Burnt Orange Report

Of all the contested races, the Heflin debacle really sticks in my craw. Not only did Heflin basically lose the election because of his attempt to forcibly adopt the child of his immigrant housekeeper, he hires Andy Taylor, the mouthpeice of the Texas Association of Business as his lawyer.

Last week, while announcing his election challenge, Heflin alleged that he was "targeted by Democrats as part of a Democrat conspiracy."

In the old days, these things used to be called elections. Now they are called conspiracies.

First Heflin, then Opiela, and now Jack Stick, who claims he asked for but never received voter information from the Travis County Clerk, who says she never got the request. The arrogance of these GOP losers should turn a lot of heads about just which party is committed to the principles in its name.

I think there are two Republican tactics at work here:

1. Let Craddick play good cop to the bad cop roles being played by Opiela and Stick. That way, they can ultimately throw out the House contests being brought by those two and get credit while simulaneously seating Heflin despite his defeat.

2. Stung by the criticism of attacking Vo, a Vietnamese immigrant, and Gonzalez-Toureilles, a Hispanic woman, they now decide to attack an Anglo -- Mark Strama.

It's always easier to go after the white guy. Especially when you've been claiming to care about minority voters.

As if anyone needed confirmation that Craddick is behind all this -- does anyone really think the top-down, hierarchical Republicans would actually go against their boss's wishes? -- the fact that we've had three contests makes it obvious. This is Craddick's deal.

Agree with Embree that they needed their Anglo to make this work. Mercer looks like he got cold feet, so they recruited Jack Stick to be the "white guy" in this little game. So there are three challenges in the House, and a special master is appointed by Craddick. Maybe, just maybe, the special massuh will decide that the Opiela and Stick challenges don't have merit, but that Heflin's is a winner. Craddick gets to seem reasonable -- look, we rejected two out of three of these things, we're reasonable! (Insert barf.)

But the Vo race, with all those "illegal" Asians voting twice, voting outside the county, this case has merit. Craddick tries to play Mr. Reasonable and only go for one of the three -- never mind it's the only one close enough to actually get away with stealing. They cast enough BS on the outcome to throw out the result and call a new special election. GOP pours $500K into the special, and maybe steals the thing. Oh so clever.

I remember Craddick saying the Democrats would never gain House seats on his watch -- and he means it. We're on to you, Mr. Speaker.

As if anyone needed confirmation that Craddick is behind all this -- does anyone really think the top-down, hierarchical Republicans would actually go against their boss's wishes? -- the fact that we've had three contests makes it obvious. This is Craddick's deal.

Agree with Embree that they needed their Anglo to make this work. Mercer looks like he got cold feet, so they recruited Jack Stick to be the "white guy" in this little game. So there are three challenges in the House, and a special master is appointed by Craddick. Maybe, just maybe, the special massuh will decide that the Opiela and Stick challenges don't have merit, but that Heflin's is a winner. Craddick gets to seem reasonable -- look, we rejected two out of three of these things, we're reasonable! And we didn't just pick on minorities, we went after a white guy too! (Insert barf.)

But the Vo race, with all those "illegal" Asians voting twice, voting outside the county, this case has merit. Riiiight. Craddick tries to play Mr. Reasonable and only go for one of the three -- never mind it's the only one close enough to actually get away with stealing. They cast enough BS on the outcome to throw out the result and call a new special election. The GOP pours $500K into the special, and maybe steals the thing. Oh so clever.

I remember Craddick saying the Democrats would never gain House seats on his watch -- and he means it. We're on to you, Mr. Speaker.

I agree that Craddick is behind these House challenges and for the reasons Cletus gives: to seem reasonable by throwing out two of the three and "only" stealing back Heflin's seat.

But I also think we should not lose focus on Rick Perry's role. Opiela down here in Jim Wells Co. is Perry's boy. Brags about it at every opportunity, used to work for him, told voters he would have "special" access to the governor when they sent him to Austin.

Except that we did not send him because we wanted to exercise a little independence and choose our own representative.

Looks like Perry, Craddick and the rest of the Republican Party that used to be such strong supporters of "local control" have changed their minds since they seized power.

Take it from someone who grew up in an area of the state once known fro politicians who liked to steal elections -- this Austin crowd is the most corrupt in modern Texas history.

It is obvious the Texas Republican leadership has lost a basic concept we used to champion: math.

Democracy is a nice system, and logic has a good ring to it, but in the end all this boils down to math.

As Republicans in Texas, I would cheer as each year (since 1972) we would take back more and more of the legislature. Sometime, crazy left wing lunies would try and steal an election, but I have to give it to the ol' Dems, they never sided with their party over math.

This year, Republicans simply can't add, or maybe they simply aren't looking at the right numbers. According to math, the Dems finally picked up a seat. A pregnant, hispanic woman beat a Republican; a Vietnamese immigrant beat one of the most powerful members of the House; and a baby faced white boy from Travis county knocked off Jack Stick.

3 strikes and you're out? Or, we decide the Texas Secretary of State is really from the Ukraine and is under orders from Vlad Putin to screw the Republicans out of power. Math has turned to maddness. The real number folks like Craddick are watching is the net one advantage, add all other math be damned!

I am proud that our party's symbol is the elephant and that elephants never forget. I won't forget the way this shameful leadership of Perry, Craddick, and Andy Taylor won't let local voters decide their own elections in one of history's most Republican years. Aren't they Republicans? They remind me of Al Gore and Jesse Jackson. Kay Bailey Hutchison needs to smack these kids around and remind them what integrity means.

Math, gentleman. Take one good hair - air head governor, add one Speaker who can't speak on anything, throw in several candidates that suck enough to not win in a Republican year, and that equals one hell of a state government! Sam Houston would be proud, hell, W. himself is damn glad he's so far away from Austin that he can actually get work done.

Elephants shouldn't forget about math, or else they're libel to be worse than a bunch of jackasses.