Wednesday Roundup: Around The Dome In 140 Days

If you find yourself looking for a catch-all rundown of what the Lege did and did not do this session, you will find plenty of stories carrying that sort of cargo over the next few days. I'm sure the bigger papers will have more exhaustive lists in their weekend editions and editorials on Sunday, but AP has you covered right now.

Of immediate note in that list are the smaller-than-promised teacher pay raise, the high school drug tests, the strip club tax, and the Castle Doctrine. There's more, of course, but as the final tally starts to roll in, I expect more and more people to look at the laundry list of what passed versus what failed to live and wonder about the Lege's priorities.

I am not alone in that assessment; for possibly the first time ever, I agree with Rick Perry on something: he feels like the session was a mixed bag, and so do I, although probably for different reasons. Politically, I don't know that it is smart (or particularly engaging) for Perry to cite the budget as his main concern and then talk about it incessantly, but that is more preferable for him than any of his numerous defeats. He says he's "glad that legislators are leaving town so there is time for the wounds to heal," although I wonder to whose wounds he refers.

Other outlets are examining What It All Means as usual. The Star-Telegram's Jay Root ponders what consequences lawmakers' actions will have for them in the upcoming election cycle. We have discussed at length the negative effects that the state leadership's open warfare with itself will have on the party in the short term, and the general consensus seems to be that primary challenges will occur and internal strife will continue, draining the state GOP of enthusiasm, money, and resources.

Charles Kuffner has a habit of breaking out some good old fashioned prognostication about upcoming cycles, but he does something different here when he floats the names of eight GOP State Representatives he would like to see targeted for removal. He admits that they aren't all in swing districts, but he does catalog their session performance and bill authorship as well as giving a short win/might-win/can't-win-but-why-not prognosis.

Scott Henson provides some really thoughtful commentary on the Perry veto of House Bill 770, which would have made it a little easier for ex-cons to get back into voting. I think little-noticed actions like this veto say more about the real differences between the political parties than anything broadly appealing and grandstanded during a stump speech.

In national news, Cindy Sheehan resigned as the leader of the anti-war movement. At least, I keep seeing it written as "Sheehan 'resigned' from her role," though I guess in the sense that she wasn't employed by anyone, she didn't really have anything to resign from. However, she was the iconic face of the movement, and she says she has finally had enough of strife within that movement, what she viewed as disappointments from the Democratic majority, and several other personal issues.

President Bush nominated former State Department Number Two Robert Zoellick to take over the World Bank presidency from Paul Wolfowitz. I think the really hilarious story in the background is that yesterday, Bill Frist took it upon himself to let everyone know he didn't want the job. Thanks, Bill. I know he'd been discussed by some as a possibility, but I wonder if the administration was actually seriously considering him or if he saw an opportunity for some earned media and seized upon it.

Finally, the American Research Group has some new poll numbers out on Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. It looks like in these polls, Clinton has gained some ground and started to solidify her lead somewhat. That's good news for her, and she'll need it ahead of the upcoming books about her, which I thought wouldn't amount to much but which apparently seem to have legs.