Wednesday Roundup: All-Nighter Nail-Biter, Senate Edition

If you enjoy a little bizarre mixed in with your politics, you will enjoy all the pictures of cots and pizza boxes from last night's all-night Senate slumber party. Senate Democrats decided enough was enough, and that the time had come to hammer something out on Iraq. DID IT HAPPEN? Politico has a chronology from the evening's events.

In news on the Texas Railroad Commission, Commissioner Michael Williams was elected as chair by the other two members. Sure, sure, he's been the chair in the past and this isn't that big of deal, but I will tell you: his fundraising totals for last quarter is. Gardner Selby has it that Williams has around $400,000 in the bank, and he raised more than $300,000 of that in the last thirteen days of June. That's formidable, and someone should keep an eye on him. Nobody raises money like that unless they're going to run for higher office.

Another item that someone should keep an eye on: I don't want to sound alarmist, but does it bother anyone else that the guy who used to be in charge of running elections is now going to be running the GOP '08 Campaign? I know this isn't breaking new ground in the public/political job shuffle, but still.

Some other fundraising numbers are in: Francisco Canseco, the guy running for the GOP nomination for Congress in Ciro's District has loaned himself over a million dollars so far, according to the Dallas Morning News. Ciro's seat is among many that are going to be targeted this time by the GOP, but I'm curious as to why Canseco is having problems raising money - his reports have only 22 donors giving him around $30,000. It might be worth asking around about.

In national politics, Adam Nagourney says McCain shouldn't be blamed for running his campaign off the rails. After all, the Republican Party Magic Eight-Ball pointed very strongly to YES that McCain was going to win the nomination and that the money would be there to field his juggernaut of a campaign. So, sorry about that paradigm shift in your party, Senator.

On the other side of things, the Washington Post draws a tidy comparison between Dean's rollicking campaign in 2004 and Obama's run today. Dean had an army of zealots and plenty of dough, but he failed to turn that into broad, substantive support from anything other than the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party. Obama's constituency isn't exactly the same as Dean's DFA army, but they look and feel quite similar. The test Dean failed was the biggest one, and some would say the only one: winning. It's an interesting read.

City government is important, because bills have to be paid. When the bills aren't paid, things like this happen. Politics matters. Fort Worth Weekly brings you a story about the city of Fort Worth getting their final notice on some housing projects.

Finally today, a little bit of irony: Governor Perry cautions the UIL to chill out on steroid testing until they are absolutely sure the system will work, and yet the system which tracks and organizes the state's voter and election data doesn't work. And there's some other stuff that doesn't work, either. I usually rise above this sort of thing, but sometimes you must stare into the abyss: Heckuva job, Perry. Heckuva job.