Remember the fib Matt Mackowiak told Bill Flores to say if he was ever asked who he voted for in the 2008 election?

Chet Edwards does and scores a field goal to increase his lead.

Edwards unleashed his first commercial today, sending an unlisted link to Congressional Quarterly for the video he has posted on his YouTube Channel. Congressional Quarterly posted the video and wrote up the story here.

Here’s the video: (more…)

Meet The Candidate - Matt Mackowiak. Yep, it scares us, too!

Matt Mackowiak is Bill Flores’ Campaign Manager. When you hear Bill Flores speak, see his campaign material or the campaign strategy played out, or experience a tactical response from him or the campaign relative to something Chet Edwards does – you are seeing Matt Mackowiak – NOT Bill Flores.

That is my firm belief: that you are NOT seeing Bill Flores. The Bill Flores who has been described to me by dozens of party leaders and supporters is not the one you see. The one you see is trying to win on national issues and losing on local issues. He’s taking statistically calculated positions that are not in congruence with the Conservatives and Republicans in this District – but mesh perfectly with the national party’s playbook.

The quarterback is Matt Mackowiak, who in essence works for the NRCC, whether they pay him or not, because his future clients will come from the NRCC. He is The Candidate for future jobs…gunning for something important in the 2012 election cycle.

The NRCC has a playbook for national politics that includes recruiting self-financing candidates so they can save money yet still control the outcome by providing that candidate with “support” in the form of “consultants” like Matt whom they say are top-notch.

The self-financed Bill Flores has never done this before. He is smart enough to let people who know what they are doing do it, which is probably one of the keys to his success in business. The Henry Ford rule in practice: I’m not the smartest guy in this industry…so I hire the smartest guy.

However, Matt is 28, has never run a campaign before, and has only cut his teeth in the field of public relations in Washington, better known as the field of “spin.” A field he perfected as Spokesperson for Kay Bailey Hutchison…most likely the connection that got him the position with Bill, who was an ardent supporter of her gubernatorial run.

Bill is a straight shooting Texan. So are (more…)

My apology is for more than Bill. It includes his entire family and campaign, except The Candidate, whom I mentioned in my previous post is not Bill Flores, but somebody completely different in name, body and soul. This is not some trick of words. The Candidate is really some entirely different person than Bill Flores. But I will save that for another post…

First, I am sorry if my blog has degenerated into some pit of nitpicking or anger, or if it even comes across that way. I want to focus on facts, and in my mind that is what I am doing every time I write. But I am now aware that it can come across in ways I do not intend, no matter how hard I try to keep it neutral.

I know that some readers see me as a kook or wing-nut. As my confidant said to me, (more…)

There’s a headline for ya. In fairness, it should say “My Perception Of Bill Flores Was Wrong,” but that doesn’t roll off the tongue so easily.

I cannot explain to the full extent how wrong I was or why I think I was wrong in one short blog post…and a long one would make you lose interest and take away an opportunity for me to have you come back for more over the course of a few days.

So, let me set this up, and then invite you to return here as I unwind this story.

I have the good fortune and blessing to be friends with (more…)

You know the old saying…because people won’t be able to tell the difference.

I’ve been stuck in a silly argument with Dan Hunt, that I mentioned a few times before and you can follow by clicking this tag.

Here it ends, for multiple reasons.

Primarily, it degenerated to Dan’s calling me a liberal Edwards plant and I summarily end conversations when they get to that point, because the person on the other end has resorted to name-calling, which is a classic liberal tactic. But I allowed Dan to call me out, as if I were abandoning the conversation because his accusations were supposedly right.

I should have let them go. Aside from revealing his RINO tendencies, they simply allowed me to get distracted and therefore increased the How Bill Flores Will Lose posts by a (more…)

It seems Dan Hunt can’t get out of Texas 17 politics fast enough. Now he’s joined the chorus of calling yours truly a Liberal plant on Chet Edwards’ payroll. Maybe the former Johnson County Republican Party Chair and County Attorney should hasten his move to Beaumont. The telecom union down there could use his weird style of argument in their contract nefotiations.

Dan is the first one to call Bill Flores a RINO and Chet Edwards Satan in the same discussion. Randy agreed with him.

This still has to do with the issue of current Hood County GOP Chair Randy Shelton calling GOP Congressional Candidate Bill Flores a RINO and then lying about it. (more…)

So Bill Flores Tweets on July 22^nd the following:

This was an auto-Tweet from this status update on Flores’ official campaign Facebook Page. The incumbent discussion shows that Flores supporters are completely unaware that their man is speaking as a (more…)

The original article concerning Randy Shelton calling Bill Flores a RINO and Chet Edwards “Satan” is here.

Mr. Shelton has since erased his pertinent comments from the facebook discussion.

However, American Writes made a hard copy of the discussion once we found out from Waco Tribune Reporter Michael Shapiro that Shelton was denying that he had said these things. We figured he would erase them. (more…)

“How can Bill Flores prove to you he is a conservative?” my wife asks. “I mean, what actions can he take or words can he say that will change your mind?” Am I hearing these questions from the lady who up until 2 years ago pretty much voted the party line without question?

“Well, he could…he could…what about…”. Suddenly I realized that I do not have an easy sound bite answer to this question.

Proving yourself conservative is not an easy task, especially if you are not one. In fact, that’s called proving a negative – which can’t be done. However, as I discuss further down the column, if Flores is a Conservative, there are ways to prove it.

But first, let’s explore what we do know about Bill Flores and his “Conservative credentials” in TX 17. American Write-In “Chris” suggested we come up with a summary list of things, and (more…)

So I was encouraged to visit GOPisforme.com, a Ning social network, and check out the blog post “Where is Rob Curnock?”

I did, and you can click on the link above to see the whole scenario that played out, or you can click on this PDF to see the discussion as it was when I finally decided it was a hopeless cause.

[UPDATE: 24 July 2010 - I was informed this morning that the entire thread has been taken down by Duke. Make of that what you want - at least here we don't alter the historical record if we say or do something we regret later. This is YOUR Republican Party, friends - eating their own and then being shamed into deleting it because it shows disunity. Incidentally, today is the day after the Unity Rally in Waco, which is more interesting by who wasn't there than who was!]

Evidently the GOP is NOT for me. Big Surprise.

You’ll notice Mike Hoover, of McGregor, attacking me and not the facts I present. You’ll also notice I didn’t call anyone names or anything like that to deserve such a personal attack.

It’s a classic liberal tactic now being employed by Republicans, evidently.

In fact, that Liberal tactic is artfully explained here. We are not alone, Conservative! But wishing “conservative” and “republican” mean (more…)