THE QUACK, QUACK, QUACK CAN BE HEARD FROM CAPITOL HILL TO THE HOUSTON SUBURBS-- SHELLEY SEKULA-GIBBS, THE ULTIMATE LAME DUCK

When much-disliked Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs became the "official" Texas Republican Party write-in candidate to replace indicted and disgraced ex-Congressman Tom DeLay, Texas' very partisan Governor gave her a helping hand. Because her name is difficult to spell, particularly for the kind of uneducated, low-information voters who tend to vote for Republicans, Gov. Perry's political team devised a way of getting her on the ballot. On the same day as the general election, they also had an election to fill the unexpired term of the disgraced DeLay, which would amount to about 2 weeks of work in DC. It also amounted to her name on the ballot. It didn't help and she lost anyway. But, unopposed, she did win the 2 weeks.

The hope then was that she would make such a great impression on the residents of TX-22 that when she challenged freshman Congressman Nick Lampson (D) in the pretty red district in 2008, she'd be well remembered. She has made an impression-- only not the great one in the game plan.

Vowing to help cut taxes, solve the country's immigration problems, and fight terrorism in her two weeks in DC, she was off to a... start. "But," according to yesterday's Houston Chronicle, "her star has been badly tarnished by an odd series of actions, and she's been lampooned on Web sites, talk radio and in gossip columns. Though the punch lines will quickly fade, political insiders say Sekula-Gibbs has done serious-- if not irreparable-- damage to her hopes of reclaiming the 22nd Congressional District seat in two years."

We've been following closely her blowup with DeLay's professional staff, most of whom are admired both on Capitol Hill and back in TX-22. They all agree she's a rude and incompetent imbecile and most of them, from DeLay's chief of staff to an intern, walked out on her in disgust last week, after she made unreasonable demands that they "make" Bush and Cheney show up for her party and that they draft legislation that she could introduce to solve the immigration problem in her first week. One former DeLay staffer told DWT, "She seemed unrealistic in her demands, even frantic and deranged... and very angry. She became extremely abusive towards everyone around her. I've never seen such unprofessional behavior anywhere on Capitol Hill before."

"She has mortally damaged herself for '08," said Bill Miller, an Austin media consultant who works for clients in both parties. "She has embarrassed herself. She has embarrassed Republicans. She's done a first-class job of ruining any prospective chance she had of winning that race."

Said Fort Bend County GOP Chairman Gary Gillen: "When it comes time for 2008, the negative publicity won't be beneficial for her."

Basically she has guaranteed herself a tough primary battle in 2008, one few think she has a chance to win. Both David Wallace, Mayor of Sugarland and Paul Bettencourt, the Harris County Tax Collector, two extreme right wing fanatics, are planning to go after the GOP nomination in 2008. Neither well-liked nor respected as a member of the City Council, "Now," says Gary Polland, former Harris County Republican chairman, "she's going to be tainted with this story for her entire time in Congress. And if she decides to run in two years, the story will be, 'That's right, Shelley was in Congress for six weeks and ran off all of Delay's staff.'"