PrairiePundit

John Fund: The Perry Indictment’s Predecessor   A similar crusade against Kay Bailey Hutchison crashed 20 years ago. Hutchison got a change of venue and a speedy trial to upset the Democrat DA's scheme. The Wall Street Journal editorial page also has a devastating piece attacking the indictments and the Democrats responsible for it.

This is a simple little video, but that is its strength.  She nails many of the items Obama has put off limits in his "all of the above" energy policy.  Urge others to watch this.

She explains the flaws and offers suggestions on a better way to grow the economy.

Sen. Hutchison has 80 cosponsors for her bill to make sure the military is paid.

Image via Wikipedia Houston Chronicle: Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison announced today that she will retire at the end of her current term, quashing speculation that she would run for a fourth full term in the U.S. Senate. In an open letter to Texans, Hutchison said she wanted to live "full-time in Texas with my family" and was "forever grateful for the privilege of working for you in the United States Senate." Hutchison's announcement will set off a wild scramble for the Senate seat the Dallas Republican first won in a 1993 special election against interim Sen. Bob Krueger , D- New Braunfels . ... Former Texas Comptroller John Sharp and former Houston Mayor Bill White are potential Democratic prospects. Republicans who have expressed interest in the seat include Secretary of State Roger Williams, Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, Railroad Commission Elizabeth Ames Jones and state Sen. Florence Shapiro . Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhur...

Image via Wikipedia The Hill: Several Texas conservatives are vowing to make Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) pay for her primary challenge to popular Republican Gov. Rick Perry . The four-term senator hasn’t announced whether she’ll run for reelection, but, no matter her decision, Tea Party activists are preparing to run their own candidates. Because of that, GOP activists and strategists suspect retirement will prove the more attractive option for the senator. Hutchison lost a contentious primary to Perry in March, and her decision to challenge the sitting governor saw her go from one of the state’s most popular politicians to someone struggling for favor within her own party. Austin-based Tea Party activist Dean Wright said he anticipates as many as six to eight candidates challenging Hutchison from the right if she attempts to stick it out in 2012. “She’s burned some bridges,” Wright said. “And she hasn’t embraced the grassroots.” When asked for comment, Hutchis...

R.G. Ratcliffe: U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will announce this morning that she plans to complete her term rather than resign early as she had planned, sources told us. Hutchison had wanted to make the announcement in Dallas, but U.S. Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky were planning to be in San Antonio today for a National Republican Senatorial Committee fundraiser so the event was set for this morning at Landmark Aviation. Hutchison, who was first elected to the Senate in a special election in 1993, won re-election to a third full term in 2006. Her term runs through 2012. ... I am not surprised. I am sure her colleagues are happy to have her stay, but I was really looking forward to having Michael Williams take her place. I guess that will have to wait for a couple of years.

Houston Chronicle: Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is getting some GOP pressure to change her mind about resigning her seat, but a close friend predicted Wednesday that her decision will hinge on whether she can balance her service with what is best for her young children. Hutchison was not talking Wednesday, the day after losing her GOP primary challenge of Gov. Rick Perry. A spokeswoman, who turned down a request to interview her, said she was in Dallas. Hutchison's future was a hot topic in political circles: Her decision will affect the fate of ambitious politicians and come into play as the GOP maps its strategy for gaining more U.S. Senate seats this year. It also could hand a juicy plum to Perry, who would appoint her successor pending a special election. “My pitch to her would be that … it's in the best interest of the state and the best interest of the Republican Party and in her best interest to stay in the Senate for a while,” said John Cornyn, Texas...

ABC News: When Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison signaled she was challenging fellow Republican Rick Perry for governor of Texas shortly after the 2008 election, the conventional wisdom was that the veteran senator, who has won all her elections with at least 60 percent of the vote, might pose a real threat to Perry, who was re-elected four years ago with just 39 percent of the vote. But a funny thing happened on the way to this Lone Star shoot-out: Perry, who enjoys the support of Sarah Palin , effectively nationalized the race and turned Hutchison's Washington experience against her. The incumbent governor has fared so well, in fact, that Texas Monthly Magazine recently floated the prospect that he might run for president in 2012 . "We all know the old line that all politics is local," Wayne Slater, a veteran political reporter for the Dallas Morning News, told ABCNews.com's "Top Line" on Monday. "This year, it seems that politics is really national....

