Waiting for The Other Shoe to Drop

In case you missed it, Texas Monthly's Paul Burka has an excellent recap on how TXU got bitch-slapped back into reality after threatening to close some of its power plants. Hmm, you may ask yourself, what about the shadowy hand of Slick Rick Perry? Well, here it is:

What worries me about this is that the PUC, like many state agencies, is run by a former Rick Perry staffer, and, as we learned from the HPV controversy earlier this session, the governor has been known to involve himself in agency actions and decisions. Perry has also taken six-figure contributions from TXU and its officers. Will he intervene to help TXU again, as he did in trying to fast-track the licensing of their power plants?

Cronyism and graft in state government? Not in Texas!

Slick Rick: Show Him The Money

"If Rick Perry is for something, and there's a lot of money involved, it's a cinch that one (or more) of Perry's pals is involved up to his neck," writes Paul Burka on his Texas Monthly blog. True dat. As he goes on to quote from the Houston Chronicle:

Former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, a friend of Perry's, is handling discussions for the proposed lottery sale, a spokesman for Gramm's company acknowledged.

Gramm is vice chairman of UBS Investment Bank, which has been advising the governor on the proposed privatization of the state lottery. Gramm was a federally registered lobbyist for UBS last year.

Ray Sullivan, a lobbyist registered with the investment firm in Texas, worked as a spokesman for Perry several years ago. Sullivan is now in business with Michael Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff.

Toomey said he does not represent clients with lottery-related interests, and he added that Sullivan does not work on lottery-related issues for UBS.

And it just gets better. Seems that Perry's own son is working for UBS too, the DMN reports. "You have to give Perry credit," Burka writes. "Nothing embarrasses him."

Gov. Goodhair and HPV

Did Slick Rick Perry create a constitutional crisis with his executive order on HPV? Texas Monthly's Paul Burka thinks so."If a governor can legally do what Perry is attempting--establish a program that spends money--the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches will be forever altered."

And you thought he just wanted to give a nice little kickback to Merck (sixth item).