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Walkover Wendy

I wanted to see a primary for Texas governor, but it was a walkover for Abbott (more of a rollover, but that doesn't satisfy my alliteration addiction). I wanted to see a general election...

But I realize that the future of Texas is not a caterer to my whimsical fancies or whiskey-induced stupors.

Out of Time

As Labor Day, the media-anointed starting line for campaigns, looms extremely nigh, it's clear that Wendy Davis will be Walkover Wendy. Just go ahead and ink in Greg Abbott's name in the governor bracket.

Revisiting my premature notion that Walkover Wendy's television buy was minuscule--a media gambit, it appears Team Davis is going all in.

It's not unlike sitting at the roulette table: you steadily lose your chips until you convince yourself that now's the only time you can put it all out on the table and recoup some semblance of your initial stack.

But Walkover Wendy is betting on green--a universally-denounced ad with more convolution than consequence.

When that fails, what remains for Walkover Wendy?

According to her catastrophic ethics filings, not a whole helluva lot.

Out of Money

After splitting up their assets, Walkover Wendy and the countless organizations she inconsistently counts as her financial allies collectively had enough to run half a statewide campaign in Texas.

But it's often overlooked that the only organization with television capability is Wendy R. Davis for Governor, Inc.

Any outside entity would have to pay absurd fees, and there aren't any (as of June 30th) with enough cheddar to buy even one statewide ad while keeping up with their outlandish burn rates.

Walkover Wendy's two accounts had a combined $8.8 million, when including the $3.8 million maintained by Abortion Telethon 2013 in her existing state senate account.

Given campaigns' tendency to inflate cash on hand numbers by holding bills, let's say Walkover Wendy has $8 million to play with.

Let's also say that they continue their baffling burn rate.

Subtract $2.5 million for the current ad interrupting my preseason football.

Without raising another $3 million (and more) between the last deadline and the end of early voting, it's likely that Walkover Wendy only has enough dough for one (1) additional statewide spot.

Take a moment for that to sink in.

Meanwhile, Greg Abbott could buy all the airtime and play whatever-it-doesn't-matter-he-will-still-win-by-at-least-twelve ad(s) he feels like.

Of course, Mostyn's credit is always good at the roulette table...but those other races probably look like they have better house odds right about now.

Out of Oxygen

When your money goes away, it's quite tempting to just go back to running and gunning (or stumbling and fumbling if history has shown us anything), throwing everything at the wall for a chance at earned media.

The problem for Walkover Wendy is that Rick Perry just threw Texas media the biggest bone they've had since "oops."

Good luck breaking through anytime soon...

Rick Perry's Scott Walker Moment...

...has come. And it will be much bigger and better than Walker's. Anyone who thinks for a moment that this won't be a huge net win for Perry shouldn't be driving right now.

Gratuitous shitshow embed:

When Meltdowns Get Worse

The Wendy Davis campaign dumpster fire continues to hit rock bottom, bust through the rocks, and sink farther away from oxygen.

Although they've proven me wrong every step of the way in the "can't get worse" department, I think they're done with staff shakeups. They've settled for an anti-military online person, an identity-thieving spokesperson, scores of out-of-staters who think LGBT stuff is the most important thing facing this country, a state representative for campaign manager, and (I'm told) a few other folks who don't pass the Google test.

They've collectively helped her...as a friend put it..."raise money like Bill White and have a cash on hand like Chris Bell." Not good.

They've flip-flopped on issues that managed to piss off both their base and Independents.

They've pissed off a key segment of their base: Texas press.

They've campaigned for a year only to see her poll numbers get progressively worse. I've seen two private-association (and one public), statewide polls that have her down 17 points in the past 3 weeks.

Never have I seen more pre-mortems...and never so early (months ago).

Cue the trick plays and hail mary.

The Davis ad takes 60 seconds to jump the shark, even on Shark Week, ultimately hurting her cause and, more importantly, subjecting a rape victim to terrible memories and tons of attention that she would probably choose to do without.

Yeah, war on women.

This is the worst move a Texas campaign has made in a very long time.

"The risk may be especially high after the Davis campaign acknowledged Friday it had not spoken with the victim before releasing the ad Thursday night."

Unreal.

Since the Davis campaign never really had any money ($5 million in July), I've been told that this is an earned media play...no real money behind the ad. We'll see.

Magnificent Return

Back by popular demand (Mom).

The first half of the year was fun

I've been gone for a while...not that you noticed.

I'm going to change that.

