Entertainer Kinky Friedman might be a fun guy to smoke a cigar with, but left-leaning bloggers aren't exactly welcoming the gubernatorial aspirant into the Democratic Party. Bloggers are also discussing other folks running for governor, stirring up trouble in the real world, writing about politics and talking penology. At the end, a Republican eats crow, and more.
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Friedman Test
Headline of the Week award goes to Off the Kuff for succinctly expressing liberal bloggers' general sentiment about Friedman's candidacy: "Kinky announces (yawn)." Here's Burnt Orange Report's opinion: "He has no policy, he is not serious, he is not credible." BurkaBlog responds, "I'm glad they said it. It spares me the effort of trying to say something about him. The way things are going, he may be the Democratic nominee."
"In 2006, when he ran as an independent, his campaign slogan was "Why the Hell Not?" This time, the question may be "Why?"" the Austin Chronicle's Newsdesk says.
The Austin American-Statesman's First Reading has a 15-minute podcast with KUT public radio reporter Ben Philpott about the governor race, plus a 27-minute bit on fantasy football. Meanwhile, the same radio reporter converses with Friedman on his own blog, KUT's Notes from the Lege. And The Houston Press's Hair Balls has a Q&A with Friedman.
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Others for Governor
Burka's stirring up controversy about who's picking up the tab for Gov. Rick Perry's ceremonial bill signings. Perry's people say campaign funds pay for the events, but U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's counterparts beg to differ. The Statesman's Postcards looks into the matter further.
Hutchison has been attacking Perry for his endorsement of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. That prompts the Dallas Morning News' Trail Blazers to point out that many folks in Hutchison's camp have worked for Giuliani. "If association with Giuliani is so toxic, what does it say about the Hutchison campaign — which looks a lot like Rudyworld?" the blogger asks. (Meanwhile, a commenter spots a mistake in Hutchison's campaign video, which quotes a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article dated Oct. 18, 2009. The commenter says, "can you call them and find out who wins the UT-ou game the day before?")
Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog, chronicles Perry's evolving position on secession in multimedia fashion, while Texans for Rick Perry posts audio of their boss's talk with Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, on the Lou Dobbs radio show. And Trail Blazers contrasts statements about Perry made by conservative leader Steve Hotze last year and this year.
Easter Lemming prepares a list of questions for Democratic gubernatorial contenders. And Burka says The Democrats' best pick for governor would be former House Speaker Pete Laney. (However, as a commenter points out, Laney is a senior advisor to Tom Schieffer's campaign.)
Texas Politics sits down with potential gubernatorial contenders Farouk Shami (Democrat), Friedman (Democrat) and Debra Medina (Republican). Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul writes good things about Medina in a letter, which Texas Politics posts. (Medina recently stepped aside as the Texas coordinator for Paul's Campaign for Liberty, the extension of his presidential campaign.)
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Agitating
A writer for Pegasus News is attracting heat (and threatening letters of the legal variety) for posting DFW traffic information on a phony TXDOT Twitter account. Texas Watchdog says this kind of thing isn't unusual.
Bay Area Houston is still giving flak to U.S. Rep. Pete Olson's staffers for their boss's use of a child to illustrate a point about Pres. Barack Obama's health plan. Meanwhile, Half Empty dissects Olson's official response to the criticism. And WhosPlayin made a large banner and rallied in favor of healthcare reform.
In the Pink reports on the secessionists' rally in front of the state Capitol. Lone Star Times has photos from the Stand Up for Texas rally in Austin. And musings agrees to an armistice with a Fox 26 blogger, who had used other bloggers' stuff without attribution.
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Political Bits
Poli-Tex's Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, reviews a book about politicking, concluding that Democrats need to aim for hearts instead of heads. On the other side of the aisle, Texas GOP executive director Eric Opiela says his party needs to bring in Hispanics and libertarian-leaners, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's PoliTex (no relation).
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey isn't thinking about running for U.S. Senate, or anything else, says Postcards. But U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, who looked at that race and decided to stay put, has drawn a primary opponent named Sam Finley, A Keyboard and a .45 says.
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Crime and Punishment
Looking at California's prison problems, Grits for Breakfast reflects on how Texas legislators — under the leadership of House Speaker Tom Craddick — managed to head off similar overcrowding issues starting in 2003. Meanwhile, the same blogger is happy that legislators "created a central repository for compiling and comparing local racial profiling data gathered by police officers at traffic stops."
PoliTex highlights a Senate Bill that increases penalties for certain crimes in disaster areas, with unintended consequences. And Texas Observer's The Contrarian returns from vacation to discover that a case he's been following — about wrongfully convicted and executed arsonist Cameron Todd Willingham — has become national news.
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Potpourri
The Travis Monitor continues their series of posts explaining the constitutional amendments on the November ballot, here, here, here, here and here. In the Pink posts photos of Liz Cheney and herself as cheerleaders for a Virginia high school. And Notes from the Lege passes on a demographic breakdown of the Texas Legislature, compiled by the National Conference of State Legislators. (Lots of white, Protestant, baby boomer attorneys; not so many Native American, 20-something, Mormon homemakers.)
A Capitol Blog's Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, posts a video of the ceremonial signing of the bill creating a Valley medical school. Austinist sits down with the literary director of the Texas Book Festival, which takes place Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 in Austin. And Mike Falick's Blog links to the official SAT question of the day.
Capitol Crowd is sending out an APB for folks interested in helping part-time with the website. Elsewhere, Texas Eagle Forum's Cathie Adams compared Obama to Adolf Hitler, and TFN Insider isn't happy about it. (More precisely, Adams compared Obama's speech to schoolchildren to the Hitler Youth program.)
And TexasSparkle wins second place in the Headline of the Week award contest for a post in which she says what Democrats have been waiting eight years to hear, titled, "We Were Wrong."
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.
