Friday Roundup: CD-22 Is Getting Crowded

Just a few weeks after our launch, Cody Yocom produced some work on Nick Lampson's race in 2008 and looked at who might fill the field in the Republican primary.

State Representative Robert Talton was mentioned several times as a likely contender, and that has come to pass. The Chron and the Star-Telegram have items about Talton's announcement as well as some details about Shelley Sekula Gibbs, who is apparently opening her campaign office this week. Past precedent indicates her staff will be gone by next week. (Zing!)

In other state news, check this out. The Waco Trib published yet another in a long line of editorials hammering Rick Perry about his veto of community college funding. This time they describe his recent overtures to those same colleges about giving them more (reallocated) money in terms that are quite severe:

Gov. Rick Perry is looking like the assailant who tries to wipe a telltale blood stain off the carpet and just makes a bigger blot.

The rest of the editorial is just as entertaining.

Here's a case of someone at TYC doing something that makes sense:

If the Texas Youth Commission decides to authorize more use of pepper spray on juvenile inmates, Jim Hurley is the guy who will have to defend it.

So Mr. Hurley, the agency's main spokesman, decided to get shot in the face with it himself Thursday – in full view of his camera-toting colleagues.

The use of pepper spray as an alternative to what the article calls "physical takedowns" is supposed to decrease injuries. Apparently limbs get broken and the parties involved — including detainees and guards — are both liable to get seriously injured. So TYC is going to rely more on pepper spray, which from the article appears to cause fifteen minutes of incapacitation but not, say, six weeks in a cast. Hurley's idea that people that administer pepper spray should get a dose of the stuff also makes sense.

They say campaigns are a marathon, not a sprint. If that is indeed the case, everyone is in trouble when Lance Armstrong runs for Emperor. He's an endurance athlete! He will pace himself and not spend all of his money 6 months out from Iowa!

Chris Cillizza has a new edition of The Line out, this time examining the lack of GOP Senate candidates and some races where they are likely to be in trouble. If you're anything like me (and if you're reading this, you probably are), an article like this is fun to read.

Finally today, two people that were arrested for wearing anti-Bush shirts to a presidential appearance are getting paid fat by the federal government for their troubles. Apparently, getting tossed nets a settlement of $80,000, which seems like an expensive practice, since the presidential appearance advance manual both recommends the removal of dissenters and the organizing of young Republicans to counteract any negativity. Oh, also: the two people that were wearing the shirts? Republicans.