Plan accordingly.

Speaking of polls...

I was waiting for the Day Two information leak and PDFs from the Texas Tribune on their new fake Internet poll, but I think they've said all they care to say.

So that means I have several questions about the hypothetical Perry vs. Abbott bout.

I tried to decipher the methodology document, but I think it's written in Sanskrit, and it probably translates to "nothing to see here, you nosy asshole."

It'd be easier to assume that the weighting system makes sense if they had included the all-important crosstabs, which always convey far more than the published numbers.

Alas, the pollsters have deemed us worthy of obscure toplines only. And what of them?

Despite Ross Ramsey's headline, this is bad news for Team Perry. Jim Henson offers the most intriguing nugget about Abbott (consistent with what the PPP hippies claim):

“A lot of people don’t know who he is, but those who do are overwhelmingly positive”

Hmm. That sounds a lot like Ted Cruz about a year ago. But Abbott's situation is nowhere near as dire as Cruz's early showing.

Abbott has a year til crunch time, and he's already at 17% (allegedly) whereas Cruz was hovering around 5% for months.

Perry's start (and I would suggest that it is his ceiling) is considerably lower than Dewhurst's was.

Abbott has cash money. Dolla dolla bill, y'all. It wouldn't be surprising to see Abbott outspend Perry 2 to 1. Cruz couldn't raise squat--it was the Club for Growth that carried his paid media efforts against the well-self-funded Dewhurst.

Word is that Abbott is already quietly assembling a commendable campaign team.

Abbott will likely have a one-on-one contest with Perry to reach all constituencies. Cruz and Michael Williams were constantly trying to outflank each other on the ground for the same hyper-aggressive talkers in the conservative chattering class before Williams gave up.

However, we all know that Team Perry is accustomed to eating bad news for breakfast and pooping out political gold before lunch. This poll by the same outfit from approximately four years ago showed KBH 8 points up on Perry.

The difference may be that much of Perry's team has disbanded or defected...or, in some cases, has been shown the door for unknown reasons. Enter disloyal mercenaries.

All this pontificating may be for naught. When you have red flags like only 15% of respondents being over 65 years old--and you don't explain it--you may as well omit any margin of error disclaimer, because many will assume that it's 100%. I guess that's what happens when people are taking the poll in their underwear so that they can receive a Chili's gift card.

Isn't it worth asking?

I think it is. But first, I must satisfy my other personality--the mostly negative one...

The Texas Capitol Press Corps has my everlasting disdain. It's a deplorable situation when the Texas Tribune is as close to "getting it" as they come...mostly disappointing because I think the average age in that office is thirteen.

Sometimes you have to hold a reporter's hand and walk them through a story. That's somewhat understandable. After all, there's an entire industry of professionals (albeit an anemic industry in Texas) that is tasked with daily dissemination of information and, on occasions when reporters "bite," thorough explanation.

But in Texas, that's not enough. You must first teach the reporter to open their eyes, walk, talk, read, write, clothe themselves, go in the potty, don't play in the street, and avoid touching hot stoves.

If it's a record vote, you have to navigate them through a basic state website's search functions.

If it's a contribution or an expenditure, you have to install Adobe Reader for them or show them how to use Microsoft Excel.

If it's an entity, you have to explain to them what the secretary of state's office does. You might even have to spot them the $4 to make copies.

If they need to perform any sort of elementary research outside of Travis County, they simply give up and abandon their assignment or crusade.

If it's the people at Politifact, you have to explain why "Greek" may still be accurate even though the word itself may be written in Times New Roman font...on a good day. Any staffer that gives them the time of day should be immediately fired. Any public official that reads or cites Politifact should resign in disgrace.

It's fucking ridiculous. The Texas press gets its basic research from the same people that are spinning its members. Reporters either cannot use Google or are too lazy to bother.

Maybe that's part of the reason Texas has a deficiency in good political communicators at the staff level. Why put up with that kind of nonsense?

--------------------------

Back to the question.

Rick Perry commissioned a poll, which was paid for in October, 2012. It's in those ethics reports that reporters don't report about.

That's not news. Officeholders typically test messaging and priorities through pre-Session surveys, and the data tells them what they should do. Anyone who thinks that this process makes government into a charade needn't ever visit this fake blog.

The news would be in the ballot test numbers. If you're paying Baselice $40,000 for a poll, you include a ballot test--even if you're NOT running for anything.

