Guys, I'm proud to announce that Huffingtonpost.com's "Off the Bus" page has just posted my latest essay:  "Texas Democrats 'Off the Mat and Fighting Back'".

Here's an excerpt:

Texas politics is as rowdy as the state is big. It's down-and-dirty, mud-wrestling, in-your-face and--even with female politicians--as macho as Lyndon Johnson manhandling steers to the ground on his Hill Country ranch, or Gov. Ann Richards being featured on the cover of Texas Monthly magazine sitting boldly astride a Harley Davidson.

Politicking in Texas ain't for the faint of heart. Not for nothin' did the Democratic congressmen and women in the State House literally leave Texas and hunker down in nearby states in a vain attempt to prevent Tom DeLay's outrageous redistricting scheme from being voted on--the diabolical plan that wound up netting the Republicans six more seats in the U.S. congress the following election....

Back then, I spent one hopeless afternoon trying to find any sort of Democratic party headquarters anywhere in the state. (Usually, if you voted a straight-ticket Democratic party ballot, there weren't even very many names listed.) When my moderate Republican husband helpfully suggested I start up my own Democratic party in my county, I pointed out that the meetings would have to be held no later than four p.m., because I didn't know any Democrats here under the age of 80.

Oh, it's been sad. Just pitiful, really, for all us closet Blues stranded in a crimson state.

But the times, as Bob Dylan pointed out, they are a-changin'.

 Using numerous sources and links, I examine the purpling of Texas, from the dissatisfaction with the war expressed by soldiers' families from the largest military base in the country, to the promising fact that every single county-wide election in Dallas county went Democratic, to the changing demographics of a state with a large Hispanic population and a growing youth vote.

And I study an outstanding new organization called the Lone Star Project, which goes after blowhard Texas Republicans like Sen. John Cornyn by publishing their voting records and otherwise providing FACTS to lay bare the mythology they're trying to create for themselves.

It's Texas politics at it's most colorful and exciting, and from where I sit, watching the Texas Democrats off the mat and fighting back and yes--throwing the worst Tom DeLays of the bunch right out of the ring...is the most fun a political junkie can have.

So come visit Huffingtonpost.com's "Off the Bus" and see not just my stuff, but some pretty cool citizen journalism at work.