--> It's official: Chris Bell, one of the four Texas Democrats who lost their seats in a contested redistricting engineered by Tom DeLay, will run for governor in the 2006 race. It's hardly unexpected -- Bell has been "exploring" the possibility of running for months -- but he still faces a bit of an uphill grade, and not just because of the Mark of Rove lingering in the state's GOP apparatus. A local celebrity not named Lance Armstrong has organized a tongue-in-cheek campaign that, as it turns out, is no joke -- and some veteran political operatives aren't laughing.

Richard "Kinky" Friedman -- columnist, raconteur, singer/songwriter, mystery author, and self-proclaimed "Asshole From El Paso" -- has broken ranks with Texas Democrats to run as an independent candidate. Provided he can get on the ballot, which is not in itself a foregone conclusion, it's a question of how many votes he may break off from Bell -- or Perry -- by running on a platform of legalizing casino gambling to provide a tax fund for education, making sure Texas isn't putting innocent people to death, and outlawing the declawing of cats. Burnt Orange Report discusses the Kinky Candidacy, Friedman's contrarian appeal, and what his run may mean for the establishment candidates.

--> This too is official: Friend of Bush and self-proclaimed "fiscal conservative" Rick Perry is in trouble. The 79th Legislature has utterly failed to deliver the kind of decisive action on school finance and property tax reform Perry was counting on, to the point where Republican legislators have been reduced to blaming Texas school officials for House Bill 2's failure to pass.

Interparty rival and self-proclaimed "tough grandma" Carole Keeton Strayhorn piled on first and relentlessly, and her I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I? media crossfirings with Perry already have lent the imminent GOP primary all the weight and dignity of a preschool slapfight. (Tellingly, Kay Bailey Hutchison has bowed out of the race everyone thought she'd drop the Senate to run, possibly to distance herself from the metaphorical hair-pulling to come.) BOR's Karl-Thomas Musselman parses KayBay's motives and examines the field in No Primary Interest.

--> Meanwhile, even as Congress has powered through Bush's not-even-trying-to-hide-the-payback energy bill on stealth and a sustained gust of hot air, Grand Moff Texan links a report that China and India seek to inoculate themselves against the Bush Administration's Persian Gulf machinations by casting a wide net for "dirtier" energy -- the kind provided by Russia, Venezuela, Myanmar, and other shunned regimes.

--> And speaking of the energy bill, Texas Truth Serum provides a link to a story from The Nation detailing how self-proclaimed "small business owner" Tom DeLay's quiet little $1.5 billion subsidy to Halliburton, Marathon Oil, and other home-district Big Oil Buddies crept -- apparently under its own power -- into the final draft.