Now, there are no boxes in ethics reports that allow you to put a check next to anything along the lines of "Hey, dumbass reporter. Maybe you should ask the filer what this item was all about."

But surely someone could ask what the Abbott vs. Perry numbers were.

Nah.

This town has no secrets. Any question about that poll--even off the record--would be broadcast far and wide.

If Perry's shop didn't answer, reporters would be whispering that Perry's poll wasn't favorable.

If Perry's shop did answer, reporters would be whispering that Perry's running again.

Todd Staples needs more practice

You've heard of Susan Combs' porn book, which has caused us all to involuntarily toss our cookies at some point.

Rick Perry has penned two books. Some former Romney advisers naively claim that one of them is, by itself, the reason Perry didn't win the nomination in 2012.

Not to be left out, Todd Staples decided to buy some ink and raise his minimal profile before 2014 primary season bemuses us.

His literary debut is devoid of sexual encounters (unless "secure my border" is a new euphemism that my spouse has refused to share with me) and without social security rants.

Staples couldn't find anyone to publish his musings, so he found one of those do-it-yourself companies on the Internet. In about six months, I hope some enterprising Texas reporter* will ask the Staples folks whether or not the costs--around $5k or so--were recovered through sales.

I'll bet they answer the question as directly as Staples recently answered the in-state tuition for illegals question:

Todd Staples has consistently tried to make border security his signature issue. It's a better sound bite than "hey I'm in charge of rural stuff and crops and such."

But his folks somehow forgot to remind him that he voted for the in-state tuition bill, and he somehow forgot how to answer and/or pivot. This video oopsie, complete with an uncomfortable pause, suggests that Commissioner Staples needs some more practice.

Interestingly, the immigration issue...not to be confused with border security...may give David Dewhurst a chance to distance himself from Patterson and Staples in a potential race where not many disagreements can be found.

This random thought assumes that smut mogul Susan Combs seeks re-election.

---

* That's my little joke. Texas doesn't have enterprising reporters.

Censored No More

I have come to the conclusion that a coordinated attack on my blog took it down for some unspecified number of weeks. It was the drones launched by Obama. Everyone was in on it. From Beyonce down to Axelrod.

It's the only explanation. I simply don't buy the "you didn't pay to renew your domain" lies from GoDaddy.

And now...I'm a turnout statistician

Behold!

Do not act surprised tomorrow if I'm completely wrong on 100% of these. You should only rely on me for Happy Hour information and comprehensive Netflix reviews. While I (and you...and many, many others) may be much more knowledgeable about politics than that armchair politico on your TV, I'm not a political pollster or consultant by trade.

But I'm honest at the very least. Want proof? I'm listening to Donna Lewis' "I Love You, Always Forever" on iTunes right now. Nobody would admit that.

A few things have changed since my last bit of drivel. These are the races I have info on, so if it doesn't appear, I know nothing or I don't consider it to be in question.

We should expect to win:

Wendy Davis' seat

We should expect to lose:

Connie Scott's seat

John Garza's seat

Dee Margos's seat

J.M. Lozano's seat

We might lose, but I don't believe the numbers...or am in denial:

Canseco's seat

Legler's seat

We missed opportunities:

Chuy Hinojosa's seat

Hubert Vo's seat

--Weber and Lampson are very close, but Weber should barely prevail unless Lampson has some sort of Election Day turnout unicorn.

--Turnout for Lozano and David Pineda's districts are abysmal...downright embarrassing.

--Bryan Eppstein has flung too much poo at the wall, and all of Austin hates him right now for it.

--Those who drew maps last year are building bomb shelters and buying dehydrated food wholesale.

--I think Romney gets between 267 and 283 EV's. If I had five dollars to bet had to bet, I'd go with Romney. I don't buy most of the turnout models. How's that for science? "I don't buy that."

Hints from Early Voting

An honest politico, assuming one still exists, would tell you that polls do not matter and that turnout does matter.

What do the Early Voting totals tell us about the races of interest as of Saturday?

Not enough. But we can always guess. Thoughts from my pessimistic, 9-year-old calculator:

Randy Weber Those who have already voted slightly favor Weber. It's an understatement to say that this race is too close for comfort.

Mark Shelton Despite consultant Bryan Eppstein's baffling follies, it's looking good for Shelton. Be cautiously optimistic. At this point, I'd rather see Tony Romo calling the clutch shots than Eppstein.

Williams vs. Vo - HD 149 Williams will probably win Early Voting, and Vo will probably win Election Day. Williams could eke it out, or Vo could win by 6 points. Is that analysis helpful? Yeah, didn't think so.

