Will Ralph Hall, The House's Oldest Member, Be Destroyed By Teabaggers? Or Will He Switch Back To The Democratic Party?

Ralph Hall being confronted by his constituents in Sherman

A few weeks ago several friends of mine in Congress told me that they felt there was some chance Ralph Hall might switch parties. He didn't. There are only two Republicans who have voted across the aisle more than Hall, Libertarian Ron Paul and another former Democrat (like Hall), Rodney Alexander of Louisiana. Alexander-- and to some extent Hall-- have swung more into the GOP lockstep obstructionism mode this year, but Hall is an extremely well-liked member of Congress on both sides of the aisle. Born in 1923, he's the dean of the Republican House caucus, the oldest member of the House and, after Senator Robert Byrd, the oldest member of Congress. He's also the ranking Republican on the Science Committee. Hall holds the seat once occupied, for 48 years, by the legendary for Speaker Sam Rayburn. A founder of the Blue Dogs and a very conservative Democrat, Hall was a friend of Bush's, endorsed him against Gore and finally made the natural Blue Dog jump in 2004, switching to the GOP (some say in a deal with Tom DeLay to not gerrymander him out of political existence). The Republicans got Hall tangled up with corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff and in a more politically astute district he might have lost re-election. But Texas' 4th CD, stretching from the northern Dallas suburbs east to Texarkana, has a PVI of R+17. He's been re-elected with gargantuan landslides (68% in 2004, her first as a Republican, 65% in 2006 and 69% in 2008 when McCain beat Obama 69-30%).

This year Hall is in big trouble, though not from Democrats. The teabaggers are circling. He has 5 opponents in the Republican primary this year. All of them are attacking him from the right. Lou Gigliotti is a former race car driver who seems obsessed, like every townshirt teabagger I've ever met, with his hatred of Hispanics and his ranting and raving about making English the official language and repealing the 16th and 17th amendments to the Constitution, which he also mentions must be defended "at all times, in all places." Total psycho. And so is Steve Clark, who, though not a red neck, describes himself as a "Tea Party Republican." Even worse is an evangelical religionist nut, John Cooper, who brags that he supports the teabaggers and tries his best to sound like a populist. Joshua Kowert is a pretentious right-wing blogger who is the only one of Hall's Republican opponents not overtly claiming the teabagger mantle. The last one is Jerry Ray Tea Hall (no relation to the congressman) who actually added "Tea" to his name. He's so over-the-top insane that the last time he ran against Ralph Hall, when Hall was still a Democrat in 1996 Republican Senator Phil Gramm campaigned for the Democrat! Jerry Ray Tea appears to be certifiably insane and his campaign centers on deporting "illegals," killing affirmative action, teaching creationism and "putting God back in our courts, schools and communities."

Hall isn't the only Texas Republican incumbent being challenged by a pack of teabaggers-- although he has more of them on his ass than anyone else. 11 of the 20 Texas Republicans have teabagger challengers. Although the GOP Establishment dismisses them as meaningless pests, their hysteria is a sign of discontent among rightists, discontent and hysteria that is likely to consume them.

Texas has one of the most conservative delegations in Congress, yet more than half of the state's Republicans in the U.S. House face challengers from the right – most inspired by the anti-tax Tea Party movement... Many of the challengers want little more than to vent, shake up the GOP and prod Washington toward fiscal responsibility. If they win, so much the better. Others want it all: a GOP purified by combat and reborn ideologically.

...[NRCC chair Pete] Sessions himself faces a challenger with Tea Party ties, David Smith, who has been hammering him over alleged ethical lapses, exploding federal deficits of the last decade, and the campaign committee's support for "electable" House candidates rather than those who stick to a more strict conservative line.

"If we're going to go back to a Republican-controlled Congress, we need to make sure we have the right people," Smith said... Tea Party organizers estimate they have about 100,000 activists in Texas, probably not enough to tip any election. The movement isn't a party at all-- it has little organization and no central push to recruit candidates-- but more a loose federation of like-minded activists.

"People are fired up," Emanuelson said, though he readily conceded the incumbents are hard to beat. And when it comes to Sessions, most Tea Party members are "pretty happy" with his votes, if not with the campaign committee's willingness to back moderate candidates.

"A lot of us have mixed feelings about Republicans taking back control of the House," Emanuelson said.

Aside from Hall and Sessions, the other Texas Republicans facing challenges from the teabaggers are Kevin Brady (Scott Baker, Melecio Franco, Tyler Russell); Mike McCaul (Rick Martin, Joe Petronis); Mike Conaway (Al Cowan, Chris Younts); Kay Granger (Mike Brasovan, Matthew Kelly); Ron Paul (John Gay, Tim Graney, Gerald Wall); Lamar Smith (Stephen Schoppe); Kenny Marchant (Frank Roszell); Michael Burgess (James Herford); and John Carter (Raymond Yamka). Many the wackiest, craziest, most psychotic man win!