XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: texas@shitholes.net   
      
   AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton beat   
   impeachment. On Super Tuesday, he wants political revenge.   
      
   The Republican, who just six months ago was on the brink of   
   removal from office, is charging into Texas’ primaries on a   
   dramatic campaign to oust dozens in his own party. They include   
   rank-and-file legislators, state judges and one of the most   
   powerful figures in Texas: Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan,   
   who oversaw the historic vote last year to impeach Paxton on   
   corruption charges.   
      
   Paxton’s purge attempt is part of a wild brawl engulfing the   
   state’s dominant political party, where the attacks are blunt   
   and the haymakers personal. Phelan recently punched back with a   
   video reminding voters of Paxton’s extramarital affair, saying   
   Paxton broke an “oath to his wife and God.”   
      
   Paxton himself is not on the ballot — he won a third term in   
   2022 — but the clean-the-House effort by one of former President   
   Donald Trump ‘s most vocal defenders could reshape the Texas GOP   
   for years to come, tilting the deeply conservative Legislature   
   further to the right.   
      
   “I’ve never see anything like this primary,” said Bill Miller, a   
   longtime Republican strategist in Texas. “The party is at civil   
   war. There’s too much stuff going on to call it anything else.”   
      
   Paxton has targeted more than 30 Republican incumbents who drew   
   primary challengers. And he didn’t stop there. Flexing his post-   
   acquittal political muscle, the attorney general is trying to   
   remove three female Republican judges from the Texas Court of   
   Criminal Appeals, one of the most conservative panels in the   
   country, after it limited the powers of his office in a 2021   
   ruling.   
      
   All the while, Paxton is still in legal jeopardy.   
      
   He is facing trial in April on felony security fraud charges   
   that could lead to 90 years in prison if convicted. He is also   
   fighting a subpoena for sworn testimony in a civil lawsuit that   
   mirrors some of the impeachment charges. And a federal criminal   
   investigation is ongoing into some of the same allegations.   
      
   “By the grace of God I’m here today,” Paxton told a political   
   rally in suburban Dallas last month. “This matters more than   
   anything I’ve ever done, that we win these races and that we win   
   the Texas House.”   
      
   Some of Paxton’s endorsements, and the millions of dollars   
   flowing to them from third-party groups, clash with the Super   
   Tuesday agenda of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor has   
   his own list of GOP House members he’s trying to throw   
   overboard, angry that they voted against using tax money for   
   private schools.   
      
   The double-barreled attacks have put extreme pressure on those   
   lawmakers who happen to have fallen into the crosshairs of both   
   men.   
      
   Abbott concentrated on a policy fight, but “(Paxton) is like a   
   rabid dog that simply is angry at a large majority of House   
   members,” said Rice University political science professor Mark   
   P. Jones. “He is willing to back anyone who wanted to mount a   
   primary challenge.”   
      
   Paxton’s biggest target is Phelan and the symbolic victory that   
   would come with toppling House leadership.   
      
   Phelan’s two sessions as House speaker were a bonanza for   
   conservatives: Since 2021, Texas has passed some of the most   
   restrictive abortion laws in the country, supported Abbott’s   
   headline-making anti-immigration crackdown, banned gender-   
   affirming medical care for transgender minors, and eliminated   
   diversity, equity and inclusion programs in higher education.   
      
   But it was Phelan’s House that also set Paxton’s impeachment in   
   motion, and the two men have blistered each other with attacks   
   ever since. Paxton has accused Phelan of being drunk on the job,   
   and has campaigned against Phelan in his home district. Trump   
   has piled on, endorsing Phelan’s opponent.   
      
   Phelan responded with a scathing campaign ad recounting some of   
   the impeachment corruption allegations. It specifically noted   
   Paxton’s affair with a legislative staffer.   
      
   “Vengeful Paxton is the reason Trump’s involved himself in our   
   race,” Phelan says in the 30-second spot. “If Paxton will break   
   an oath to his wife and God, why would he tell Trump — or you —   
   the truth?”   
      
   Even if most of Paxton’s endorsed challengers lose, knocking out   
   a House speaker would be a “political earthquake,” Miller said.   
      
   At the courthouse, Paxton has targeted the three judges who were   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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