It’s not like some combination of Mimi Swartz, Patti Hart, and the Great Burka haven’t predicted it for, you know, almost two years. But now, per Wayne Slater’s Dallas Morning News blog, there’s an actual banner alongside an actual road promoting his candidacy. The conservative radio talker says he has nothing to do with it. Yeah, right. Then again, maybe it’s that other Dan Patrick, the sportscaster. Chris Berman for Senate!!!!

The longtime state senator from District 13, in Houston, hosted the Roundtable on the Prevention of Wrongful Convictions today at the Capitol. Among the participants: 10 men exonerated by post-conviction DNA testing in Texas. I asked Ellis — who personally supports the death penalty — what the Legislature can, should, and will do about this issue, which was fodder for a 60 Minutes story on Sunday.

Almost as iconic as Willie — almost. Still, I have no doubt that our quinquennial list of the top 50 barebecue joints in Texas is a keeper. Many of you have ripped the story from the magazine in issues past and kept it in your glove box, visiting as many of the places as possible as you travel around the state. You’ll want to do the same this year … and keep your eye out for our top place, numero uno, which we had never heard of until a few months ago and you surely haven’t. Also in this issue: Mimi Swartz on the (literal) danger that results from our dependence on foreign oil, Skip Hollandsworth on those nice polygamists in Eldorado, Michael Ennis on our coming exit from Bush Country after twenty years happily/smugly ensconced, Paul Burka on finally getting to know his father, my exit interview with Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines, and brand new fiction from Sarah Bird: a cheeky excerpt from her new novel, How Perfect Is That. Enjoy!

Everyone else is zigging, talking and thinking and blogging about North Carolina and Indiana, so I thought we might zag today. The only election that matters is, of course, Tom Craddick’s attempt to return as Speaker of the Texas House a mere eight months from now. I talked this morning about the Last King of Midland’s ongoing leadership prospects — and also Chairman DeLisi, the Dewhurst conundrum, the next U.S. Senator from Texas, and Rick vs. Kay — with Texas Weekly’s witty and insightful editor (celebrating his tenth anniversary in that job this year) and our own senior executive editor, now in year 34 (!) at TEXAS MONTHLY.

(cross-posted at Poll Dancing)

I talked to the former Dallas Mayor and former Texas Secretary of State — a passionate Obama surrogate — about the state of the presidential race, the tradition of African American churches, and the next (?) Vice President of the United States, who would know his way around Observatory Circle…

AUSTIN - Jerry Patterson, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, today praised proposed rules changes by Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne that would respect state laws regarding the carrying of concealed firearms in federal parks. The rules are now subject to public comment before adoption.

“Texans who can lawfully carry a firearm in state parks can now carry in federal parks, including Big Bend National Park,” Patterson said.

Patterson said the ban on carrying concealed firearms in national parks was unconstitutional and never should have been inflicted on Americans these past 25 years.

“Federal bureaucrats simply shouldn’t be allowed to override the Constitution with administrative rules,” Patterson said.

“The anti Bill of Rights crowd will say this is unnecessary and dangerous. Americans who live in concealed carry states have heard this before,” said Patterson, author of the Texas Concealed Handguns Law.

“They said ‘blood would run in the streets,’ but that didn’t happen and it won’t happen in national parks,” Patterson said. “The Bill of Rights enumerates a right to ‘keep and bear arms.’ I should not be required to forgo my Second Amendment, or for that matter my First, Fourth or Fifth Amendment rights just because I happen to be in a park.”

“When I’m in a state or national park, I’m armed,” Patterson said. “An unconstitutional rule promulgated by a federal bureaucracy is not sufficient to deny me that right.”

Patterson urged Texans who care about gun rights to comment on the proposed federal rules change, available in the Federal Register and on www.doi.gov.

Once the public comment period has closed, all comments received will be evaluated and incorporated into the decision making process on a final rule. The number and substance of the comments received will determine the timeline for the final decision.

The controversial chair of the State Board of Education is my guest this week. Watch our conversation here.

TEXAS MONTHLY ex Peter Elkind, late of Fortune, whose last book, The Smartest Guys in the Room, was about the Enron debacle, has inked a big deal — $350,000 — to write a new book about the rise of fall of Eliot Spitzer. The last book was made into a documentary by Academy Award-winner (and, ahem, Evan Smith pal) Alex Gibney, and this one will too; the release of Gibney’s doc will be similarly timed to the pub date.

After reading that the DMN’s daily circulation had dropped, year over year, by more than 10 percent while its web traffic had increased by 96 percent, I called Moroney to ask if this is indeed a harbinger of things to come — for both the News and the newspaper industry.

Yet another Dallas County inmate exonerated by a DNA test. This one was convicted in May 1981. He should be freed tomorrow. The Morning News reports that James Woodard had requested such a test under the previous D.A., Bill Hill, but was denied the opportunity to prove his innocence.

Time’s new issue, out today, has a cover that looks suspiciously like one published by The New Republic a few weeks ago.

TNR’s editor is unhappy, but, to my amazement, Time’s editor, Richard Stengel, isn’t apologizing for what is obviously too great a similarity to be explained away. He says (via Portfolio):

If those wonderfully wonky folks at TNR (and I used to be one of them) watched a little more of the NBA, they would realize that the inspiration for this week’s cover was the striking ad campaign the NBA is using for the playoffs. In fact, we say so on the magazine’s index page. And in what is certainly a first, the NBA is doing a little cross-promotion with us on the cover. See [here]. But, then, maybe TNR thinks the NBA owes them royalties? Good luck getting a response from David Stern.

I’m telling ya: The guy’s got a future at Rhode Island Monthly.

ZZ Top’s frontman — a hell of a nice guy, and great to shoot the breeze with — is my guest this week. Watch our interview here.

The alternate-universe MoDo writes in today’s Wall Street Journal:

In Lubbock, Texas – Lubbock Comma Texas, the heart of Texas conservatism – they dislike President Bush. He has lost them. I was there and saw it. Confusion has been followed by frustration has turned into resentment, and this is huge. Everyone knows the president’s poll numbers are at historic lows, but if he is over in Lubbock, there is no place in this country that likes him. I made a speech and moved around and I was tough on him and no one – not one – defended or disagreed. I did the same in North Carolina recently, and again no defenders. I did the same in Fresno, Calif., and no defenders, not one.

He has left on-the-ground conservatives – the local right-winger, the town intellectual reading Burke and Kirk, the old Reagan committeewoman – feeling undefended, unrepresented and alone.

This will have impact down the road.

I finally understand the party nostalgia for Reagan. Everyone speaks of him now, but it wasn’t that way in 2000, or 1992, or 1996, or even ‘04.

I think it is a manifestation of dislike for and disappointment in Mr. Bush. It is a turning away that is a turning back. It is a looking back to conservatism when conservatism was clear, knew what it was, was grounded in the facts of the world.

(Cross-posted at Poll Dancing)

This morning I interviewed the native San Antonian and UT-Austin grad — the newsweekly’s longtime national political correspondent and blogger extraordinaire — about Hillary Clinton’s decisive victory on Tuesday, how the Democratic nomination fight ends, and the fall contest against John McCain (remember him?).

That’s John, not Mindy. The Governor floated the idea to Leticia Van de Putte, Joaquin Castro, and other legislators in San Antonio on Monday, according to every media organzation in the world.