Hutchison Says Stevens Should Wait To Resign

U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, herself a former indicted felon, has decided that Alaska Senator Ted Stevens should stay in the senate until his appeals run his course or he is returned home by voters:

This jury’s conviction of Senator Ted Stevens is very serious; however, the justice system has not run its course. Every American has the right to pursue a case to the end and he should be accorded that right; no more and no less than any other person.

CAPITOL GOSSIP: Hutchison Throws Hissy Over Which Reporter Will Cover Her Bus Tour

This weekend, we told you about Kay Bailey Hutchison’s audacious stunt for 2010–her bus tour scheduled right in the middle of an election cycle she isn’t even running in.

Now it seems as though The Aging Prom Queen (or at least her campaign) has thrown a bit of a hissy about which reporters are “favored” to cover the tour.

The word flying around the Capitol city this morning is that Hutchison invited the Austin American-Statesman and other Texas papers to send reporters to follow her on the tour.

As told to Capitol Annex, the Statesman advised Hutchison’s campaign that Washington correspondent Jason Embry would be joining the tour, since he was in Houston over the weekend. However, the Hutchison campaign told the Statesman that the invitation was only for Statesman reporter Gardner Selby, and nobody else. Since Selby was not available to cover the tour, the tour is without a representative from the Statesman.

We’ve heard this from several reliable sources, and have contacted a couple more to verify this. We’ll let you know what we hear.

Media Puts Spotlight On Hutchison’s Failed Promises Of Change

Evidently the 2008 elections are just too boring for the MainStream media, because they are skipping ahead to the 2010 elections and putting the spotlight on the broken promises of The Aging Prom Queen, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

The Statesman outlines a litany of Hutchison’s broken promises:

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Hutchison’s SCHIP Vote More In Line With Texas Than Cornyn’s

The Austin American Statesman took a little look at Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s vote on SCHIP reauthorization and expansion this morning:

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“Hold The Elevator” For The Aging Prom Queen

Although her staff denies that Kay Bailey Hutchison requested that a security guard at the Fort Worth Club hold an elevator for her for more than half an hour, it sounds very much like something the Aging Prom Queen would have done (after all, she has smacked people around with notebooks before):

And her time-management efforts got a boost from a security guard who spent more than a half-hour holding one of two elevators at the downtown Fort Worth Club for Texas’ senior senator.

With guests waiting longer than usual for the other elevator in the 12-story building, the guard was curt when asked why he was holding the elevator.

“For the senator,” he said.

“Must be hard to catch an elevator at the U.S. Capitol,” sniped one person in the crowd.

A handful of folks were eventually allowed to use the elevator, and Hutchison arrived to speak to the Rotary Club of Fort Worth about 10 minutes after the luncheon program began. More than five minutes before it was over, the same security guard was again holding an elevator.

Here’s the denial:

Marc Short, a spokesman in Hutchison’s Washington office, said the elevator sentinel was not stationed at the senator’s request.

“We’re only aware of it now that you’re telling us,” he told the Star-Telegram.

Hummm….perhaps the Star-Telegram should have called Hutchison’s campaign office instead of her DC office. I’m betting the campaign office was the one that scheduled the trip anyway.

Kay Bailey Hutchison’s Step-By-Step Guide To Campaigning In Public Schools

Amid the chaos of the redistricting decision and the DeLay case, you may have missed blog coverage of Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rick Santorum’s campaign bible for Senate candidates:

Next week, Republicans will tout efforts to “secure America’s prosperity” through a variety of programs. Plans for small business health insurance pooling, spending reductions, increased domestic oil drilling, and “permanent death tax reform” are all to be pushed at the state level.

Mid-month, Republicans are expected to shift gears, focusing voter’s attention instead on a variety of values-based initiatives. “Democrats oppose preserving a clear definition of marriage, are blocking child custody protections, and have obstructed the confirmation of fair judges,” the document reads. “Republicans are committed to protecting these traditional values by fostering a culture of life, protecting children, banning internet gambling and upholding the rule of law.”

Worse than that, the playbook uses horribly skewed figures on unemployment and tax burden. Even worse, however, is that Senate Republicans are going out touting their successes on stem-cell research.

Earth to Kay: W vetoed that, hon.

The most nauseating thing I found in the report, however, was page 88, which would more aptly be called “Kay’s Guide To Turning Public Schools Into Campaign Stops.”

Consider the idiocy of number three:

3. Call the principal to propose time, date, purpose of visit, and participants.

a. Time of day (try not to disrupt lunchtime)
b. Purpose of visit: Explain what your Member would like to accomplish with the visit (ie: welcome students back to school in an assembly or out in front of school, highlight a grant (new or on-going), meet with teachers, parents, or business leaders to gather information)
c. Participants can include: teachers, parents, students, superintendent, reading or math coaches, business leaders

“Try not to disrupt lunchtime?” Why not “try not to disrupt instruction time with asinine campaign stops” instead?

And, consider these helpful hints for maximizing your school campaign stop:

“Have a media availability”

“It helps to work with the Superintendent’s press and communications office to maximize media coverage.”

