Rick Perry vs World

26 April 2007

AG rumors on JC and AG

There's rumors flying about that suggest John Cornyn will be appointed the new AG when Alberto Gonzales resigns.

I've never been convinced that Gonzales was going to resign, and I think right now that the odds are slightly in favor of Gonzales sticking around.

Bush isn't the sort of president who is going to dump one of his longest serving and favorite aides. If he does so, he's encouraging Democrats to go after other targets. Plus, ramming through confirmation of the next Attorney General would just be a huge distraction. This news story can't stay alive forever, despite the best efforts of the Senate [as Michael Barone notes, the whole flap is best viewed as a power struggle between different branches of government.]

And as for the rumors that Perry steps down in order to become Senator? Who makes this stuff up? [And why did Harvey publish it?] Maybe I misread Perry, but I see precious little to indicate that he's the kind of guy who wants to go hang around DC in the Senate.

Posted by Evan @ 04/26/07 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

Comparable worth = Yikes.

Like many people, I find Barack Obama's personal story quite compelling. His public posture and candor are refreshing. Were I a voter who didn't care about issues, I'd probably vote for him.

However, I do care about issues, and Obama is essentially a socialist on economics. To wit, Obama has basically endorsed "comparable worth."

Mickey Kaus takes that down:

Obama has apparently just endorsed one of the worst ideas of Carter era liberalism, "comparable worth," which would have lawyers and judges deciding what every job is "worth" according to some bureaucratic, non-market criteria that would inevitably punish "unskilled" manual work--i.e, the very workers who are screwed the most by globalization. Are truckdrivers really paid too much?

Meanwhile, Michael Barone piles on.

In case you don't know what comparable worth is, it's an idea concocted by feminists in the 1970s or early 1980s. They said that jobs typically held by women pay less than jobs typically held by men. To eliminate this inequity, somebody–the courts, maybe, or some administrative agency, presumably with appeals to the courts–should decide what those jobs were really worth, based on some sort of convoluted criteria. So that it could be possible to prove that secretaries were of comparable worth to truck drivers and should be paid the same wages.

Earth to Obama: There's something out there called the labor market. Employers are setting wages to get the kind of workers they need. Employees volunteer to work at those wages–or seek better-paying work elsewhere. Listening to Fox News on satellite radio, I hear commercials run by truck companies seeking drivers and bragging about how much they pay. That's the labor market at work. The companies have jobs to fill, and they're offering more money to attract workers, presumably many of them working for other truck companies. I suppose many truck drivers have satellite radio (which proves they're paid well above the minimum wage) and that the companies think running ads on satellite radio homes in on the kind of workers they're seeking.

Comparable worth would subject the private-sector economy to the equivalent of the federal civil service system. Bureaucrats would have to classify every job, with their classifications subject to administrative and judicial review.

The best thing you can say about Obama's policy is that he has Austan Goolsbee advising him right now. Faint praise.

Posted by Evan @ 04/26/07 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

The Case for Fred Thompson

I've been drafting an op-ed column -- "The Case for Drafting Fred Thompson" -- that I plan to try to get published.

I have a bit of a unique point of view, in that I was one of the first people to suggest that we should draft Fred Thompson to run for president. Evidently, since I first blogged about it on October 26th, plenty of other people feel the same.

My tone is rather Peggy Noonan-ish, or at least it feels like it to me. That's certainly a change for me; I tend towards the tight, structured essays rather than conversational exposition. I didn't plan it that way, so the column might be terrible. It's also probably a bit harder to get published with a conversational tone as an unknown writer. But sometimes it writes itself.

Update: My dad likes my column!

Posted by Evan @ 04/26/07 10:19 PM | Comments (0)

23 April 2007
Yikes.

Worst sentence I've read in the Wall Street Journal in a long time:

Immigrants also are starting to move in big numbers into the Deep South, where they could upend longtime Republican strongholds.
That lacks historical perspective, to put it mildly.

Posted by Evan @ 04/23/07 05:59 PM | Comments (0)

Reason interviews Rauch

Reason Editor Nick Gillespie interviewed National Journal writer Jonathan Rauch. It's a great read, plus it contains a phrase I really wish I'd written:

In a world in which political discourse tends to veer from insane overstatement (think Ann Coulter) to plodding conventionalism (David Broder) to barely disguised partisanship (Paul Krugman)
Genius.

Plus, there's this:

reason: You have a favorite bit of advice to younger people, don't you?

Rauch: Don't go to law school unless you want to be a lawyer.

reason: That would thin the herd pretty quickly, wouldn't it?

Rauch: Yeah, it sure would.

reason: That might be the most powerful reform idea that you have.

Rauch: I was going to say you could probably dump the whole rest of the interview and just print that.
I suppose you could also simply allow people to be lawyers if they pass the bar, rather than requiring law school.

Posted by Evan @ 04/23/07 09:34 AM | Comments (0)

19 April 2007
Brooks on Talton

DMN's Karen Brooks profiles Rep. Talton:

Mr. Talton is a 14-year lawmaker from his native Pasadena. A lawyer with a history in family law and criminal defense, he was once a House leader who worked to help put Mr. Craddick into the speaker's seat.

