Friday Roundup: Hoodwinked and, possibly, Bamboozled

State Representative Sylvester Turner has been making noise lately, and it isn't the kind of noise the House Leadership likes. This Chron article rightly describes Turner as one of "Tom Craddick's Lieutenants" but then illustrates the source of his current frustration. He feels as if he has been "suckered and hoodwinked." He is mad as hell, and apparently may not take it anymore.

Apparently the problems are largely caused by Craddick's lack of support for things once they get to the Senate. Turner is complaining about it and others have cited that as a possible complication of being pals with the Speaker. I can see how that would be frustrating, but you'd think that after a while you would stop relying on Craddick for support.

From Brussels comes the bad but not unexpected news that climate change due to emissions is already happening. Al Gore was right, apparently, but that didn't stop the various countries from engaging in epic arguments about whether they are "highly certain" or "very highly certain" that the apocalypse is upon us. One expert says they are no longer arm waving and pointing at models. A friend of mine once made the joke that sometimes you see someone in the water, and they're drowning, not waving. I pay attention to as many potential political issues as I can, and the environment is a very serious business. I'm just not sure how you engage in the kind of massive perception shift this problem's solutions will require.

State Representative Leo Berman discovered how politics works the other day, and now he is furious. His bills are going to die in State Affairs because the chair of that committe, David Swinford, plans on killing all the bills that deal with immigration. That includes Berman's plan to deny state benefits to children of illegal immigrants born in the United States, even though that makes them fully-fledged US citizens and is little more than a mean-spirited pursuit which is probably illegal anyways. I'm not sure how Berman plans to get stuff on the agenda that the chairman of the committee has more or less pledged will not be on the agenda, but I guess it is possible.

John Edwards is totally winning the presidential straw poll at Texas Kaos. Now we just need to figure out when we're going to have our primary.

John Murtha has a thing or two to say about all the phone calls he and other Congressional Democrats are receiving about impeaching Bush. He makes the reasonable argument that it may be better for everyone to not take that road, which I'm sure will earn him some ire. I think impeachment is a useful tool for Congressional Democrats to use as their bargaining tool — their answer to the nuclear option — but if public support for impeachment grows significantly, the landscape may change.

Chris Bell, progressive hero and friend of the show, has some great commentary on Patrick's Dollars for Babies bill. Check it at the Examiner.

Finally (and speaking of the Texas primaries, and also of Leo Berman), there's a vibrant discussion going on at the Burnt Orange Report concerning a proposal to make the primaries closed, meaning that you would have to register a party affiliation to vote in that party's primary. Glen Maxey kicked it off by recalling old arguments for similar measures from what you might refer to as "back in the day." As a political professional, I feel like this would be, at the very least, logistically useful. Participate in this worthy discussion here.