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Then, there's our new Gov., Rick Perry. His sense of astuteness in the political PR waters is still, shall we say, leaving a little bit to be desired. The traffic incident with a state trooper sure didn't help his image much--and he doesn't seem to share a quality or two that W. seemed to show to us Texans--RESTRAINT (as in keeping your foot away from your mouth). [I'm still smarting from one time when the new Gov. made a campaign appearance here in Plainview during his last campaign for Lt. Gov. and I tried to ask him a question related to criminal justice and he basically tried to turn it into a question on education. I didn't like the answer he gave and wasn't too impressed with his performance. If people like him would ONLY shoot straight and give an HONEST answer (like I figure all of you might usually and REALLY want), I might change my mind. Until then, I for right now have my doubts on how long Perry will get to enjoy his promotion (and worse--how long the voters of TX will allow him to keep that new position).]
And what about the new makeup of the Senate, folks? It proved to be a nastier race amongst the GOP than we thought. FIRST, the VERY byzantine system of selecting the new Lt. Gov. in the first place. The process was started when Bush formally announced his candidacy for President over two years ago. The final decision on that? Make EVERY senator a potential candidate for the Lt. Gov. spot. The final result of the FINAL decision? In a word--CHAOS!! Senate President Pro Tem Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) devised an even more interesting idea on how the Senators would choose: bye, bye pledge cards (in otherwords, those nasty little things that a senator might encourage another senator to sign that might, in essence, guarantee the election of that senator to a certain high post in the Leg. or state government)--AND the person on each ballot that gets the least votes LOSES and gets dropped from the ballot. The main race? It was between Bill Ratliff (R-Mt. Pleasant) and David Sibley (R-Waco)--with the shadow and ghost of Bob Bullock watching. It was a genial race at first--UNTIL Sibley made a few waves that ticked some folks off (like hiring a CONTROVERSIAL political consultant, which in the Senate is tantamount to a taboo on cannibalism because of the fear of dirty laundry being aired at the whim of someone else). Ratliff tried to run his as a non-campaign at first (meaning that he was not wanting to actively run), but Sibley got a bit more unpopular the further he went in his campaign. |
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