Dan Balz of the Washington Post looks at the difficulties Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is having gaining traction in her primary campaign against Gov. Rick Perry. I think it is actually a pretty fair report on both. He notes that Sen. Hutchison has the endorsements of most of the GOP heavy weights, Other than Sarah Palin who endorsed Gov. Perry. She also has all the major newspaper endorsements. But as the latest polls show Perry closing in on 50 percent, those endorsements do not look that important. As I have noted before, they just do not have that big an impact when both candidates are so well known. The election is Tuesday.

Rasmussen Reports: Just days before Texas Republicans pick their nominee for governor, incumbent Rick Perry has his biggest lead yet. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Republican Primary voters finds Perry leading Senate Kay Bailey Hutchison 48% to 27%, with Tea Party activist Debra Medina earning 16% of the vote. Nine percent (9%) of Texas GOP voters remain undecided. At the beginning of the month , Perry lead 44% to Hutchison’s 29% and Medina’s 16%. In September , just after Hutchison traveled statewide to announce her candidacy for governor, she posted a 40% to 38% lead over Perry, but that was the high point of her support which has been declining ever since. Early voting has already begun in the primary which wraps up on Tuesday. Turnout is often difficult to project for primaries, but among those who say they have already voted, Perry has earned 49% support, while Hutchison and Medina have picked up 24% and 20% respectively. ... Perry has taken advantag...

Public Policy Polling: Debra Medina is fading in the Texas Republican race for Governor, and it continues to look like the contest is headed for a runoff where Rick Perry will be a strong favorite over Kay Bailey Hutchison. Perry leads with 40% to 31% for Hutchison and 20% for Medina. Compared to PPP's look at the race two weeks ago Perry has gained a point, Hutchison has gone up three, and Medina's standing has declined by four. Unless Perry wins the remaining undecideds by an overwhelming margin and/or peels off more of Medina's support it looks like he won't get to the 50% needed for an outright victory next week. But he leads Hutchison 52-35 in a potential runoff thanks in large part to Medina's supporters, who say Perry is their second choice by a 52-24 margin. It's been a rough couple of weeks for Medina's standing. Her favorability spread in the previous poll was 40/9 for a +31 net positive. Now she's at 36/30 for a net positive of just +6. A 25 p...

NY Times: ... ... the political winds have shifted for Ms. Hutchison in the last few months, and she now finds herself far behind in the polls, as Mr. Perry has managed to surf a wave of anger here over President Obama ’s policies. Never has a race for governor in Texas so clearly defined the difference between the country-club wing of the Republican Party, where elite business leaders sit astride the financial engines of Dallas and Houston, and the populist Reagan Republicans, talk-radio-fueled voters who are upset about issues like budget deficits, gun control and legalized abortion. ... Ms. Hutchison, who was first elected to the Senate in 1993, has rallied most of the Republican establishment behind her. Former President George Bush has endorsed her, as has former Vice President Dick Cheney . While President George W. Bush has not taken a public stand, several people close to him are working to elect her, among them Karen Hughes, his former political adviser. But two weeks befo...

NY Times: Some days it is hard to be a neophyte far-right candidate in a governor’s race, even in Texas, where Republicans vying for the party’s nomination try to outdo one another to prove their conservative credentials. Debra Medina found that out when she appeared on Glenn Beck ’s radio show last week and fumbled a question about whether she agreed with conspiracy theorists who think the Bush administration was involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard,” she said. “There’s some very good arguments, and I think the American people have not seen all the evidence there.” Mr. Beck, an admirer of Gov. Rick Perry , ridiculed her right away, saying, “I think I can write her off the list.” Within hours, Mr. Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison , his heavyweight Republican opponent in the primary race, pounced on Ms. Medina’s response. The governor said she had insulted Americans who lost loved ones on that day. The s...

