Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

No one could have predicted…

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2014 / Stockman Running (Off at the Mouth) in Texas…

Stockman Running (Off at the Mouth) in Texas…

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Dave Weigel is dismissive:

Texas Rep. Steve Stockman, who made an incredible comeback 16 years after losing his seat and proceeded to become a fount of oddball quotes, will run against Texas Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP primary. The idea of Cornyn as a hopeless squish is fairly new to Tea Party politics, and the fact that Ted Cruz parlayed years of “rising star” buzz into a 2012 primary win does not mean just any chucklehead can win a statewide primary in Texas…

But, Mr. Weigel, Stockman is not just ‘any chucklehead’ — he’s a special, high-octane, they-breed-’em-bigger in Texas chucklehead! In NYMag, Dan Amira explicates how “Steve Stockman Embarks on Senate Campaign With Fusillade of Hysterical Gibberish”:

… Congressman Steve Stockman, the Texas Republican known for his trollish tweets and for inviting Ted Nugent to the State of the Union and for just being wildly unhinged, announced last night that he would mount a primary challenge against incumbent senator John Cornyn.

Cornyn, who is running for his third term next year, has a lifelong American Conservative Union rating of 93 percent — which, for the sake of reference, is 2 percent higher than Paul Ryan’s rating. Nevertheless, we get the feeling from the lengthy anti-Cornyn manifesto Stockman launched this afternoon that he’ll attempt to portray Cornyn as a liberal… In all, Stockman refers to “liberal John Cornyn” a total of 27 times…

Even the horse-race touts at Politico are a little dubious about “Firebrand” Steve:

… Stockman, a far-right conservative who has called for the president’s impeachment, filed for the seat minutes before the 6 p.m. local deadline, confirmed Spencer Yeldell, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Texas. Cornyn, whose $7 million cash-on-hand far outstrips Stockman’s $32,000, is still the heavy favorite, but the latter’s entry into the race could force the incumbent senator to tack farther right as he tries to win over a corner of the party that has recently been skeptical of him.

Stockman’s move shocked Texas political observers: Cornyn had looked poised for an easy March 4 primary contest, where he was set to square off with several candidates with little name recognition. Just 20 minutes before the filing deadline, Texas GOP chair Steve Munisteri told POLITICO that he was “not expecting any recognizable names or people with substantial resources running aside from the senator.”

But Stockman is a highly recognizable name in some circles, and he looks to be a game-changer. The 57-year-old made waves earlier this year when he returned to the House — where he previously served from 1995-1997 — with his calls to impeach President Barack Obama. And he’s not been shy about his other deeply conservative, and sometimes controversial, views on issues ranging from gun rights to immigration. He has also likened Obama to Saddam Hussein and urged America to withdraw from the United Nations…

Tea party types have been angling for a fight with Cornyn, 61, since this fall, when he didn’t back Lone Star State colleague Sen. Ted Cruz (R) in a procedural motion designed to derail funding for Obamacare ahead of the government shutdown. That move led the Senate Conservatives Fund to blast Cornyn as a “turncoat” and enraged conservatives back home…

Politico also says Louie Gohmert decided against risking his lifetime throne as Emperor to the Teabaggers to run against Cornyn, which I guess makes Steve officially dumber than the man whose intellect even Michele Bachmann disrepects. And TPM is already reporting that ingrate Ted Nugent won’t even endorse Stockman (Ted’s probably still a little sore about how the Secret Service treated him at the SOTU).

Since Wendy Davis has announced she’s running for governor, will this encourage Julian Castro (or his brother) to consider running against the battered survivor of this should-be-epic Repub civil war?

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  1. 1.

    cokane

    Skeptical Stockman can put up much of a fight. Btw he wasn’t bred in Texas, moved there in his 30s or 40s after a homeless stint. If the race gets even a tiny bit close, there’s a graveyard of skeletons in Stockman’s closet.

  3. 3.

    maya

    I believe all republican primaries in Texas should be settled by gunfight. Square up, 20 paces, high noon. In fact, they ought to make it a law.

  4. 4.

    Josie

    It’s too late for Julian to run. The deadline for filing is past. I suspect that is why Stockman waited until the last minute to file.

  5. 5.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    The wingers understand so little of how their own government works that they have no idea of the part that seniority plays in Senate committee assignments. Cornyn is, among other assignments, on the Committee on Finance and the Committee on the Judiciary. If they succeed in electing Stockman their new Senator will get seats on the Committee on Flea Abatement and the Committee on Video Games.

  8. 8.

    Fuzzy

    I have heard people who spend time there say “there is nothing dumber than a dumb Texan”. I assume that refer to the majority of voters.

  9. 9.

    ? Martin

    @Fuzzy:

    I assume that refer to the majority of voters.

    Where ‘majority of voters’ = Republicans

    Plan on putting some money down on Wendy Davis in order to change that a bit.

  10. 10.

    Josie

    @Fuzzy: I have spent time here – 70 years, as a matter of fact, and I can attest that dumb Texans are not more or less dumb than people from other states. Dumb is pretty much dumb anywhere you find it.

  12. 12.

    Cassidy

    I am currently watching a show with Texas rapper Riff Raff. So far no one can tell if he’s hip hop’s internet troll or some sort of weird genius. He still makes more sense than these chuckleheads.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    Stockman is a raving crackpot. I’m glad to hear he’ll get a bigger megaphone with a statewide run to more firmly entrench the party brand as the primary political locus of psychopathology.

    Tangent-ish: Is anyone watching “Alpha House” on Amazon? It’s about four GOP politicians rooming together in DC. It’s pretty good but requires a preternatural ability to suspend disbelief since none of the protagonists are completely evil or insane. Well, one seems pretty evil, but only in a vapid fratboy way.

  15. 15.

    Yatsuno

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m glad to hear he’ll get a bigger megaphone with a statewide run to more firmly entrench the party brand as the primary political locus of psychopathology.

    The problem is that may not necessarily be a negative in Texas politics.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    @Yatsuno: Maybe not this year in this election. But I think continuously doubling down on the cray will have negative consequences in the long run. Even in Texas.

  23. 23.

    Little Boots

    this is the party. it’s embarrassing. weigel gets that, but this is the party. and especially a state like texas. but the hispanics are coming, and they’re not raising the confederate flag.

  32. 32.

    MikeBoyScout

    Cornyn, who is running for his third term next year, has a lifelong American Conservative Union rating of 93 percent

    Yeah, but the other 7% of the time he supported giving ObamaPhones to homosexual socialist mooselems so they order vegan pizzas from Benghazi!

  34. 34.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Little Boots:

    So far, there have been plenty of jokes (“The Falcon has left the arena. I repeat, the Falcon has left the arena!”) in trade chat.

    Also comments about Goblin engineers (who specialize in things that go BOOM!) being under heavy scrutiny.

    Barrens chat, I’m afraid, is nothing compared to its heyday back in Vanilla WoW. For mind numbing stupidity, you’ve got to go to trade chat.

  37. 37.

    fuckwit

    when you’re born, you get a ticket to the freak show. when you’re born in america, you get a front row seat. when you’re born in texas, you’re on the damn stage.

  40. 40.

    Cervantes

    @Josie:

    I can attest that dumb Texans are not more or less dumb than people from other states.

    Does Louis Buller Gohmert, Jr. have a counterpart somewhere else?

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