WHO'S HOME IN THE HOUSE?

Strange as it seems, there are people out there who anxiously await Billy Clyde's belly-flop from the high dive of life.

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In particular, they think I'm full of shit as a Christmas turkey in my careful analysis of the so-called Speaker's race. What really puzzles BC is the realization -- gleaned after many phone calls, e-mails and reader comments -- that a large segment of our Capitol family has less than warm and fuzzy feelings toward Speaker Tom Craddick. Got no idea what he did to irritate these usually kind and gentle people. But it's not just my imagination playing tricks on me; Tom is poorly received in certain quarters.

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Former Quorum Report owner and Dallas Morning News editorialist Scott Bennett wrote a lengthy piece about Speaker Craddick and the "race" on his site, http://www.dallasblog.com/. His North Texas sources have hinted that Jody Laubenberg and Ken Paxton are on board with Representative Brian McCall. Scott further speculates that Charlie Geren may be on the McCall team as well. Then you add Patrick Haggerty's comments in the El Paso Times and Tommy Merritt's musings in the Longview News-Journal, and that little voice in your head tells you that maybe something is happening.

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None of those quality Texans has said they are actually voting for McCall. But Brian did get his first public pledge today -- from Pasadena Republican Robert Talton. That is real news. If I were Speaker Craddick, I'd kick the living daylights out of Richard Trabulsi, the TLR idiot who had the nerve to trash Talton (and Todd Smith, Delwin Jones and Bryan Hughes) before several thousand loyal members of the Texas Federation of Republican Women. Mr. T has a very long memory.

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Full disclosure: I became involved in the tort reform movement back in the 1980s, when the pendulum had swung too far in favor of the plaintiffs bar. Since then, the pendulum was swung so far in the opposite direction to make the civil justice system equally unfair. Pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered. Oink.

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It's also illustrative to note that some truisms (like the pig/hog deal) stand the test of time, to wit: Vote with the conservatives and party with the liberals. This saying has been a Capitol mainstay for half a century, and it remains 100-percent certifiably true today. Trial lawyers are fun; tort reformers are stick-in-the-mud self-important blowhards. That's not just my opinion. It's a proven fact.

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The Speaker explained to me four years ago that it was important for him to aggressively assert himself in his opening session. The New Sheriff In Town deal. Made sense to me, but maybe he took it a smidgen too far.

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Billy Clyde remains unconvinced that there's a Speaker's race. But he would nonetheless counsel the Speaker to tread a tad more gently in the future. I mean, House members are people, too.

Any thoughts?

UPDATE: The Dick Tribulsi Fan Club has chastised BC for his alleged transgressions. Although the DTFC won't say what those transgressions are. I didn't attend the speech, but everyone I know who was there says that Dick did the talking. Maybe they meant Dick Weekly. Who knows?

If Dick Tribulsi didn't alert the ladies in red that Talton, Hughes, Jones and Smith were open minded and susceptible to voting their conscience, BC will offer a giant-ass apology. I would note that Talton, Hughes, Jones and Smith are four GOPers who are not supporting Speaker Craddick, so maybe there's something there. You think?