Republican's Eat Their Own

Let’s start with the pragmatic. If you aren’t supported by current Texas House speaker Tom Craddick, then you aren’t a real Republican.

Case in point, Carter Casteel.

When a party gets in power, they tend to read their own press clippings a bit too much, they drift further to their extreme flank, take more money, and push an agenda more and more out of the mainstream.

Five legislators are being attacked by the far Craddick right this primary season, not by the Texas Democratic Party. Those legislators are:
HD 7 Tommy Merritt (R)
HD 73 Carter Casteel (R)
HD 78 Pat Haggerty (R)
HD 83 Delwin Jones (R)
HD 99 Charlie Geren (R)

Now there is a war being waged by the extremist wing of the Republican Party as the Craddick machine campaigns to make moderate Republicans extinct. They are also claiming that supporting moderates in the primaries is “infiltrating the party”.

Today in the Express-News there is a tragic story of a grassroots conservative group blasting to 50,000 people their newest campaign- Shark Watch.

If Republican leadership squeezes out all of these moderate candidates, we will be left with a Texas that could look very scary. A Texas with a state sponsored voucher system, continued defunding of health care and CHIPS programs, nasty air and water quality, and more harm to small business in order to cut taxes for corporate business.

Republican moderation is necessary, and watch how Merritt, Casteel, Jones, and the rest of the swing vote crew assist in education and tax reform during the third special session in April or May.