Looks like the porkers are back at it. Robert Garrett has a post up on the Dallas Morning News Trailblazers blog saying that good ol' Warren Chisum has finally gotten ten Republican State Reps to sign a letter calling for a caucus to pick the speaker. Not good for Texas but them's the rules, so let'em caucus. It'll be interesting to see what they do when Speaker Straus wins the vote in the caucus. Will the finally shut up and stop attacking fellow Republicans? Doubtful. If I were Straus, these guys' committee assignments would amount to janitorial work while the grownups handle the business of the state.

There has to be a way to uncover the money funding these attacks. You don't think money is involved? Really? Then tell me why Diane Nusbaum would say this:

GREAT NEWS! We have just received large donations for the purpose of using a professional phone bank to make 1000's of live calls to targeted districts the last week before the vote for speaker takes place in Austin - and probably days before a caucus takes place. (bold added for emphasis)

Still don't believe me? Here is an email that she sent out on Dec 13th:

Note the subject: PROFESSIONAL PHONE BANK FOR KEN PAXTON CAMPAIGN!

She sent a follow up email the next day:

Note the subject: KEN PAXTON PHONE BANK INFORMATION!

Note the disclaimer: This endeavor is not affiliated with Ken Paxton's official campaign for speaker.

Which is it, Ms. Nusbaum?

Obviously, Ms. Nusbaum didn't get the memo from Chisum about the expected date for the caucus being the 5th. Don't you look forward to getting calls on New Year's Day and Sunday?

One of the other groups we know about is the Heritage Alliance – as we've seen, they don't care about the truth as long as the lie is effective. Did you know that Rick Green is on their board? He of Wallbuilders and darn near a Texas Supreme Court Justice. Rep. Wayne Christian is also on their board – he is the chair of the Texas Conservative Coalition – the underpinnings of Dannie's Insider Tea Party and ICROT. Good ol' Craddick boys. They sure 'nuff miss that pork.

I received another email from them via the Grassroots Texas bunch (via the Common Sense Texans Network) once again touting their bogus poll. This time, they say this:

DALLAS, Dec. 20, 2010 – In the opening round of a telephone poll of 28,980 Republican primary voters in 77 GOP-held Texas House districts, nearly 9 in 10 responding indicated they want the State House led by a Speaker more conservative than the previous Legislature's choice, Joe Straus III.

"No matter which GOP district we poll, we find none where the Representative can credibly claim that his supporters want a moderate Speaker," Michael Smith, Executive Vice President of Heritage Alliance, said.

Heritage Alliance polled an average of 376 1R households per State House district. Of those, an average of 336 per district responded in favor of a more-conservative House Speaker...

Obviously, that isn't a poll at all. In fact, after the first email promoting this bogus poll, in which they used Rasmussen's name, I contacted Rasmussen and was assured that they had nothing to do with this bogus poll. It is, in fact, more of a canvass/direct marketing piece. But then, I've already pointed that out.

The Grassroots Texas/Common Sense Texans Network also forwarded an Empower Texans emal seeking to capitalize on the appraisal cap issue.

As they say, follow the money. But that is hard to do when these groups aren't transparent. Sure, we know that former Speaker Craddick is behind some of it but who is funding the rest? Aren't Tea Party organizers for transparency? Don't they insist upon it?

What we have here is a case of do as I say and not as I do.

Show us the money, Ms. Nusbaum. Show us the money, Grassroots Texas. Show us the money, all you professional attack dogs.

Or should that be professional hypocrites?