U.S. Republican Party

Ted Cruz Stands By His Claim That Harvard Law Was Crawling With Pinkos

It's an impressive feat to show up in The New Yorker as a freshman Congressman, and kudos to Senator Ted Cruz for pulling it off. Cruz has been facing widespread criticism for, among other things, his aggressive questioning of Chuck Hagel, President Obama's nominee for Defense Secretary. Jane Mayer ... More >>

Burn It All Down

Buzz looks back on 2012 before the memories go where they belong: up in smoke.

The North Texas Tea Party Says Voting Machines Are Stealing Republican Votes

There's been a lot of talk this election season about the specter of voter fraud, the idea that the polls will be flooded by illegal immigrants, household pets and dead people (all left-leaning constituencies), thereby cheapening real Americans' votes. There has been relatively little concern expres ... More >>

Screw the White House: Let's Focus on Keeping Texas from Becoming Teabagistan

There's a danger in getting too invested in presidential debates and the whole national political saga, gripping as it may be. By turning our faces to bright lights far away, we risk forgetting just how dark things could get here at home in November. The Tea Party is poised to make its ultimate as ... More >>

The Revisionaries Explores the Texas Board of Education's Fight Against Science, History

Fight Over Fracking and Flaming Water in Parker County Hits Snag in Appeals Court

A Parker County man who can ignite a 2-foot flame with gas siphoned from his well water won't get relief in a state appeals court under a law intended to stifle abusive litigation. Steve Lipsky says natural-gas producer Range Resources contaminated his water well with its nearby fracking operations. ... More >>

GOP Party Platform Antagonizes the Sleeping Giant in Texas

Texas isn't really a red state anymore. It just doesn't know it yet. The Hispanic population nationwide grew from 35 million to 50 million over the last decade or so, and 20 percent of that growth was in Texas. Meanwhile, the white bloc that does all the electing around here is no longer a majority. ... More >>

How to Speak Republican: Decoding the GOP

Is There Life After Campaign Blunders Like "Legitimate Rape?" Ask Clayton Williams

It looks like the epitaph of Missouri Rep. Todd Akin's political aspirations are written in a Sunday morning interview on a Fox affiliate in St. Louis. The staunchly anti-abortion, GOP Senate candidate said women rarely get pregnant from rape, a misconception repeatedly disproved in medical research ... More >>

America's Petro-Terrorists

How greedy speculators bought politicians and drove up the price of oil.

Texas Democrats Embrace Marijuana, Which Will Change Nothing Because They're Texas Democrats

When Texas Democrats gathered in Houston last week for their annual convention last week, the mood was glum. Republicans have, after all, held every statewide office since 1994 and, while demographics are likely push the state back into Democratic hands by, oh, 2050 or so, there's not a lot to be op ... More >>

Al Armendariz, Ousted EPA Chief, Stood Up Congress Yesterday, But the Show Went On

Former EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz was the designated whipping boy at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing this week, though it proceeded in absentia. Armendariz totally blew it off, to the supreme indignation of Chairman Ed Whitfield, a Kentucky Republican, and the assemble ... More >>

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison Leads Republicans In Calling For An "Alternative" Violence Against Women Act

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate began debating the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which is largely backed by Senate Democrats, and discussing its Republican alternative, authored by Chuck Grassley of Iowa and our own Kay Bailey Hutchison. In preparation for that debate, Hutchison took to t ... More >>

Perry Thinks Loving Tea Party Means You Can Go Home Again. Oh, He'll Go Home, All Right.

​If Rick Perry still considers himself a candidate for president, then I get to consider him one too. I think I'm justified in remarking on the 180-degree turnabout Gov. Perry has made in his basic worldview since beginning this quest. You remember the original Perry line when it started, right? I ... More >>

Hispanics Not Thrilled With Obama, But They Still Won't Vote For Rick Perry, Study Says

These days it seems as though both political parties are doing everything they can to disenfranchise one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country: Hispanics. While the GOP ratchets up anti-immigrant rhetoric and champions Arizona-style immigration legislation, the Obama administration rac ... More >>

Want to Understand Politics, the Economy, Everything? Follow the Levees.

​Figured it out. I can tell you why the Republicans keep assassinating their own nominees. It all goes back to the Trinity River levees. What? You think I can't connect those dots? Stand back. Right now the GOP rivals are reducing Newt Gingrich to road-kill in Iowa with Super-PAC attack ads o ... More >>

Running Perry, Leppert Up UT/Texas Trib's Poll

Photo by Sam Merten​If anything, the results of an already outdated University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll posted this morning -- outdated in that it features three would-be GOP presidential candidates who've said they aren't running -- more than likely reveal that at least 800 registered-to-vote ... More >>

The public school funding crisis is part of a bigger plan to suck all sense of community out of the country

Democrats! Are you going to let John Wiley Price run your party? Really?

Before Mayoral Candidates Make Issue Out of Political Affiliations, a Look at Who's What

During the 2007 mayoral campaign, former city council member Ed Oakley sent out mailers depicting himself and convicted felon Don Hill as Democrats and Tom Leppert and former Mayor Pro Tem Max Wells as Republicans. Oakley also accepted the endorsement of the Dallas County Democratic Party and printe ... More >>

Despite District Attorney Craig Watkins getting re-elected in 2010, he had a really bad year.

