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Notes -
Ken Paxton acquitted: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-acquitted-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/
For those who don't remember, Ken Paxton is the attorney general of Texas who's notable for two things- being an extremely effective conservative culture warrior with often national level impact, and being unusually corrupt.
The corruption charges aren't in themselves particularly notable and it isn't that unusual that the senate acquitted on a more or less party line vote. However, what is notable is that a big chunk of the republican party, and powerful establishment members at that, blame the house, want Paxton as attorney general, and are highly critical of the republicans who brought the impeachment along.
Here's Dan Patrick, Texas' powerful lieutenant governor: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-impeachment-dan-patrick/
He's here referring to Dade Phelan, the most moderate republican of statewide relevance. Phelan is, notably, facing a primary challenger who can be expected to get a who's who of Texas conservative activists in support.
And also:
Whether Dan Patrick was an impartial judge is definitely in question, although I don't attach much credence to the liberal theory that he called senators to demand they vote to acquit for the simple reason that one of the votes to convict was Kelly Hancock.
Ken Paxton, of course, has promised revenge on his opponents in the impeachment trial, albeit on twitter.
Greg Abbott's statement is worth copying in full: https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-statement-on-impeachment-trial-verdict
Hardly an unequivocal endorsement of his primary agenda, but definitely an endorsement of him as attorney general, considering that the acting attorney general who would have replaced Paxton indefinitely was literally Abbott's chief of staff.
This promises a general rightward turn for the Texas GOP, which is already one of the farther right state GOP's, and likely a more hostile relationship with the federal government. It is, however, unclear what exactly that looks like.
On one hand yes. But, only Republicans voted to acquit and a mix of Republicans and Democrats voted to convict. I accept this as a display of partisan power rather than a display of innocence.
The old joke that a politician in a majority district could only lose if they were caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl comes to mind. Corrupt partisan supported by most of his fellows. Nothing more or less.
The fact that some Republicans turned on him is a black mark, but ultimately irrelevant.
you could do something crazy like look at the presented evidence in his impeachment trial
everyone doesn't need to have a strong opinion on a topic they know next to nothing about
sadly, most responses here are some form of "I know next to nothing about this, but because surface level knowledge about these 3 things means I think X"
I read political news and vaguely have some sense that he is famous for his corruption. But of course the media lies like the lying liars they are. Maybe I fell for their tricks.
But as a terminal political news addict, I refuse to personally review the evidence in this state-level impeachment case. I will bow out of that task and also not take back any claims regarding the power of naked partisanship. Which this might be.
Or maybe the prosecutors were such bumbling morons that only all Democrats and a few select Republicans would lower themselves to performatively vote guilty. And the other Republicans who voted to acquit were honestly voting their conscience.
I guess that's possible. I'm not so invested in Texas state politics that I will be critically evaluating the primary sources.
What is the value in forming opinions based on the 2nd hand summations of agenda-driven liars? I haven't found "political news" to be an accurate reflection of reality beyond a billboard for what the powers that be want you to think today (or think about today).
For a man who is "famously corrupt," it certainly tells us something that despite a lot of motivation, millions of dollars, and subpoena power, the best they could dig up on Ken Paxton was a corruption scheme over a $25,000 political donation 2 years before an alleged "return," and then a kitchen remodel whereby the accusers and investigators didn't even bother to find out if his kitchen was, in fact, remodeled.
A bribe where phrased as someone "paying for your kitchen remodel" doesn't actually require you remodel your kitchen. But there has to be some quid for the quo.
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