That’s MISTER Half Empty, Bub

You will never guess who just got called a “prominent blogger” by one of the Republicans running for US Congress in Texas CD 22?

Nope, wrong, not Ariana Huffington, but good guess.

Wrong. Not Markos Moulitsas. And that, by the way, was a terrible guess.

Me. Half Empty. My blog.

I am a prominent blogger. Wait, let me type that again with emphasis: I am a prominent blogger.

Which of the two Republicans fighting it out for the ill-fated opportunity to run against Nick Lampson finally recognized the greatness of me? Pete Olson. I swear it’s true.

I first became aware of my new status when I read Susan’s morning posting today. It is a good one on how candidate Pete Olson has himself so intertwined with the benefactors, beneficiaries and political consultants that were once the country of none other than Tom “The Hammer” DeLay, that we can’t really decipher which end is Pete’s and which is Tom’s.

Further on down she mentioned an email that she received from Pete Olson saying that the Democrats want Shelley Sekula Gibbs to win because she’ll be easier to beat in November.

No kidding, I thought to myself. What a brilliant plan. Then I read on.

“As proof of this valuable information, he quotes an unnamed "prominent" blogger who says, ‘I want Shelley Sekula Gibbs to win because she will not only be the easiest candidate for Lampson to defeat in November, but also because we all should be in for a few laughs between now and then.’”

I read it over again. It sounded familiar. Heeeeey, isn’t that what I posted 2 days ago? It is! Right here!

Here is what he said in the email (thanks Susan):

“Democrats are now opening (sic) stating that they would prefer to have Shelley as the nominee. Just yesterday, a prominent local Democrat blogger wrote this on his Website:” (see above).

So according to Pete Olson, Half Empty is “a prominent local Democrat blogger”.

Oh, Pete.

If you only knew. Yes the Chron sometimes picks up my blog and posts a link to it on their Opinion page under their “Blog Watch: What they're saying around town”. But by and large, Pete, I have about 6 readers.

Maybe 7 now, huh?

But that’s alright Pete, I’ll be prominent for you if that’s what you need.

I have to laugh. I’ll bet the only reason that Pete, or one of his DeLay Drones, took a look at my blog through the Chron link (a safe assumption, I think) is that the Chron shortened the title I gave it from “Texas Primary Runoffs: Oh, To Be A Republican” to “Oh, To Be A Republican”. I am betting that I got most of my traffic from that from Republicans who were very curious why someone, anyone, would ever put that exact sentence out on the internets.

I can’t get the feel of it. What do prominent bloggers do? What do they say? Should I put a shingle outside the closet that I call my study that says “Half Empty - Prominent Democrat(ic) Blogger – Knock Then Enter”?

Should I throw away my bathroom deodorizer?

More to the point, does this “prominent blogger” stuff pay anything?