One guess what the state's bloggers are chittering about... in addition to that one, they're scribbling about publisher protection, guilt and innocence, early whiffs of the next elections, and the Senate's bedside manner

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The Speaker

Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, thinks the session will end without a change [1] in the management of the House. He says members are joking openly now about where to form the line to sign papers to interrupt Tom Craddick's reign over the House. Maybe it'll go away, but it's the same thing he was writing about a week ago [2], so it's apparently a sticky idea.

PinkDomeisn't buying [3] the story line. BurkaBlog can't decide what's next (that's one of the big problems with the prediction business), jumping from the inevitability of a challenge [4] to Craddick on Sunday to the Death of the Insurgency 48 hours later, including a listing of all the candidates [5] interested in the job (keep in mind that Pete Laney line we quoted a while back about a speaker being every House member's second choice). They'll have a .500 batting average if they leave it there...

Rep. Byron Cook's plea to Craddick to step down and avoid a bloody battle got lots of coverage from bloggers and MSM alike, with varied speculations about what it means, if it means anything at all. South Texas Chisme wonders if cronyism is going out of style [6]. The blog titled Rick Perry vs. The World (yeah, really) takes a William McKenzie column in The Dallas Morning News as its starting point. McKenzie wonders if the battle over Craddick is really a battle over the future of the Texas GOP [7]; RPvTW contends it's about Craddick [8].

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Going Nekkid

A shield law for journalists died, appropriately enough, because of a typo exploited by Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball. That occupational hazard of writers and lawmakers was enough to tank legislation that was getting mixed reviews from lawmakers and others, anyway. Capital Annex went after Riddle for making the kill [9] (ever notice that losers in rule fights always refer to the things that got 'em as technicalities, but never try to change the rules to allow more slop?). The big papers and TV stations were pushing for the law; support from working reporters was much thinner, but hardly anyone asked. Bloggers were disappointed [10], in part, because they weren't included.

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Get Those Running Shoes

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Surfside, has that presidential thing going. And his interest in the executive branch has some candidates back home looking at his congressional spot [11], according to Capital Annex's Vince Leibowitz. He's got the skinny on Friendswood Mayor Pro Tem Chris Peden, a Republican.

U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, is talking to a Republican city councilman from Sugar Land — Tom Abraham — about running for Lampson's seat as a Democrat [12]. (The premise is that Lampson would be the Democrat running against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-San Antonio). How's that for Man Bites Dog? The scoop started, apparently, with FortBendNow, and you can read the take on that from Half Empty, where they claim to have known about this but decided to let somebody else break it. They raise the possibility [13] that Abraham, a Republican, could run as a Democrat and then turn around, upon election, and switch parties, back to the GOP. In a district that's supposed to be Republican in the first place.

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Who's Guilty?

Grits for Breakfast has an autopsy of the Texas Innocence Commission [14], which made it all the way to the last week of the session before meeting it's apparent death (we operate on the principle that nearly anything is still possible when the big rooms in the Pink Building are occupied). The special curiosity here is that the bill, product of a Democratic author, died in one of the few House committees where Democrats outnumber Republicans.

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Texas Tough

Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, is supposed to be recovering from liver transplant surgery. He's doing that in Austin instead of Houston, and there's a hospital bed for him in the Senate Sergeant's office if he has to rest. He wants to be here so Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst won't bring up the voter ID bill the Democrats are blocking the Republicans from passing. And that's got the blogs going. Charles Kuff (Off the Kuff) is in awe; read the comments, as one of his readers, a nurse, offers to come to Austin to sit bedside [15]. Eye on Williamson County suggests the Republicans should give up [16] and let him go recover. South Texas Chisme chips in with props to Sen. Bob Deuell [17], R-Greenville, a doctor who arranged for the sick bed for the Democrat.