Friday Roundup - The Day After

Steven Bollinger, past president of Texas Young Democrats and well-known progressive hero, celebrated the finalization of his divorce in Denton County last night. The event was roundly categorized as a rousing success. Incredibly, production continues unabated this morning at the Texas Blue.

James Leininger is living up to what he terms a "moral responsibility" by hitting the trail in support of vouchers. We've talked about vouchers here before and will likely continue to do so. Leininger's shift from silent but giant campaign donor to personal full court media press is worth mentioning in the context that his record this last cycle wasn't so great. I don't know if this is a situation where he thinks others can't get it done so he'll do it himself, or if he learned a lesson last time that vouchers are a wedge issue that he can afford to stump for while those running for office cannot, even though they will support them later on after they've been elected.

Rick Perry did away with any teasing and announced that he would like to make it more difficult for poor people to go to college, by way of possibly requiring students who get grants for school because they have low incomes to pay those grants back. Which more or less makes them what I would call "not grants." The plan consists of raising academic requirements for low-income grant eligibility (which is fine) and making it so that if a student in a four year program does not graduate within five years, they have to pay the grants back to the state. I don't know about you, but every low-income college student that qualified for state aid that I've ever known has had to work while in college to make ends meet. Sometimes you can only take 9 or 12 hours because you have to work more to make ends meet, so maybe four years turns into six. It isn't because you're lazy, but rather due to the fact that real life often times interferes with your goals, especially when you're engaged in any sort of social mobility. I understand it is a program that would help, but it helps now, the way it is, without any sort of 'gotcha' punitive measures.

Representative Jim Dunnam was unanimously re-elected as chair of the House Democratic Caucus, which the Dallas Morning News takes as a signal that everything is all better among the Craddick and anti-Craddick D's. I think it just means that there really wasn't any sort of reason for anyone to come out against Dunnam.

The Texas Education Agency has taken the unique step of posting its check register on the net. For those of you who are fans of transparent government, this is pretty great. It will be updated quarterly.

Giuliani had a fundraiser in Houston last night, and he's been hitting the state with zeal in search of presidential campaign dollars. I will admit that he is not the guy I expected to hear a whole bunch about this early on in Texas, but hope springs eternal, I guess. People will say that he is not very palatable to Texans because he is from the northeast, but so was George Bush. If we can get him to clear some brush somewhere, he could lock up the nomination.

An editorial in the Tyler Morning Telegraph mirrors the sentiment expressed by Chris Bell in his Examiner column - the lack of an overarching message about what the Lege is actually going to do is a downer. The argument, more or less, is that partisan politics and large amounts of what the kids call "fronting" has taken the center stage while governance has been relegated to footnote status. The Tyler editorial call for priorities to be set, Bell asserts that the Lege longs for - possibly even yearns for - a central theme. I think a unified theme would require more getting along than everyone is used to, but not necessarily more than is possible this session.

And finally, filed under breaking news from El Paso - Democratic State Senator Eliot Shapleigh begins his "Coffee with Eliot" program today. While this is not as catchy a title as Stramarama, we encourage more legislators to take the extra step to make themselves available to their constituents while providing refreshments.

We'll have more for you today, so stay tuned.