he announced the beginning of his 2020 presidential campaign — before he had even said the words that made his retreat from the field of battle official. For years, Cruz had been telling conservatives about Ronald Reagan in 1980, and the great reversal against Carter’s liberalism. But now, in defeat, he spoke about Ronald Reagan in 1976, the year the Gipper came close to beating Gerald Ford in the Republican primary but came just short of the finish line.

Cruz’s ambition and self-regard is all-consuming. He seems to have possessed a single-minded determination to become president from the time his classmates were falling off of monkey bars. So it’s a fair bet that he woke up the morning after the Indiana primary and started to make plans. But how should he play his hand as Trump flails his way to the general election?

Texas Secession Picking up Steam – At Least Among Tea Partisans

Delegates at the Texas GOP convention in June will get to debate the issue of Texas secession – an issue Red thought had been emphatically decided 150 years ago.  But not for the die-hard Tea Partisans who fancy themselves patriots.

A group called the Texas Nationalist Movement claims at least 22 county conventions have passed resolutions on a secession vote.  Pressure is mounting for the GOP to have what would likely be a very embarrassing vote on secession at the state convention.  The party avoided a controversy four years ago when according to the TNM only one such resolution passed.

Jared Woodfill, a Tea Party activist and candidate for the State GOP chairmanship, predictably weighed in on the side of the secessionists.  “I absolutely think the people should have an opportunity to vote on this issue,” said Woodfill according to the Houston Chronicle.  Current Texas GOP chairman Tom Mechler, was less enthusiastic.  “Republican is not even in their name,” Mechler said of TNM.  It would be nice if another Texas GOP official – ahem, Our Poor Idiot Governor for instance – would come out against secession.  Red wouldn’t hold his breath waiting for that.

So sedition may become an official part of the Texas GOP platform.  Red wonders how Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) views all of this since if Texas secedes it would seem he would be further disqualified from holding the job he now seeks so desperately.  Of course, if Cruz becomes president, all talk of secession will die.  But talk of impeachment will just be getting started.

Entire 5th Circuit to Decide Fate of Texas Voter ID Law

The Texan Republican Party’s Voter ID law passed by the Legislature still has some life.  A U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi ruled that the law (known as Senate Bill 14) was in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and that decisions was upheld by a 3 judge panel of the Fifth Circuit.  Now the entire Court has decided to hear the case – which is likely an ominous sign for the voters of Texas.  The notoriously conservative court of appeals is likely to uphold the discriminatory law whose only purpose is to suppress voter turnout for poor, elderly and non-white citizens.

At trial, the burden was on the law’s opponents to show discriminatory impact and the plaintiffs succeeded.  Unfortunately, the State does not have the burden to establish a rationale basis for the law.  Unfortunate, because it would be impossible to do so.  There is no in person voter fraud in Texas that has ever affected the outcome on an election – at least not on the part of the voters.  Texas has been unable to point to more than one or two reported instances of in person voter fraud.  Everyone who knows anything about elections knows that all the potential electoral hanky-panky occurs with the mail in ballots.  And the Voter ID law does nothing to prevent that.  This has always been about Republicans attempting to suppress the vote and nothing more.  Shame on the GOP for promoting this farce.

Quote for the Day

“Obama has a soft spot for homosexuals because of the years he spent as a male prostitute in his twenties. That is how he paid for his drugs…Since he supports gay marriage, he should be proud of his background as a homosexual/bisexual. He is against everything else Christians stand for, he might as well be for infidelity.”

Mary Lou Bruner, Republican Candidate for the Texas State Board of Education.

Bruner exemplifies what has become of what was a respectable political institution – one that is now an almost complete farce.  Bruner won 48% of the vote in the GOP primary and will likely win the runoff with support from Tea Partisans who actually believe such nonsense.  And since she will have an “R” by her name, she will win in November and then will be part of the Board that approves your children’s textbooks.  If that doesn’t frighten you, nothing will.  But if you really like being frightened, read the Washington Post article on MLB. To quote Count Floyd, “It’s really, really scary kids.”