>So McClellan's mother is running against Perry. Who's W supporting?
>And who's Rove supporting?
Bush and Rove haven't expressed support for anyone, publicly at least. They probably don't care. Perry strives to be a Bush clone, but he's a political hack and unfailingly a dolt. He's also becoming deeply unpopular, with approval ratings under 40%, quite an accomplishment in a state that votes 65% Republican. Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Scottie's mum, sounds vaguely populist at times and has criticized Perry for not fully funding the children's health program (and walking away from hundreds of millions in matching funds from the feds by doing so) and for not fixing the schools. But there's no reason for Bush or Rove to worry. If she were guv, Texas would remain the model of barbarism it's been for 160 years. The main change would be that Strayhorn is entertaining in the intentional way, as opposed to Perry's hilarious bumbling.
>How's McC handle the contradictions?
I don't know. Extreme compartmentalization?
By the way, the people of Texas earned a nice, and strange, victory this week. The legislature is in special session, to "reform" education, it's said, but really to shift the burden of paying for schools from the wealthiest 10% to everyone else. (Of course, this being Texas, the load the rich now carry is pretty light: The top 20% in Texas pay 4.5% of their income in state and local taxes, while the bottom 20% pay four times that.) A dozen or so Republican house members crossed their speaker--who ideologically is similar to Perry, but who is dangerous because he's actually competent, and ruthless in the Delay way--and helped kill the bills that would have codified this latest battle in the class war. The ones who voted against the bills, who were mostly from poorer, rural districts, said they did so for one reason: They received hundreds or thousands of calls from constituents telling them to. And people were opposed to the plan not just for the usual antitax reasons; they were mad because schools wouldn't get more money, teachers wouldn't get raises, and the wealthy school districts wouldn't have to share as much of their booty with the rest of the state.
That level of political involvement in an allegedly apolitical state is impressive. And this was during the Texas summer, when getting out the front door is a worthy accomplishment.
Eric