FROM THE EMAIL BAG.... Kay at the Women for Kay luncheon...

Kay had a 'Women for Kay" luncheon at the Four Seasons in Austin yesterday, and here is a report from someone who was there....

I just ask that you leave any identifying information out, please.

The room looked like it had been bigger, but they closed off one of the panels to make it smaller. Looking around, I noticed a lot of Democrats in the room. Women, of course, but still Democrats. I noticed female staffers for Democrat state legislators.

Karen Hughes opened up the lunch by speaking about Condoleezza Rice having a run in her hose one time, and how Bush was impatient when she had to run back to the hotel room and find some new hose. Hughes breezed through her speech incredibly fast, reminded me of 2000 when she went out and defended Bush when the news about his DUI came out. She played the gender angle very hard, which is to be expected at a Women for Kay luncheon. Hughes also said that she was dismayed by the state of the GOP in Texas. As if she and her old boss did such a great job at the national level.

Kay suggested that she was the true Texan and Rick Perry was the true Washington insider. Her argument made little sense, and she didn't exactly elaborate on what she meant, but she went down that road anyway and even received some applause for it. She said she was a collaborative politician who, unlike Perry, would not politicize the legislature.

Kay was not heavy on the policy, but she did speak about education and how we need more Tier 1 Universities. She spoke out about how women are fundamentally different from men and perhaps superior in their governing style.

Kay also name-dropped Sarah Weddington a few times to bolster her credibility amongst the crowd of mostly non-Republicans. Kay said she worked with Weddington to pass something related to rape victims, and she was one of the only Republicans who was on that side of the bill.

Kay talked about drop-out rates and said something peculiar about making K-14 mandatory in Texas. I couldn't really decide whether she was saying two years of college should be required, or if she meant that the state should pay for anyone who goes to two years of college. I think she may have been proposing that Texas should pay for anyone who goes to college for two years. It didn't sound very well thought-out, although her delivery was so dry I thought she may have been reading verbatim from the paper in front of her.

Kay said Texas won't attract jobs to Texas in the future if we don't have as many Tier 1 schools as New York or California. Yeah, because having a bunch of Tier 1 schools worked so well for them.

She called for intra-state rail and said she supported Amtrak in Texas. Brilliant! Because we need to throw even more money down an Amtrak rat hole. Later she said she was responsible for the Amber Alert system.

I can't remember what else, but it was a left-of-center speech, for the most part. I don't think she would give anything close to this speech to a general Republican audience.

Interesting that Kay would be bragging about doing anything with Sarah Weddington. Sarah Weddington was the pro-abortion lawyer in Roe v. Wade. Kay did vote for a resolution saying that Roe v. Wade had been correctly decided, but it seems dangerous to drop a huge symbol of pro-abortion in a campaign stump speech.

Kay also took credit for the Amber Alert bill. Is that true? Did anyone go and now have reports? Sounds like Kay had a bunch of whoppers.