Friday Roundup - No Confidence

Yesterday's hearings on the TYC brought about some more unfortunate revelations and ended with a vote of No Confidence in the institution's governing board.

There was yelling, there were tears, and the ire of the special committee seemed evenly split between board members and representatives from the Attorney General's office. The questions about delays in prosecution aren't going to go away, and this is yet another example of Texas' state leadership problems as well as another helping of problems for the state GOP in 2008. Politically, Texas Republican stock is largely in the toilet, and very few of their current problems will be cleared off the desk by the time election season rolls around.

This story is some bad news for Jane Nelson and Kim Brimer — State Representative Vicki Truitt announced she was going to stop using campaign funds to rent a condo from her husband a few weeks ago. This wasn't some moral or ethical plateau reached independently, but rather the result of some soul searching which may have been brought about by an earlier Star-Telegram article about the subject. In February, the Star-Telegram wrote that she had stopped paying rent temporarily to "wait and see" if the Legislature changes the law. Now she's taking matters into her own hands, filing House Bill 3066, which would make the living arrangements of all three legislators illegal. Well, the living arrangements of one legislator, at least — Brimer says he's quit making the payments, and Truitt says so too. You know who's left.

Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht racked up $340,000 in legal fees during the whole Harriet Miers US Supreme Court nomination fiasco, when he was accused of leveraging his office improperly on behalf of Miers. He was cleared of any wrongdoing and now would like the state to pay his defense tab. The main problem here is that he convinced State Representative Tony Goolsby to file a bill providing for reimbursement of fees incurred by a judge who successfully appeals a sanction. The bill would only be effective from January 1, 2006 to January 1, 2008. I have a call in to Representative Goolsby's office for a quote, or possibly an explanation as to how this bill could possibly apply to more than one person. I'll keep you informed.

Hank Gilbert's star is ascendant, as the troubles over the Trans-Texas Corridor inform us. Shortly after his anti-TTC rally last week, news broke that 25 state Senators have signed on to legislation which places a moratorium on the project. It has been a bad couple of weeks for Rick Perry's big ideas.

Things keep getting weirder on the GOP side of presidential politics. Reports are out now that Senator Chuck Hagel will be announcing his candidacy for the White House on Monday, so welcome, everyone, to a field which now includes a pro-choice, pro-gay rights Republican from Manhattan, and now, an anti-war Republican. Hagel could be pretty dangerous if he can raise the money required to play with the big guys, but I don't know that he can. I do know that he's been using the "I" word.

We have a lot to cover today, so this roundup will be a little short. I promise that today will be content rich, so stick around.