Still more weirdness from Texas Congressthing Steve Stockman, who is making a strong bid for "Strangest Elected Human Who Isn't Rob Ford" 2014. Stockman has lately beenvery whineful about ads run by Texans for a Conservative Majority, a PAC supporting Sen. John Cornyn. The ads question Stockman's integrity, and the good congressman filed a libel suit last week against the PAC, accusing them of lying like lying liars and

“falsely asserting that he was charged with a felony.”

“This case involves some of the most outrageous, malicious defamation ever recorded in Harris County,” the suit reads.

Well, that would indeed be a very unkind lie to tell about congressman Stephen Ernest "Steve" Stockman! Unless of course maybe he actually had been arrested for a felony in Michigan and had talked openly about the arrest back in the 1990s when he was first in Congress. Then you would have to wonder about his current connection to reality, even accounting for the fact that he is Steve Goddamn Stockman.

And lo, the Texas Tribune brings us the above mug shot and this paragraph about the gentleman depicted in the photo:

Yet a man named Stephen Ernest Stockman with the same birthday as Stockman was arrested in Michigan in 1977 and initially charged with felony possession of diazepam, also known as Valium, records show. What’s more, Stockman spoke openly about such an incident during his first term in Congress in the mid-1990s. He told The Dallas Morning News in 1995 that he had reported to jail for a two-day sentence stemming from a traffic violation and officers found three 10 milligram tablets of Valium in his underwear during a strip search. Stockman pleaded no contest to “use of a controlled substance” – a misdemeanor – with the understanding that it would be dropped after a short period of “unofficial” probation, according to the article.

Well, you see, the PAC is lying because he plea-bargained to a misdemeanor or something, even though he was initially charged with a felony, so it's very misleading and unfair to say he was "charged with a felony." Besides, maybe this is a Return of Martin Guerre thing and the longhaired hippie guy in the 1977 photo is totally a different fellow from the elected one who talked about being arrested for having pills in his underpants.

In one of those beautiful clarifications that clarifies nothing, Stockman campaign spokesman Donny Ferguson explained Tuesday exactly where the PAC was telling heinous lies about Stockman:

“He never denied being arrested 40 years ago as a teenager. He was arrested for a traffic violation, not drugs. And he was not arrested multiple times or convicted of a felony.”

This explanation is 100% consistent with Ferguson's statement on January 31 when he announced the libel suit:

The Cornyn PAC claims Stockman had been “jailed more than once,” was “charged with a felony” and “violated federal ethics laws,” all of which are false statements.

None of that stuff ever happened, except for how it kind of did, and Stockman admitted much of that in the Dallas Morning News article from 1995, which mentioned that "Stockman spent more than one weekend in jail for traffic violations," which covers both the "multiple times" and the "jailed more than once." As for the violations of ethics laws, while he hasn't been formally accused by his colleagues in the House, there's no shortage of reporting on his hinky financial disclosures. That libel suit should be fun to follow.

Oh, and then there's the primary fight against Cornyn. That's not exactly going well for Stockman either; The Dallas Morning News noted this weekend that he has "only a fraction of the funds available to the incumbent" -- a touch over $47,000 as of December 31, compared to $7 million for Cornyn. But that's OK, because Stockman has The People on his side, except for how in mid-December Cornyn was ahead of him by 44 pointsamong Texas Republicans, at 50% to 6%. But since there were also 39% undecided and 5% for other candidates, Stockman saw it as excellent news, and sent out a tweet saying "Bad news for Cornyn: New poll shows 50% of Texas GOP don't want him back in Senate."

Texas chickens are advised to be on the lookout for a delusional congressman with Valium in his shorts. He may or may not have invited Ted Nugent and a rodeo clown to accompany him.

[Texas Tribune / Dallas Morning News / Dallas Morning News]

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