Houston Chronicle: Gov. Rick Perry holds a commanding lead over his two Republican opponents in a new Houston Chronicle poll, but he still hasn't closed the deal with Republican voters to avoid a runoff with U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. However, the race could turn into a Perry victory before the March 2 primary, said pollster Mickey Blum, because of what she called last week's “implosion” of activist candidate Debra Medina. The poll found Perry leading with 45 percent support among likely Republican voters, with Hutchison at 29 percent and Medina at 17 percent; 8 percent said they were undecided. The Feb. 2-10 telephone interview survey of 464 likely Republican voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. The survey was conducted for the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News, the Austin American-Statesman, The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram by Blum & Weprin Associates Inc. Blum said normally poll numbers for an...

Fred Barnes: Texas governor Rick Perry and Sarah Palin are friends from her years as governor of Alaska. In April 2008, a very pregnant Palin joined Perry and other Republican governors in Dallas at a conference on energy. While addressing the group, Palin suddenly turned to Perry and asked him to take the microphone. She had gone into labor. Palin rushed to the airport and flew back to Alaska, where her son Trig was born. Last week, Palin returned to Texas to speak at a rally for Perry outside Houston. (She noted Trig was “almost a Texan.”) Perry is facing a primary challenge from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Palin took up the theme of his campaign: He’s the Texas candidate, Hutchison belongs to the alien world of Washington. “What’s it going to be,” Palin said, “the way they operate in D.C. or the way y’all get things done in Texas?” ... There is much more. Barnes gives a rundown that mainly is about Perry and Hutchison. Both come across as feeling entitled. He does point out...

Texas Credit Union League: February 10, 2010 (Austin, TX) - The Texas Credit Union League Poll of Texas Primary Voters, released today, shows incumbent Rick Perry close to a majority, holding a 22 point lead over Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary race for Governor. According to the poll of likely primary voters, Rick Perry leads with 49%, Hutchison holds 27% and Debra Medina rose to 19%. ... In a hypothetical run-off between Perry and Hutchison, the Governor prevails handily 58% to 34%. ... ... Perry seems to have some momentum. It appears this poll may not reflect the problems Medina had on the Glenn Beck show yesterday. When you consider that and look at the hypothetical run-off number Perry may already be over 50 percent. Sen. Hutchison appears to be having difficulty overcoming the anti Washington mood of the voters.

Burka Blog: The answer is yes. Do the math from the Rasmussen poll. Perry 44% Hutchison 29% Medina 16% To keep Perry from winning without a runoff, the Hutchison-Medina duo must reach 50.1%. They need another 5.1% of the vote. But they can’t get it from each other. It is going to have to come from Perry. Hutchison has been losing ground. There is no evidence that she can turn around that trend. Medina is more likely to lose ground than pick up ground as the result of her appearance on the Glen Beck radio show. If Medina craters and Perry and Hutchison makes the runoff, what will the Medina voters do? I can’t imagine that they will vote for Perry. Medina has shown him no mercy. Hutchison? If they are totally anti-Perry, KBH might pick up some votes. But I really think the Medina voters may stay home. ... I don't think the Tea Party voters that support Medina are totally anti Perry. He has in fact been pretty Tea Party friendly this year. He has also been very available to the...

Ed Morrissey: Six days ago , the big news out of Texas was that Tea Party activist and gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina came within the margin of error with Kay Bailey Hutchison, who barely clung to second place against incumbent Rick Perry. Today, Glenn Beck suffers heartbreak when Medina more or less cops to being a 9/11 Truther as well as a “constitutional conservative” candidate. “I think some very good questions raised have been raised in that regard,” Medina replies when Beck asks whether she believes that the American government was in any way involved in bringing down the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. Medina says she won’t take a position on a question where “good questions have been raised and haven’t been answered,” even though they have been answered for years . Beck and the others in his studio can’t quite believe their ears: ... This is a surprising revelation that the Texas media has not picked up on. To the extent that they do, it will put her on the defensi...

AWR Hawkins has a tough piece on Sen. Kay Baily Hutchison calling her "John McCain in a dress." I am not sure how fair it is, but it does point out the down side to having to take some tough votes. He is also hard on her abortion position. I have seen similarly, tough pieces on Gov. Perry this year, that complain about his support for inoculations against a sexually transmitted disease for girls and his support for the Trans Texas Corridor. They are not complaining about the fact that both effort failed. The negatives for both are out there. I think there are also positives for both and plan to support the winner. The Houston Chronicle has a more flattering piece on Sen. Hutchison today.