Pineda vs. Perez - HD 144 Unless the second week of Early Voting has a Pineda bump, This could be a 1-2 point race...and not in a good way.

Eiland's seat - HD 23 GOP cannot haz.

Connie Scott - HD 34 Sadly, looks like a one-and-done.

I don't have much intel on Bexar County. I fear for John Garza. Canseco has not yet returned from the Crusades to begin his campaign for re-election. Someone should send him a raven.

Possible X-factor: It's supposed to rain all over Texas on the 7th. If that stuff moves in earlier, this could stymie Election Day turnout, which I suggest hurts Democrats. Yes, we live in a society where freedom takes a backseat to weather forecasts.

Missives from a Digital Lisa Frank Notepad

On Friday, Ross Ramsey of the Texas Tribune was either killing time on Facebook or astutely tracking down the prevailing sentiments of our state's lawmakers.

He stumbled upon a butthurt Senator Judith Zaffirini, who Dewhurst busted last week, revoking her Higher Education committee chairmanship.

Ramsey wisely took a screenshot:

He then tweeted the juicy screenshot with her response:

"Zaffirini says this is how she opens speeches and has nothing to do with losing the Higher Education chair."

She is, of course, a dirty liar...because the post seems to have disappeared into the Zuckerberg vault of questionable decisions, along with Facebook's scores of deleted weekend frat party photo albums and check-ins at Linkin Park concerts. Her passive-agressive Facebook post became a passive-agressive deletion.

I can't find it anywhere. If you can, let our Corrections Division know.**

I'm going to assume the worst. Zaffirini is calling Dewhurst a "loser"...and not the kind that spends their entire day creating Spotify playlists. She's threatening his 2014 candidacy, predicting he will lose.

The insiders forcefully assert that Zaffirini is one mean lady, and nobody should ever piss her off, lest they be vanquished by her ninja powers.

Somewhere along the way, I missed something. She can produce dozens of notebooks full of research about a bill and repeat party talking points with the best of em. But what the hell else can she do?

Zaffirini is a state senator. Dewhurst is the lieutenant governor.

If I were Dewhurst, I'd probably have a little chat with Zaffirini about her grade-school antics. If she whined, I'd take away her chairmanship of the other committee too. In fact, I'd appoint her chairman of a one-person committee tasked with teaching its members how to properly pronounce the word "fiscal," because she still can't get that one right.

I want to see the next iteration of Perry vs. Strayhorn, circa 2006-ish. Let's just say I'm bored. How did that one work out?

---------

In the interest of satisfying my inner conspiracy theorist, here is the text of Zaffirini's TheFacebook.com post, because her office will surely contact Ramsey to delete this photo, and I don't know how to take a screenshot on my Blackberry (emphasis not mine at all):

"WHAT DO YOU CALL SENATORS WHO TAKE THEIR RE-ELECTIONS FOR GRANTED? Losers!

The same word applies to officeholders who forget that friendship is a two-way street and betray their friends while trying to make new ones. The key to re-election is to expand your base--not to trade one group of loyal friends and supporters for another."

**The South Steps Corrections Division can be contacted by Googling "f*** off."

#ross #ramsey #judith #zaffirini #david #dewhurst #rick #perry #carole #keeton #rylander #mcclellan #formery-know-as #strayhorn

School finance? Good luck with that...

Let's have some honesty in the school finance debate. No, not an honest conversation about what's best for Texas, silly. I mean a head-removed-from-ass realization that the status quo is the only politically viable option until the courts say otherwise.

The Texas Tribune has a list of what they consider political "insiders." Some of them are. Others on the list might make you giggle.

They've asked the insiders (and the other people) about the likelihood of replacing local property taxes with a statewide property tax or the sales tax. The poll includes some verbatim answers, which are half sad and half entertaining (in a sad way).

Most of the commentary comes directly from the talking points issued at a recent legislative hearing.

What they choose not to talk about is the political consequences that will surely ensue for any legislator who advocates or votes for either one of these avenues.

Republican lawmakers who entertain these proposals will have written a good chunk of their 2014 primary opponents' attack mail without anything to show for their work.

Essentially, anyone with the courage to attempt changing school finance before a court demands action will see their measure fail and then be subjected to a brutal primary challenge.

SCENARIO A

You're a GOP state legislator who attends every TPPF policy briefing. You empathize with the constituents who are literally being taxed out their homes by the local school districts.

