Dem
47
GOP
53
Prominent members of the Texas state government continue to scream very loudly about the Democrats' quorum-jumping. The fact that there are so many words, and yet there is so little action, would appear to confirm that all the threats of arrest warrants and FBI involvement and yadda, yadda, yadda were all just a bunch of hot air.
Texas AG—and aspiring U.S. Senator—Ken Paxton was probably squawking the loudest yesterday. He is in a battle of wills with Beto O'Rourke, who has been fundraising off the situation. At first, O'Rourke was specifically raising money for the quorum-jumpers, but then a Texas court issued a restraining order and told him to knock that off. So, this weekend, O'Rourke shifted to raising money to fight gerrymandering in general. Paxton believes that a couple sentences' worth of O'Rourke's speech at a rally on Saturday violated the restraining order, and so the AG is pushing to have O'Rourke arrested and imprisoned.
Obviously, we understand that Paxton is gunning for a promotion, and so he needs to engage in every possible bit of political theater to show that he's owning the libs. However, we are absolutely certain that O'Rourke would love, love, love to be arrested, as that would make him into a martyr. After two high-profile election losses, he badly wants to get back into the game, and becoming the face of the anti-Paxton resistance would help that cause immeasurably.
Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) also did some fist-shaking and yelling at clouds yesterday. He appeared on the show of CNN's answer to Fox, Jake Tapper, and said that if he really wanted to, he could turn 10 Democratic seats into Republican seats. Undoubtedly, he stopped at five because he's such a kindhearted soul who loves democracy so very much. The Governor also took to eX-Twitter to promise that he would call special session after special session, if he has to, in order to get around the 30-day limit imposed by Texas law. Oh, and he joined Paxton in calling for O'Rourke to be arrested.
And Abbott wasn't the only governor to get on eX-Twitter to perform a little gerrymandering theater yesterday. Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D-CA) press operation, surely with his full approval and participation, posted this:
FINAL WARNING DONALD TRUMP — MAYBE THE MOST IMPORTANT WARNING IN HISTORY! STOP CHEATING OR CALIFORNIA WILL REDRAW THE MAPS. AND GUESS WHO WILL ANNOUNCE IT THIS WEEK? GAVIN NEWSOM (MANY SAY THE MOST LOVED & HANDSOME GOVERNOR) AND A VERY POWERFUL TEAM. DON'T MAKE US DO IT!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.
It's a little hamfisted, but we've seen worse Trump parodies. (Z)