But this piece goes way beyond that, which is why I tweeted today that it was a “Hilarioius attempt to dismiss Straus’ effect on 2010 elections”. This time, Evan, who writes the most excellent PerryvsWorld blog and is a professional in the field, and way smarter than me at these things, takes exception to my use of the word “hilarious” because he agrees with the thought that it was a national referendum. As I’ve noted before, I don’t disagree with that but I do think that you have to attribute SOME measure of the gain of 25 to Speaker Straus, if for no other reason than the FACT that he funded many of those winners. And of course the anti-Straus forces attack him for that too!
Back to the ET post:
Of course, this statistical tomfoolery ignores that Speaker Straus did a fundraiser for a Democrat (Patrick Rose) being challenged by a Republican (Jason Isaac) – in a race the Republican won. Or that Speaker Straus refused to endorse any Republican challenging a Democratic incumbent.
Actually, it isn’t true that Speaker Straus held a fundraiser for former Rep. Rose – he attended one. But don’t let facts get in the way of a good story, right? And it is true that Speaker Straus kept his word and did not campaign against incumbent Democrats that had supported him in 2009. How un-true-Christian is that? Keeping his word and all. Shame on him. Doesn’t he know that “true-Christians” aren’t supposed to keep their word if their word gets in the way of victory? Oh, he isn’t a Christian? The heck you say! Then why is he the only one acting like a Christian is supposed to? But I digress.
But what about the rest of the story? If we are going to talk about Speaker Straus attending a fundraiser for one guy and not campaigning against a few others, why not talk about Craddick’s record? After all, this blog post is the definitive answer on why I’m wrong to say:
Scoreboard: Straus 25, team trying to replace him -12.
I just like putting it on a separate line like that. Sorry.
Okie-dokie, let’s see now. What did Tom Craddick and team do for D’s and R’s in 2008? Did Craddick attend a fundraiser? Not campaign against D’s?
Why I’ll be doggoned! And dadgummed! Nope, that ol’ boy didn’t just attend a fundraiser, HE FUNDED 5 DEMOCRATS TO THE TUNE OF $170,000 in 2008 alone.
So not only didn’t he not campaign against D’s, he campaigned for and financed them!
Let’s reset. Speaker Straus pours money into Republican coffers, Republicans make huge gains in the state. Speaker Craddick pours money into Democratic coffers, Republicans go backwards. But Empower Texans chooses to lecture me on correlation vs. causation rather than step back and take a look at the whole picture. Evan, that is why I said:
Hilarious.
Scoreboard: Straus 25, team trying to replace him -12.
{youtube}WZ3unYmLGzo{/youtube}