Turnips, Happy Meals and Tainted Eggs: The Year's 10 Biggest National Food Stories

​Food lovers must talk with their mouths full, since there was plenty of discussion of many, many food-related topics in 2010. But a few national stories struck us as most important. Let us know what you think. 1. The food safety bill The massive food safety bill had been left for dead when the ... More >>

Client 9: Investigating Eliot Spitzer's Own Worst Enemies.

Riddle in an Enigma: Puzzled by Austin's Odd Priorities

Taking Shelter From the Storm, Dallas Republicans Are Fired Up in the Palomar

​With a monster show of force, and a little help from the weather, Dallas County Republicans have made their presence known tonight, bringing Central Expressway and Mockingbird Lane to an absolute standstill pulling their Large Vehicles into the Hotel Palomar for their election night cash-bar bacc ... More >>

Pete Sessions on Why He Voted Against Stimulus Bill, Then Asked for Stimulus Funds

​A Friend of Unfair Park forwarded along this Center for Public Integrity round-up of Republicans and conservative Democrats who railed against the the $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ... then asked for stimulus dough anyhow. For our purposes, the piece begins with none other t ... More >>

Local Republican Party Drops Three Grand to Protest President Obama's Visit to Dallas

​While President Obama drops by the Highland Park home of lawyer Russell Budd this evening to raise dough and break bread with local Dems, Republicans are rallying at Franklin Stadium next to Hillcrest High School to ... well, to do what? "It's not just complaining about the Democrats," says ... More >>

A Few Do's and Don'ts Learned During the 2010 Republican Party of Texas Convention

Photos by Patrick Michels​Happy Sunday, Friends! While you were out having a nice, relaxing weekend full of neighbors and sun and beers and loveliness, I was at the 2010 Texas Republican Party Convention having a blast talking about 'Murka and stuff. It was a fun- and camo-filled two days, but I'v ... More >>

Catching Up With Our Favorite George W. Bush Soundalike at the GOP Convention

Sam MertenWe tried to grab Senator Cornyn after this radio interview, but he scampered off to the VIP area before we could snag him.​As Representative Dan Branch told us yesterday afternoon shortly after addressing the delegation from John Carona's senate district, what a difference two years ... More >>

Well, If Rick Perry Says Texas Wants Glenn Beck to Be an Honorary Texan ...

... it must be true. Via Burnt Orange Report, here's some video of Gov. Hairspray and the noted stand-up comic at a town-hall rally in Tyler over the weekend, where Beck and Perry were married by state Rep. Leo Berman. The AP suggests the title of Texan was just, ya know, payback for Beck's intervie ... More >>

GOP County Commish Ken Mayfield Offers Help to a Dem

Republican Ken Mayfield Assists Democrat Beth Villarreal in Attempt to Oust Constable Jaime Cortes

Sam MertenKen Mayfield may not know Beth Villarreal, but she's not Jaime Cortes, and that's enough for him to lend a helping hand in the April 13 runoff between the two Dems.​Nothing whets our political appetite like rumors of alliances between Republicans and Democrats during election season. ... More >>

Debra Medina Delivers Potential "Early Shocker" to Guv Rick and Kay Bailey? Yowza!

Sam MertenDebra Medina in Dallas two weeks ago, after the final GOP debate​Hard to say how seriously to take the results of today's Public Policy Polling press release that says Debra Medina's becoming quite the player in the GOP gubernatorial race; after all, this is the same company that asked A ... More >>

Challenger Eric Johnson Takes the High Road Against State Representative Terri Hodge, But Where Will It Lead Him?

So That's Why Governor Rick Perry Jumped On the Tea Party Bandwagon

Danny FulgencioGovernor Rick Perry​For polling purposes, Rasmussen Reports pretended the Tea Party movement organized as a political party and then tossed it into a ménage with the GOP and Dems. On a generic congressional ballot test using the three parties, 23 percent of respondents to a nationa ... More >>

Houston Mayor Bill White is Running for Governor. Unless He Isn't. We Think.

The Resurrection of Sandy Kress, Part II

​Speaking of old Observer stories ...Back in 2000, now-editor Mark Donald wrote about "The Resurrection of Sandy Kress: Or, how a Democrat and reviled former DISD board president found a happy home pushing 'educational acoountability' for the GOP." Which seems worth a read this morning given yeste ... More >>

The Other Bailout: Donors Spending Big Bucks on Texas GOP This Week

Time Warped

Oh, the Shame

Dem boneheads

Following up

Singing the blues at the courthouse

"Eat My Bush" and Other Likely Signs

Monkey Business

Buzz picks a few nits with the year that was

Groundswell, Sort Of

Richardson stylist mixes politics and hair

Bulworth

Democrat-snatchers invade Dallas

Buzz

Cold embrace; No free ride; Love fest

Buzz

Letters

Buzz

So close, yet so far away

Americans don't understand why Quebec wants to secede