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?
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.
Yatsuno
Please. Proceed. Wingnuts. And if Julian ran it would energise that Latino vote, I would hope.
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.
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.
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.
? Martin
@cokane: You say that like the voters are rational, but the cold hard truth is that they’re Texas conservatives.
srv
Where is the Act Blue for Stockman?
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.
? Martin
@Fuzzy:
Where ‘majority of voters’ = Republicans
Plan on putting some money down on Wendy Davis in order to change that a bit.
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.
Ruckus
@Fuzzy:
They supposedly do everything bigger in TX.
It’s nice to see people succeed when they work so hard at something.
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.
mdblanche
Now where are my barrel of popcorn and my pennant that reads “Casualties”?
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.
Yatsuno
@Betty Cracker:
The problem is that may not necessarily be a negative in Texas politics.
drkrick
Apparently Stockman is in search of a new campaign HQ after the last one was condemned. His minions were actually living as well as working there. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/new-texas-senate-candidate-had-his-campaign-hq-condemned-just-last-month
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.
Josie
@Betty Cracker: I agree.
? Martin
@Betty Cracker: Unpossible! Conservatism can never fail! It can only be failed!
cokane
@? Martin: I never said that. I’ll still be proven right though.
Poopyman
@drkrick: He hired cockroaches as staffers?!??
Mike in NC
I once spent three weeks in Texas (Fort Hood) and swear it only felt like three years.
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.
? Martin
@Little Boots: They’re not voting either. Gotta fix that.
Little Boots
@? Martin:
yes, we/they have to fix that. they could sweep out a lot of doofuses that hate them.
PDiddie
The filing deadline was yesterday, so Castro is not making a run.
MikeJ
@? Martin: If we got the Hispanics to vote heavily in ’20, we could take numerous state leges and fix a) voting laws and 2) the gerrymander.
Villago Delenda Est
Moar popcorn needed.
Cornyn is a RINO! Cornyn is a RINO! Pass it on!
Little Boots
@MikeJ:
see? mikeJ, people, not just me.
Villago Delenda Est
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
The Committee On Video Games has become significantly more powerful as reports of NSA forays in to World of Warcraft and Second Life have hit the media.
Little Boots
@Villago Delenda Est:
every video geek is suddenly seeing edward snowden in the mirror.
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!
Southern Goth
@Betty Cracker: Surf the derp, Betty.
Surf the derp.
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.
Ripley
That’s been true for decades.
GregB
Everything is bigger in Texas. Especially the assholes. We’re talking fucking huge.
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.
Mustang Bobby
Wow, I can’t believe I’m the same age as John Cornyn.
Cervantes
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Committee on Video Games
Would that be Defense or Homeland Security?
Cervantes
@Josie:
Does Louis Buller Gohmert, Jr. have a counterpart somewhere else?