Friday Roundup: Merry Old England

Gromer Jeffers has some coverage on Rep. Kirk England's press conference concerning his decision to switch parties yesterday, and some GOP reaction.

England points to the GOP leadership as his primary motivator for the switch, and even his father, a former mayor of Grand Prairie, had a thing or two to say about it.

Mr. England's father, Grand Prairie Mayor Charles England, a Republican, sat with him during the news conference.

"They thought they could control how Kirk voted on all issues," said the older Mr. England.

He said many in the England family are Democrats, including the lawmaker's grandmother.

"My 94-year-old mother is a yellow dog Democrat," he said. "She's a happy camper today."

From what we know about Craddick's leadership style and many other state house Republicans, we can guarantee that statement to be true. Yesterday's inbox was full of well-wishes and welcomes from various Democratic officials. From BOR comes the welcome from Democratic Caucus Chair Jim Dunnam; TDP Chairman Boyd Richie's welcome is here. This switch — including how Rep. England meshes with other Democrats — is a story which will be an enduring tale as we roll headfirst into the primaries.

One man who is not retiring from the Texas House and who, as of yet, is not changing parties: Republican Dan Flynn, from Van. I guess it's just a campaign announcement for an incumbent, but in this age of retirements and crossovers, it has the (entirely coincidental) feel of "Oh yeah? Well I'm running again, how about that?"

Speaking of Republicans, here's an article from the Los Angeles Times that I thought was particularly interesting. Ronald Brownstein asks: if Democrats captured moderates and independents so effectively in 2006, why are Republican presidential candidates running to the right now? They have some noise about how they are creating a dichotomy between a change to the left and a change to the right because America wants to go farther right. Science shows that isn't true:

A major survey of American attitudes released earlier this year by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, for instance, found that since the mid-1990s Americans have grown warmer toward activist government, less inclined to believe that the best way to ensure peace is through military strength rather than diplomacy and somewhat less likely to hold conservative views on social issues.

See?

Oh man, Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens is having a bad couple of weeks that don't seem to end: the FBI was rolling tape when he talked to some people that maybe he shouldn't have. The Politico has more.

You may have heard about some recent ads about General Petraeus put out by MoveOn.org and the resulting hubbub in which even many Senate Democrats asserted that they'd gone too far. If you'd like a rundown of where that whole ordeal stands, the Washington Post has one ready for you.

Newsweek's Michael Hirsh has a thing or two to say about Blackwater, the role of private security firms, and how Bush administration policies led to what he calls "a moral vacuum in Iraq." I was aware that the contractors were immune to court martial and prosecution under Iraqi law, and I knew those provisions were potentially disastrous. The extent of the damage those allowances have caused are as yet unseen.

Lastly today, the Washington Post has gone pseudo-wiki and started collecting political terms for an online glossary. If I were in charge of marketing, I would call it "The Politictionary." This is why I didn't go into marketing.