Claytie Comes Back

"The heights of glory or the depths of hell," the jacket says. (Image courtesy Texas A&M University Press)

Talking to Newsdesk the other day, Former House Speaker Pete Laney said, "George Bush has Claytie Williams to thank for being president." Will Sen. Barack Obama be able to say the same thing?

Clayton "Claytie" Wheat Williams Jr. was the guy who is famous for pretty much one thing: during his cringe-worthy gubernatorial campaign against Ann Richards, he compared rape to bad weather, saying "If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it." After that, Williams became pretty invisible in Texas politics. Until this week, that is, when his name re-emerged after Sen. John McCain canceled his planned appearance at a fundraiser tonight at Williams' Midland home. It seems Claytie's sense of humor (ahem) doesn't factor in too well when McCain is trying to attract women voters and, well, the sane.

If Williams had never made that comment and beaten Richards, Laney theorized, then Bush never would have been governor or president. McCain has complained that he didn't know the story (funny: it's on pp. 32-35 of Scott McClellan's new book), and the money came from other donors and not Williams himself, and he'll be keeping the cash, thank you very much. No surprise, really: McCain is losing in national fundraising to Obama by worse than two to one. According to opensecrets.org, he's even trailing in Texas, where the big money has gone to the GOP candidates for decades.