…and, don’t forget those model release forms:

“If you plan to invite media to attend the event, it’s important to ask the principal about parental notification and approval for photographers”

You have GOT to be kidding. While I’m sure KBH and Santorum didn’t plan for their playbook to be leaked, you’d think that they would have masked the sheer self-serving nature of the entire thing a little better than via inclusion of a guide to turning public school students into campaign props.

Vote For The Aging Prom Queen!

No, no, I don’t actually want you to vote for Kay Bailey Hutchison. Heaven forbid!

I just want you to go over to Daily Kos and vote in the poll on the best nickname for Kay Bailey Hutchison that appears at the bottom of a story on Hutchison’s ineffectiveness in the Love Field debacle.

I know that I was not the first blogger to use the term “Aging Prom Queen,” [I think that might have been Sean-Paul at the Agonist], but I’ve probably done more to popularize it. So, go vote in the DKos poll and read the article about KBH’s ineffectiveness.

Aging Prom Queen Using Google Ads…

Evidently, not enough people are visiting the Aging Prom Queen’s website, because she’s bought Google WordAds.

Yep. Go to Google and search for “Texas Senate” (note I didn’t say Texas SenatOR), and you’ll find the Aging Prom Queen as the sponsored result, like the one at left at the top of this post.
Just click on the image to make it bigger, and you’ll see the link to “Texans for Kay.”

Aw, doesn’t that sound all sweet and dreamy like? “Texans for Kay…” like you should be tip-toeing through a field of white daisies or something…kind of like how the Aging Prom Queen does her job as a Senator:

Just lackadaisically sashaying through the Halls of Congress and taking a liesurly drive to her Virginia home, occasionally stopping off on K Street to pick up a check from the Lobbyist De Jour.

Like Sands Through The Hourglass…

From NARAL Pro-Choice Texas:

NARAL Pro-Choice Texas volunteers recently helped deliver thousands of hourglass timers to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison to mark the 3rd anniversary of the FDA’s delay in approving over-the-counter status of emergency contraception (EC).  The timers represent that “Texas Women are Waiting” for the FDA to improve access to this important birth control.

Pro-choice leaders in the U.S. Senate are pledging to block President Bush’s nominee for FDA Commissioner until the FDA moves forward with a decision on making EC available over the counter.

The Aging Prom Queen needs to take a big, giant leap out of the 1960s and demand that Texas women have access to this important family planning tool.

Why Is Todd Gillman Whoring For The Aging Prom Queen

This puff piece in the Dallas Morning News on aging prom queen Kay Bailey Hutchison and her new McLean, Va., digs by Todd J. Gillman makes me wonder why Our Esteemed Senior Senator has the Belo Corporation doing her campaigning for her. She ought to be required to report it to the Federal Election Commission as an in-kind contribution.
The piece started out almost okay, noting The Aging Prom Queen was going to be spending more time in her new home outside the Beltway. “Great,” I thought, “more ammo to use against her: “she’s already out of touch so this can’t help.”

Oh, but no. For someone who allegedly covers “Congress and the Texas Delegation,” you’d think Todd J. Gillman could have found someone else to mention in this week’s column but it was all whoring for Hutchison, to wit, here’s what came after the warm fuzzies about her new home:

Despite the hassles of moving, Ms. Hutchison found time last week to score a big legislative win, securing an extra $1.5 billion for Texas, including $611 million for recovery from West Texas wildfires and $650 million for Texas schools that have taken in evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The money is tucked into the Senate version of a massive

$109 billion “emergency” spending bill, with about $66 billion for Iraq and most of the rest for storm recovery. But the victory sets up a potential confrontation with President Bush.

The Senate package is $14 billion more than he wants to spend, and he’s threatened a veto. With public approval ratings in the basement and midterm elections on the line, Mr. Bush is under pressure to placate conservatives by taking a dramatic stand against big spending.

“I did it to protect Texas. I’m a fiscal conservative, but Texas was getting shortchanged,” the senator said.

If she’s disappointed in Mr. Bush for failing to take special care of the state he served as governor, she kept it to herself.

“The president is the president of the United States, and I’m the senator for Texas, and we’re both doing our jobs,” she said.

I think I’m going to vomit: “Despite the hassles of moving, Ms. Hutchison found time last week to score a big legislative win??”
Puhleeeeeezzzzzeeeee! First of all, though I’m sure she packed a few boxes herself (probably until she broke a nail), I’ll bet Kay and Ray hired a moving company. After all, unlike the Middle Class and the rest of the population of Texas not in the top income bracket, she can hire people to do all manner of things for her.

Finally, if she’s so damned talented, moving and getting a little legislation passed shouldn’t be too hard or that much of an accomplishment. It’s not like she’s running a daycare for single unwed mothers and crack babies on the Senate Floor while volunteering for the Salvation Army in between roll call votes or something.

Oh, I’m sure Miz Hutchison’s a busy, busy Breck Girl, sure enough (no doubt Aqua Net-ing the coiffure takes a lot of time), but let’s be reasonable: she should get no special praise for moving and passing legislation in the same week. That’s like saying because you can walk and chew gum at the same time you belong in MENSA.