When he was elected in 1992, he was the first GOP representative in a district that had been historically Democratic. He has designs on Tom DeLay's old congressional seat, though he hasn't decided if he's going to run for it.

Mr. Talton is one of the Democrats' most valuable players this session, a self-appointed enforcer in the wake of the divisive fight to unseat Mr. Craddick. He has delayed and crippled bills by at least four House committee chairmen – Democrats loyal to Mr. Craddick – and has hammered a couple of GOP chairmen as well. He acknowledges that he's got a hit list, and the thought makes him smile.

If Talton thinks he's going to win a congressional seat by aligning himself with Dunnam and Burnam, I think he's mistaken. Truth be told, he was never really a front runner, but less so now. He might want to stick to running for re-election in his relatively swing district in Pasadena.

Posted by Evan @ 04/19/07 02:44 AM | Comments (2)

Follow the money: 77010, 77046, and 77056

One of the big donor zip code -- 77056, and a couple of the smaller ones. The big one I still haven't done is 77024, which is Memorial.

77010 is a downtown Houston zipcode.
James Bryan -- 2300 Giuliani, indie oil exploration.
James and Molly Crownover -- each maxed to Romney. he's chair of the Rice University Board of Trustees and former McKinsey partner.
Courtney and Robert Hopson -- Fayez Sarofim Co., wealth management
Arthur Nathan -- 2300 McCain. Haynes and Boone lawyer
Ed Rhyne -- 2100 Romney. Haynes and Boone lawyer.
Fayez Sarofim -- 2100 to Romney, 2300 to Giuliani. He works for -- you guessed it -- Fayez Sarofim Co.
Ralph Thomas -- 2300 McCain, Fayez Sarofim.

77046 is Greenway Plaza.
Gary Rosenthal -- 2100 Romney, Sterling Group, a private equity fund.
Mike Rutherford -- 2100 Giuliani, indie oilman
Doug Schnitzer -- 2100 Giuliani, Senterra Real Estate
Neil Tofsky -- 1000 Bill Richardson, Senterra
Gene and Astrid Van Dyke -- he's an indie oil man, Vanco Energy
Ed Wulfe -- 2100 McCain. real estate developer, major light rail proponent.

77056 -- Galleria and Tanglewood
Daryl Anderson -- 2300 Romney, Fulbright partner.
Thomas Allen -- double maxout to Hillary. lawyer.
Kathy Bracewell -- 2100 Giuliani. I assume that's a Bracewell and Giuliani connection.
Carole Bailey -- double max out to Hillary. wife of trial lawyer.
Chester and Margaret Benge -- both max to McCain. he's head of a drilling rig co.
Lloyd Bentsen -- 2300 Hillary. presumably this is III.
Ed Cummins -- 2000 Giuliani. real estate broker.
Michael Capellas -- 2300 Obama former Compaq/MCI CEO
Don Clark -- 2300 Edwards. trial lawyer
Jay Comeaux -- 2300 McCain, head of Stanford Group Houston office; wealth management.
Denis Debakey -- 2300 Giuliani, New York Life
Jonathan Godshall -- 2000 Richardson, renewable energy
Mark and Debra Grierson -- 2100 each Giuliani; he's in employee benefits consulting
James Glanville -- 2300 McCain, real estate broker
Sylvia and Titus Harris -- both double maxed out to Giuliani. he's in investment, she in sales training.
Charles Herder -- max to Romney. real estate broker.
Patrick Haines -- 2300 Edwards. trial lawyer
Bruce Hotze -- 1000 Brownback. one of the Hotze brothers.
David Jones -- 2300 Romney. Dini Partners; fundraising consultants.
Walter and Yvonne Johnson -- both maxed to Romney. he's at Amegy Bank.
John and Jennifer Ligums -- both maxed to Giuliani. he's at Centaurus Energy, the hedge fund started by former Enron star trader John Arnold.
Kase Lawal -- 2300 Hillary. energy services company
Ralph Mcelvenney -- double max out to Giuliani. appears to be indie oil man.
Gary and Elizabeth Peterson -- both double maxed out Giuliani; he's in energy private equity.
Raymond Plank, 2300 Giuliani, chairman of Apache Corp.
Dan Pickering -- 2300 Romney. energy analyst
James and Beverly Postl -- 2300 to Hillary, Obama, and Edwards. he's former Pennzoil CEO.
Joseph Pyne -- 2300 Hillary. oil barge company
Gordon Quan -- immigration lawyer and former Houston City Councilman gave $500 to Hillary.
Thomas, Michelle, John, James, Anna, Isla, and Margaret Reckling -- this family did lots of maxing out to Giuliani.
David Saperstein -- 2100 to Romney and Giuliani, investment firm Five S Capital.
Robert and Elizabeth Snell -- each maxed to Romney. he's with Spinnaker Exploration
Robert Sonfeld -- max to Giuliani. lawyer.
Richard Stone -- 2300 Romney. Homebuilder.
Diana Strassmann -- 2300 Hillary. She's a feminist economist at Rice.
Dick and Kathy Vermillion -- 2100 each to Giuliani. he's in oilfield services.
Ann Witt -- 500 Tancredo. Former HD137 candidate.
Robin Young -- 2300 Edwards.

