The Party Giveth and The Party Taketh Away

Remember just a few days ago when Tina Benkiser told her College of Cardinals conclave in Pearland that they needed to come up with a single candidate to support because "she had a commitment for $3 million for this race from Washington"?

Well, apparently there is “true commitment” and there is “Republican commitment”.

Well, hey, the cardinals . . . er . . . precinct chairs let white smoke go up the chimney of the Baptist Church of Pearland, what we didn’t see was an immediate infusion of funds to the CD-22 campaign. As a matter of fact, here is what they are saying now through RNCC spokesman Jonathan Collegio:

“The National Republican Congressional Committee, which is a fundraising group that targets open Congressional seats, will wait for an endorsement from the Texas Congressional delegation before taking steps in Congressional District 22”.

What? Does that mean that Tina’s “commitment” was a commitment predicated on whether the other Texas Republican candidates agree?

Ho boy. That’s a good one. Here is a possible scenario in a meeting of the Republican congressional delegation, at say, The Colorado Club on the Southwest Freeway:

Pass out the cigars, boys, let’s have a meetin’. ‘Scuse me darlin’ d’y’all have a light? Whaddaya say boys, are we gonna give the RNCC the go-ahead to give this Shelly Gibbs-Sekula woman $3 million to get her write-in campaign off the ground?

Haw-HAW, yeah, Bubba, I know, but I had to say that or I couldn’t get my campaign to pay for this party. OK. Meetin’s over. Hey Slim, get that little ol’ redhead over here, that’s right wave a Benjamin. Tom, get up a second and let her use your chair to get up on the table, yeah, help her up there, Tom . . . yeah . . .

So sometime in the not so distant future, Shelley will hear that the RNCC was told that the Texas Delegation had better ideas on how to use campaign funds in this year’s congressional races.

Well, at least she has the $2100 from David Wallace, right? Right?

Never fear though, Shelley is going to come out swinging with her Pink Patrol knocking door-to-door, passing out glossy tracts, yard signs, manning the phone banks and putting together the monumental Get Out the Vote campaign. The Presses are running nonstop, it is said, to produce a huge lot of additional Sekula-Gibbs Campaign materials.

Presses on a budget. Heck, Shelley, go on down to the Fort Bend ISD warehouse and see if your campaign can pick up a couple of slightly used mimeograph machines on the cheap. Then, if you can find ditto masters, you’re in business. Besides, cranking that old crank is good exercise.