The Day After

Not much seemed to be cooking in Austin throughout the morning. The news mostly concerned the post-game on the Speaker's Race, and various MSM analyses of what happened, or what it all means.

This may seem like a conspiracy theory that I'm coming up with awfully late, but we've been kicking the idea around the office and I'm not convinced it isn't possible: what if Pitts was merely a stalking horse for Craddick? Politicians have been creating challengers out of whole cloth since Zog ran against Ugh for for a third term as Cave Mayor. Pitts was the chair of Appropriations, as I have mentioned here before, and after McCall's challenge solidified Democrats and seemed to gain momentum, maybe Pitts seemed like someone who could fracture whatever support McCall had managed to muster but would dutifully throw to Pitts as the consensus candidate. I'm not saying that's how I think it definitely happened, I'm just saying it is an interesting idea to entertain. At least as interesting as the idea of Burka as kingmaker.

As for the other performers, I think Representative Hartnett wins the award for "Most Smug." I also have to say that I was mightily impressed by Representative Richard Raymond's lone dissent to Craddick's nomination - his speech was fiery and a joy to listen to. BOR has the text.