GOP No-Nos Noriega

According to the Republican Party of Texas, state Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, is so very much not the most likely candidate to take the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. John Cornyn that they really, really need to tell us about it.

This morning the Texas GOP put out a press release entitled "Rick Noriega's Week in Review," in which they claim that "despite his arrogant assumption that he is already the Democrat nominee [he] may not quite be ready for primetime." Mostly rehashing clips from the Austin-American Statesman and the Dallas Morning News, they accuse him of everything from being a cowardly soldier to hating old people, and he's definitely, absolutely not a front-runner.

Which is kind of odd, since if he wasn't the front-runner to take on Cornyn (and undoubtedly drag him over the coals for his no vote on the Children's Health Insurance Program), would they really be this interested in savaging him in the primary? Or is it a clever double bluff, and they're really scared of facing Rhett Smith (aka "the other other guy in the race who isn't Ray McMurrey, apart from Gene "Not That Gene" Kelly")?

Or maybe they're just smarting over the Twelve Days of Cornyn attack missives the Dems put out over the Holidays.