The nail in Kay's political coffin... great vid...

One blogger I read from time to time sez Kay just assured Rick a third term (link). Excerpt follows...

Texas Governor Rick Perry has just cinched an unprecedented third term, even though the election won’t be held for nearly a year. He didn’t even have to lift a finger. His GOP primary opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, did all the heavy lifting for him.

Maybe... maybe not...

Kay voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program bailout more than a year ago, but voters have short memories... she might have been able to get past that one or claim it was ancient history...

She may have put the first nail in her political coffin this week when she voted with the two Republicans in Name Only from Maine and the Democrats to break an attempted Republican filibuster... Red State has the deets (link). Excerpt follows...

Kay Bailey Hutchison, much maligned for campaigning in Texas during the health care debate, boldly announced that she would go to Washington and stay there to fight health care and kill it dead.

Instead, today she accelerated it getting to the Senate floor in a bit of Senate gamesmanship.

Rick's peeps made a great internet ad about it...

Another Red State blogger claims that Kay's excuse basically doesn't hold up to scrutiny... Kay is impugning almost the entire Republican caucus for being against the troops (link). Excerpt follows...

Yet now, in an “I was for the filibuster before I was against it” moment reminiscent of John Kerry, Senator Hutchison put out a statement (below in its entirety) that basically implies that her fellow Republican Senators are somehow against the troops. Given that we all know this to be false - is this a case of Senator Hutchison wanting her cake and eating it too? Nooo… it couldn’t be.

Why didn't Kay just resign last year and avoid having to make these kinds of votes? All staying in the senate has gotten her is a disreputable award from the Citizens Against Government Waste... more votes with Democrats... more votes against the Texas Congressional delegation... more Washington presence... less time to raise money and attend grass roots events... more missed votes almost every week...

Rick's entire campaign strategy has become making this election a referendum on Kay and her non voting or non conservative voting... had she resigned a year ago it would be far more a referendum on Rick and his tenure, and as we know incumbents are not popular this year even in places like Texas that are doing better than the country...

I think Rick was going to win this election with or without this really really bad vote by Kay, but this does add fuel to the fire of the argument that Kay is not conservative enough to win a Republican primary in Texas... her bizarre decision to vote against Republicans in their efforts to slow health care undermines her entire campaign... beautifully captured in that internet video put out by Rick's peeps...

Who is working for Kay in the senate? Didn't they realize how bad this vote would be for her?