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Today’s stories
ALLEN WEST continues to needle the left both within and outside the GOP. The dunk-on-West-flavor-of-the-week is his position on a growing secession movement in Texas.
Setting the secession issue to the side, West has since June either; shown an uncanny ability to garner earned media or exposed what’s likely a tracking protocol by establishment GOP and its hall monitor narks in the media (h/t Glenn Greenwald).
Either way, continued focus on West is a double-edged sword. Building his name ID on issues like abortion, election integrity, and secession will not have the intended consequences in a GOP primary election.
JOE BIDEN is not as popular as any Republican in Texas, despite what fake news polls may suggest. This is an early indicator that the left will keep beating the “Texas is going blue” drum, but as was the case in 2012 and 2020 that won’t make it true.
DADE PHELAN made considerable changes in the composition of House Committees last Thursday. More transparently than previous iterations, committees appear to be designed for control by loyalty or disfunction.
The powerful Calander Committee is filled with relative legislative infants-toddlers. Would-be challengers to the Speakership like Rep. Four Price and former candidates Morrison and Huberty have been demoted. Simultaneously, former Speaker Dennis Bonnen loyalists like Rep. Burrows and Greg Bonnen have been elevated.
It didn’t take long (less than 24 hrs) for Phelan’s pick to chair the Redistricting Committee to be hit with past judicial rulings noting that he gerrymandered based on race. That’s a no-no, but SCOTUS has greenlit drawing partisan districts, so Rep. Todd Hunter should keep to that.
Though on a much weaker basis, Rep. Briscoe Cain, who’ll be chairing the House Elections Committee, also got the drive-by treatment from the enemy of the people. A member of the Freedom Caucus, Cain traveled to Pennsylvania to work on voter fraud claims following the 2020 election.
Despite an ongoing propaganda campaign suggesting claims of maladministration and fraud in the 2020 election are baseless, the majority of Americans distrust the election and its outcome.
The aforementioned committees (Redistricting, Elections) will pass bills that become law, and there will be lawsuits. Also, this result is agnostic to who heads the committee and legislation that’s eventually passed.
Democrats will sue to try and manufacture wins where they wouldn’t naturally occur; this falls under the nothing new under the sun rule.
Rep. Cain, who’s been mentioned, is one member of the Freedom Caucus to get a Chairmanship; Matt Krause is the other. It’s of a minor committee (General Investigating), but could it be weaponized by Krause if he’s so inclined.
While Phelan elevated members of the House's most conservative wing, he did make an unforced error by appointing one more Democrat to a committee chairmanship than his predecessor. The same or one less would have been closed down as an impactful line of attack.
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