You're interested in seeing the sales tax replace local property taxes. Talmadge told you it's a good idea right before he dozed off in your office.

Flash forward to February, 2014. Jack says "we've got to get back to the island." You hear about a new mailer that your primary opponent has sent out. You go to the post office to search the trashcans, but you forgot that Vice President Ryan talked the Senate into agreeing with the House's idea to eliminate post offices. You search on the candidate's website, and there it is: a picture of you in a dapper suit with money spilling out of the pockets...cracked text insinuates that you've raised Texas' sales tax X percent...the largest tax increase in Texas' history! You lose.

SCENARIO B

You're a GOP state legislator--a highly popular one--who has met no fewer than 15 times with LBB to make sure these numbers are right.

You've been sweet-talked by Duncan's calming voice...almost hypnotized. Mostly hypnotized.

His whispers of a statewide property tax have been echoed by those you consider the more squishy even-keeled legislators, and you know that you can spin your way into any detractor's favor back home.

Flash forward to February, 2014. John Locke's the bad guy now? But he...wait...Duncan's the bad guy too? Surely your opponent isn't using the same line as that obscure blogger in Fort Stockton raising hell among their millions of minions. You check your iPad 7, and you see that your opponent is giving a sneak peak at the Super Bowl ad that they will be running against you as the San Antonio Chargers take on Nick Saban's Arizona Cardinals (in London): chilling music as a silhouette breaks into a quaint house, opens the combination safe, and escapes, kicking the family beagle on the way out. A spotlight shows that it's you in the shadows, and you're taking this family's money straight to Austin...local control be damned! Apparently, you've voted for the largest (fill in the blank) tax increase in Texas' history. Oh, you lose.

And now...I'm a book reviewer

I embarked on a thorough fact-finding mission a few weeks after Rick Perry dropped out of the presidential race in January.

That may or may not be a euphemism for using my drinking problem to pick up a few facts here and there from some of the Perry faithful.

As an unabashed fan of Rick Perry, I selfishly wanted to know what had transpired during the campaign leadership shakeup and why, from around December onward, the operation failed almost daily to perform the most basic campaign tasks.

Asking several who were involved with the campaign, the stories were uniform and horridly depressing. And every one of them uttered some iteration of "someone should write a book."

I assume they were not hoping that Jay Root would be that person. Given that Perry is a guy with two published books, you might think there are enough ghost writers around to take a stab at it. But Jay Root was first to the party--nine months later.

Coughing up the seven bucks was a two-day decision, but I had to know if there were any discrepancies among staffers' accounts and Root's assessment.

Quite shockingly, they are very similar.

The seven dollars felt like less of a monumental sacrifice after I compiled this list, in no particular order, of the top ten things I learned by reading Jay Root's "Oops."

Some reporters drink as heavily as political staffers do.

Reporters still insist on misquoting Perry's remarks at a 2009 TEA Party in Austin. It's particularly telling when they refuse to put quotes around the words.

Larry Gatlin has ordered, on at least one occasion, hummus, and my caricatured opinion of him has become slightly tarnished because of it.

There is still at least one person out there who takes Paul Burka seriously as a political reporter.

Although they should never be tasked by conservatives to decipher it for themselves, reporters do not understand the Tenth Amendment as it relates to social issues and legislation. They're just like voters.

The concept of an embed reporter may never die as long as prohibition is not reconsidered.

The thin-skin nature of reporters is still somehow severely underestimated by communicators.

Jay Root might only tip 13.6% on a large tab.

Mike Toomey has become some sort of tall tale among the press.

Joe Allbaugh's gonna be pissed if someone teaches him how to read, explains to him what an e-book is, walks him through an online financial transaction, and downloads the software for him to read "Oops."

#rick #perry #jay #root #oops #joe #allbaugh #larry #gatlin

Climate Change

It's too hot to go outside, so I might push out a few more thoughtless posts these days.

There's not a whole helluva lot going on other than Fantasy Football preparations, so I'll ruminate on the political climate and some observations that might have some hating me.

The re-entry of Perry and Dewhurst to the 2014 statewide office conversation has probably caused some ulcers in the hungry bellies of the oft-mentioned hopefuls that were slighted in 2010.

The dynamic may have changed--any bozo with a "Don't Tread on Me" shirt could be emboldened and enticed to file for any office. The also-rans in the 2012 Senate primary racked up a large number of voters who were eager to vote against anyone they've heard of.

One of the also-rans...won.

