Monday Roundup: Confidence

The Senate will have their long-awaited vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today, and it is likely to end up just as you expect. The White House, however, says the vote is meaningless, and sounds as if they will remain unmoved over the gesture. I'm frankly surprised Gonzales hasn't resigned yet; you can only ride fortunately favorable news cycles for so long before something bad happens on a Monday. (Update: The New York Times has it that the efforts may not be successful.)

Speaking of resigning, Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams is out the door on July 1, and the speculation has already begun that he might run for Governor in 2010. With all the speculation about 2008, it is easy to forget that the 2010 midterms are less than four years away. I have heard that Bill White might be thinking of running for Governor, and possibly David Dewhurst. We should have a straw poll immediately.

The immigration test vote turned out bad for everyone in favor of the legislation last week, and now President Bush swears that the bill will happen. I never thought that the marquee redemption opportunity for Bush late in his term would be an immigration bill, but there it is. If you were curious as to what the fallback bill/issue was going to be for the next several months, you have your answer.

The Democrats will be fighting for premium footing on the immigration issue too, as well they should. The New York Times has a piece on the ever-increasing importance of the Hispanic vote to both political parties, and to Democrats specifically. The immigration battle will play an important role in the 2008 elections, and since most Republicans are running to the right of Genghis Kahn on immigration, the territory is there for Democrats to seize.

The Texas Democratic Party statewide tour continued last week, and they had a town hall in San Antonio, which Senate candidate Mikal Watts attended. Watts is hitting some border communities in an effort to solidify (or consolidate?) support. He must have read the New York Times article. He also makes the salient point that 2008 is an ideal time for Democrats to start mobilizing with an eye towards 2010 and the redistricting race, and we agree.

Finally, filed in the will-wonders-never-cease-department: the NRA and Democratic legislative leadership have apparently hammered out a deal on gun control legislation which increases the national background check process for buying guns. They started working on it shortly after the Virginia Tech shootings, and while I doubt the cooperative atmosphere will prevent the NRA from spending lots of anti-Democrat money in 2008, progress in governance always makes me smile.