Posted by Evan @ 04/19/07 02:18 AM | Comments (1)

Follow the money: 77005

Paul Burka (and contributors) have a series running over at BurkaBlog detailing the 08 Texas presidential donors. I'm going to add to it.

Mimi Swartz covers Houston zip codes 77002 (main downtown), 77019 (River Oaks), 77006 (Montrose, area south of east part of River Oaks) and 77027 (north of 59, east of 610, west of Greenway plaza, south of bayou. yes, that's the best description of it I can come up with).

Let me add some ZIP codes worthy of mentioning: 77005 (West University, Rice, Southampton. Has been the biggest Dem donor ZIP code in the state in some recent cycles), 77024 (Memorial), 77056 (Galleria), 77057 (Tanglewood), 77010 (other downtown), 77046 (Greenway Plaza), 77401 (Bellaire), 77079 (farther west Memorial; Energy Corridor).

77005 (note, max out = 2300. double max out = 4600, meaning that they maxed out for both the primary and general)

Sufi Ahmad -- 2300 John Edwards. trial lawyer.
Edward Allen -- $4600 Obama, double maxout. mutual fund manager.
David Baldwin -- $2300 Romney. energy investor; SCF Partners
Paul Bragg -- $2100 Giuliani, former Pride CEO; energy.
Peter Brown -- 1000 Giuliani, 500 Romney, 500 McCain, 2300 Obama. Interesting donations from the liberal Houston city council member. wife Anne maxed out to Obama.
Shane Battier -- $2300 Obama. New Rockets forward is one of the most underrated players in the NBA.
Lou Black -- $2100 Edwards, trial lawyer.
James Blackburn -- $2300 Obama, lawyer.
Christina Bryan -- 2300 Obama. Looks like she went to Harvard Law with the first black editor of Harvard Law Review (Obama).
Hunter and Cameron Kraft -- each $2100 to Edwards. trial law
Josh and Stephanie Davis -- each maxed to Romney. investment banking.
Bradley Dodson -- oil services. 2300 Romney.
Marcela Donadio -- 2300 Giuliani, Ernst and Young energy acct.
Mark Dannenbaum -- double maxout to McCain. radiologist.
Charles and Monica Eskridge -- both maxed to Giuliani. he's a SusmanGodfrey lawyer.
Kristan and Robert Gauntt -- 2100 each to Giuliani. he's in wealth management for Avalon Advisers.
David and Windi Grimes -- 2100 each to Giuliani. he's an indie oilman.
Sandra Godrey -- 2300 Hillary.
Charles Harris -- 2300 Giuliani -- investment banker.
Stephen King -- ran for CD25 in 2004 as a Dem. double maxout to Obama.
Kevin Lilly -- maxed to Giuliani. wealth management for Avalon Advisers.
Sylvia Mayer -- Weil Gotshal. double max out to Giuliani.
David Matthiesen -- 2300 Obama. lawyer
James Moriarty -- double max Hillary, 1k John Edwards. lawyer
Anthony and Cynthia Petrello -- 2100 Giuliani, 2100 Romney each. he's the COO at Nabors -- drilling rigs.
James Robertson -- 2300 Obama. lawyer
Amie and Jeff Springmeyer -- he owns a geographic seismic data company. each maxed to Romney.
Larry and Celia Veselka -- he's a lawyer. 2300 each Hillary.
Scott Wulfe -- 2300 Romney. Vinson and Elkins lawyer.
Jimmy Williamson -- 2300 Edwards. lawyer
John Wisneski -- 2300 Edwards. lawyer
Mark Yzaguirre -- 2300 Hillary. lawyer
Adam Zylman -- 2300 Romney; energy investor
Steven Zager -- max out Obama. AkinGump lawyer.

Posted by Evan @ 04/19/07 12:39 AM | Comments (0)

18 April 2007
Hizzoner's prizoblem

Pollster David Hill:

Crime has been creeping back into the public consciousness for the past year or so, a fact that Gallup acknowledged in the same discussion that discounted the issue's relevance for 2008. The nation's most visible pollsters observed that "over the last two years, Americans have become more pessimistic about the level of crime in the United States."

That's some bad news for Bill White's political ambitions.

Posted by Evan @ 04/18/07 02:51 PM | Comments (0)

15 April 2007
Friedman: What's happening to Imus isn't right

Kinky Friedman pens a defense of his friend Imus in the New York Post.

Political correctness, a term first used by Joseph Stalin, has trivialized, sanitized and homogenized America, transforming us into a nation of chain establishments and chain people.

Take heart, Imus. You're merely joining a long and legendary laundry list of individuals who were summarily sacrificed in the name of society's sanctimonious soul: Socrates, Jesus, Galileo, Joan of Arc, Mozart and Mark Twain, who was decried as a racist until the day he died for using the N-word rather prolifically in "Huckleberry Finn."
Where was the "de-wussification of New York" phrase? I was definitely hoping to see that.

Posted by Evan @ 04/15/07 05:16 PM | Comments (1)

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