This just in:  One of our fine, feathered little friends (a tipster) just happened to mention that speaker Craddick plans to replace Patrick Rose as Chair of the House Human Services Committee.  (See More’s Afoot).

Generally, we’re in favor of replacing dimocrat chairs with republican chairs (See The Game’s Afoot).  But, Human Services?  Come on.  Talk about the big green booger of committee assignments….don’t you just love you some of that TIERS?  Can you think of a better hellhole to park some of those dimocrat law makers?  Too bad the Agriculture & Livestock Committee is full up with republicans.

What makes it even better is the identity of Craddick’s alleged chair - the honorable ethically-challenged John Davis of Houston.  Yep, that John Davis, he of the serial double-dipping fame, who’s been fined by the Texas Ethics Commission more times than our own Paul Womack.  It truly is a match made in heaven.  

We believe the rumor is true - after all, Davis himself said it.   While we know he’s a thief, we don’t know if he’s a liar, too, so we’re giving Davis the benefit of the doubt.  For now.

It’s shaping up to be one heck of a greased pig race up in the House Chamber next January.

We’ve told you that Texas politics is a full contact sport, but it looks like you didn’t take us seriously.  Now it looks like Mike Krusee might have been gut shot by his former BFF.   A big-mouthed birdie let us in on some local push polling that seems to have pushed the squeaker right out of the race.

Seems the push poll included some questions about the long-standing rumors about Krusee’s personal life.  Given the nature of the rumors, apparently most respondents indicated Krusee was toast as far as they were concerned. 

We don’t know the rest of the questions.  We don’t know if his ”Let Them Pay Tolls” fervor or his on-again off-again romance as mistress to speaker Craddick affected responses either.  All we were told was that the responses were not the least bit favorable.  Gazing into his Magic 8 Ball and seeing life as he knows it going down the toilet, Krusee decided to retire.  In an interesting twist, he didn’t pull out the usual “to spend more time with my family” excuse.  Instead, he said it was to pursue other opportunities.  His new mistress?  Transportation organizations, of course.

Here’s where it gets juicy:  according to our anonymous tipster, the push poll was conducted at the behest of speaker Craddick.  No big surprise there.  Seems like Hell hath no fury like a speaker scorned. 

The devil is indeed in the details.  What puts this push poll in the top tier of political dirty tricks: the poll universe allegedly was local dimocrat voters.  If true, it was truly reprehensible act, but heck, we sure do love it when a good plan comes together.  If Krusee was too stoopid to ask about at the poll universe, well, he’s way too stoopid to reelect.

Lots of people have mumbled about running, but only two have filed on the right side of the ballot (we don’t count the dimocrat, ’cause that’s the left side). 

John Gordon, local republican honcho, former SREC member, and Krusee aide, tossed his fedora into the ring last week and already has the district littered with his campaign signs.  Chalk up another crony pledge for Craddick for speaker. 

Dee Hobbs, scion of JP Judy Hobbs, and an Assistant County Attorney, also filed.  The mud machine has already started up on this one.  He’s a bit behind coming out of the starting gate and currently playing coy about his choice for speaker.  We see this as a major mistake as this race is gonna be ALL about the speaker. 

Over on the other side of the county, Craddick doesn’t have to worry about bed-mate little Danny Gattis. He’s got that member’s member vote solidly in his grasp and nobody has started sniffing around for that seat.

Yet.

Didn’t we tell you it was gonna be a fun election cycle?

A rumor afoot has it that the high sheriff of that liberal county just to the south of us is planning on making some  changes soon.  Seems like the hand-wringers are getting all sorts of put out that Sheriff Hamilton and his deputies are not treating some of his jail inmates with the proper respect and deference they deserve. 

Imagine that.

In an effort to appease the thug huggers and whiners, and create a more positive atmosphere, Sheriff Hamilton is changing the inmate dress code.  Beginning October 1, selected inmates will no longer have to wear those nasty orange uniforms.

They will be burnt orange instead.    

If, perchance, you just happen to Google “Williamson County Republican Party” you’ll find a rather disturbing alert posted just underneath it indicating, “This site may harm your computer.”

WTF?

Google tags websites that appear to install malicious software (malware) without a user’s knowledge or permission. This is not an innocuous cookie we’re talking about here. We’re talking some really rotten stuff, especially when the harvester sells this mined information to a nefarious third party. BTW, by nefarious third party, we don’t mean dimocrats - we mean identity thieves, pornsters, criminals, and terrorists that wreck havoc with your credit card information.

We don’t know why it is there or how it got there or even how long it’s been there. That’s irrelevant at this point. It never should have been in there in the first place. It needs to be gone. NOW! Period. Are we clear on that?

Note to Bill Fairbrother & Executive Committee: You have some explaining to do.

Williamson County Republican Party

Williamson County Republican Party

UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE:   It’s now safe to visit the Wilco GOP website - at least according to Google.  The malware has been removed and Google took down its alert.  Anybody have any idea what happened?

Rumors are pinging through the blogosphere that inFidel Casto has finally gone on to his great reward. 

Oh, to be a fly on the wall when inFidel meets his maker and is called to account for his misdeeds.

Note to candidates & consultants:  There’s a difference between insure, ensure, and assure.  Every high school has an English teacher or two that can explain it to you.