Wednesday Roundup: Classes and Audits

Perry's veto of funding for Texas community colleges is causing him some additional grief. The move had been complained about, loudly, in editorials and letters from community college administrators from all over the state. Now, the Democratic delegation to Congress from Texas is expressing their displeasure over the funding cut and even promising a few moves of their own.

Chet Edwards (a friend of the show) is front and center on it, according to the story from the Midland Reporter-Telegram, and that outlet is covering this because Midland College faces some serious losses as a result of the veto. It may not seem like it up front, but this is the kind of bread and butter issue that, in a political climate combative to Republicans, grows legs and runs.

It looks like the confusion over some recent contracts at TEA finally got bad enough for some oversight to kick in: according to the Dallas Morning News, TEA's processes and methods are going to be scrutinized by some state auditors. Reading the story will make you wonder just how many Rob(ert) Scotts can work for one agency, anyways.

Boy, John McCain had a bad day yesterday — first he has the campaign meltdown in which one of his oldest advisers and pals takes a powder. Then, as Politico outlines, he got into it with Voinovich over the war. In a bad way. In a terrible, no good, very bad, screaming kind of way. Its all gotta be getting to him, but that doesn't explain his dogged determination to hang on to his position on Iraq. Is it triangulation or does he really buy it?

Joe Biden will tell you something he is not buying, in no uncertain terms — he got a little aggro with a reporter in Cleveland recently who asked him how he felt about being lumped in with Dennis Kucinich. You really have to read the bit for yourself, but it reads like someone may have been close to getting slugged.

Bush seems to keep having bad days himself, lately. Monday it was subpoenas (again) and Gonzales (again). Yesterday it was his first Surgeon General, who has hit the Reuters wire with tales about how he was hushed up by the administration on issues pretty close to his job. Like stem cell research, maybe?

Cindy Sheehan was in Houston yesterday. She's on tour in the middle of what I can only appropriately describe as an ill-advised campaign against Nancy Pelosi. (And by that, I mean, for Pelosi's congressional seat.) I would say that if the peace movement burned her out, I can't imagine how she'll feel at the end of a Congressional campaign.

Lastly, the Pope got a little rowdy recently and declared Catholicism as the only true faith that can deliver you to eternal life, etc and so forth. This might make some meetings with other religious leaders over the next few months a little uncomfortable.