As the session nears closing, big things have a habit of happening, sometimes all at once. Yesterday was one of those "all at once" days. For instance, if you were really hoping to vote in a February 5th primary in Texas or to suppress voter turnout by way of the Voter ID bill, your dreams have been dashed.

It is that time again when the primaries are looming large in everyone's minds, and populism is running rampant this week in discussions about the US Senate race. David Van Os sent out a newsletter reiterating a post on his website declaring that "we need a people's candidate" to run against John Cornyn, and I agree. I do, however, question a point that he and others have been making about money.

Winstar Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma is billing Creedence Clearwater Revival. Axl Rose performs Guns 'N' Roses songs without Slash. Mark Wahlberg’s tribute band to Steel Dragon sold out at the processing plant. Apparently, this is a runaway problem — musicians are duping the masses into going to "fake" concerts thinking they are going to get the real thing.

And thus it begins. The Senate has successfully brought debate on the immigration reform bill that's been taking up all of the non-scandal news cycle these days.

As is usual with presidential primary races, the speculation over who will get each party's nomination is rampant, and usually wild. Speculation concerning what it all means is less popular, because that kind of crystal-ball gazing incorporates a ridiculous stack of unlikely assumptions. That being said, I would like to point out what the Houston Chronicle's Clay Robison opines as the only thing approaching certainty: if Senator Clinton wins the nomination, life gets difficult for some of the new Democratic members of the Texas House.

According to a number of witnesses, Senators McCain and Cornyn apparently got into a bit of a verbal slap fight over who knew more about the new immigration bill Congress is presently working on.

Hoping to rally whoever is left in their supporter camp, the White House has threatened to veto a proposed hate crimes bill.

We are very close to the end of the session. In one week, it will all be over but the crying. After a session in which Democrats acquitted themselves very well, it is worth examining who the losers were. In this case, it was the legislative leadership, whose plans were quickly scattered and dismantled.

For this installment of On The Record, we speak with Emily Amps, Chief of Staff for State Representative Paula Pierson.

My political science degree tells me that most polls are useless, and I definitely know that presidential polls a year and a half out from the election mean absolutely nothing. That in no way stops me from enjoying things like this poll from Newsweek, which shows every top-tier Democrat beating every top-tier Republican.