Why not run for office? The Barack Obama mantra of 2008 was simple: words matter, and values/policies/principles/knowledge do not. Somehow, certain Republicans across the country have co-opted that formula with success and have shown that it's not a fluke.

In the same way that the media arguably elected Barack Obama in 2008, I suggest that the media is electing "Tea Party Republicans" in 2012. The difference is that in 2012, they're doing it on accident.

Every time a writer or anchor mentions a Republican primary, they are obliged to proclaim one candidate as “Tea Party darling” and another as “Establishment-backed.” Sometimes, they get creative with their words, calling one candidate the “Tea Party favorite” and another the “Establishment pick.”

The mainstream media thinks they are helping those they perceive as “Establishment” by labeling them. They think it marginalizes those they perceive as “Tea Party.” Their historic understanding of the GOP primary crowd is oblivious at best, and they hurt their preferred candidates every time they open their mouths or uncap their pens.

The result? Candidates like Ted Cruz become the Barack Obamas of 2012.

The comparisons have nothing to do with ideology.

Ask ten Texas GOP runoff voters what Ted Cruz stands for…what he wants to do in office. You will not hear more than two decisive answers. The others will essentially say that he’s a “true conservative” because he’s “Tea Party.” It was the only narrative that mattered, and it was created by the mainstream media.

The irony doesn’t stop there.

Cruz’s background and rise to power was as “Establishment” as you can get. After Harvard, he worked in Washington in federal government, he was an immigration advisor to a pro-amnesty president, his law firm is an international giant, and his wife’s banking connections coupled with his Bush ties provided an early foundation for campaign funds.

I don’t point this out to shit on Cruz. He has my vote, and he will do a much better job than Kay Bailout.

It’s just, in my opinion, a highly interesting and entertaining situation. Both campaign circles (Dewhurst and Cruz) will acknowledge that the negatives on Cruz made voters’ stomachs turn, but they will also admit that it didn’t erode his support. Like the Obama movement, supporters were supporting a cult of personality (for lack of a better term), even if they disagreed with his intentions.

Consider the excitement around the Veepstakes. Republicans were enthralled at the thoughts of Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Marco Rubio, or Jan Brewer. I wouldn’t rate any of them past 80-85 percent on a conservative scale (a conversation for another day). But that doesn’t matter in this climate. They’re “Tea Party” because we’ve been told “they’re Tea Party.”

If Cruz had stood at the GOP convention in Ft. Worth, endorsed amnesty, gay marriage, and abortion—and the “Tea Party vs. Establishment” conversations endured—he still would have won the runoff.

So what are the 2014 candidates supposed to learn from 2012?

Do everything in your power to perpetuate a Tea Party vs. Establishment narrative. It doesn’t take much. Go meet with 12 groups. Go talk to 10 bloggers that use the same line.

The Tea Party might not have a fraction of the November sway it did in 2010, but GOP primary crowds are not general election crowds. Such a simple idea is still easily lost by the mainstream media.

Dan Patrick and Greg Abbott have a good start. Everyone else is running out of time. If there's no sense of urgency among the contenders to court the "Tea Party" image and put the "Establishment" tag on opponents, they might find better use of their time moving on to the lobby.

When is too late? I'd say the start of the 2013 session is too late for any 2014 wannabes.

#tea party #ted #cruz #david #dewhurst #dan #patrick #greg #abbott

Steve Mostyn Likes It Rough

Remember when trial lawyer Steve Mostyn waged jihad against Rick Perry in 2010?

Remember when his prototype Bill White lost handily?

Remember when Mostyn's sycophants disbanded and the Charity for Texas Democrat Staffers was closed?

The Texas Legislature and Rick Perry remembered. They smacked down trial lawyers with "Loser Pays."

Well...Mostyn is getting the band back together. This time, he's got fake Republican Mark McCaig on the teat, beefing up to open a new can of worms.

In addition to funding some ads against some of his legislative foes, he's picking a fight with TLR--if running a few web ads can be considered "picking a fight."

Mostyn's angle (no Matt Angle pun intended...the consummate, untalented failure of recent Texas political history) is to pretend to claim that TLR is not conservative enough. It's a strategy I can't even begin to comprehend. I guess I'm too stupid.

His new jihad apparently still includes Rick Perry if this facebook ad is any indication.

Whatever tickles your fancy, Steve. This might be the political equivalent of David Carradine's final thrill.

#steve mostyn #rick perry #trial lawyer #stoptlr

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