It is a monumental loss. Antonin Scala was a brilliant conservative jurist. President Obama has the right to nominate someone, and the Senate has a right to reject that nomination if it alters the courts balance.

As friend Gary Bauer of Campaign for Working Families says:

"Don't fall for the ruse that Obama will appoint a moderate. Can anyone name the last truly moderate justice appointed by a Democrat president?"

"This next appointment is filling the void left by a conservative giant. We are now facing a court with four lock-step liberals, two strong conservatives in Thomas and Alito, Chief Justice Roberts, who is generally good but has disappointed us on occasion, and Anthony Kennedy, who is completely unreliable.

"Another Kennedy on the court would give us four liberals, two left-leaning moderates and at best three conservatives. There would be a lot of 6-to-3 decisions against our values. In short, it would be a catastrophe."

This week Carrier announced it was closing two plants in Indiana, eliminating 2,100 jobs for business reasons. At TCR we don't buy that explanation, instead we suggest when you are in the market for an air conditioner buy a product made in America 100%, not Carrier.

The GOP must stand up for working class Americans, that's who Trump is reaching.

Now there are things Trump's campaigning on that are responsible: illegal immigration, fighting for American workers and their jobs, free and fair trade, but the 9/11 truther drivel is ridiculous.

There is no proof whatsoever that President Bush knew there were no weapons of mass destruction. Trump has aligned himself with kooks Code Pink, Michael Moore, and radical leftists.

How can anyone support a man who is willing to say such a falsehood about 9/11 for the Republican nomination for President of the U.S.?

President Obama's recent mosque visit and speech was full of inaccuracies. Friend Joseph Klein recently summarized the misinformation put out by him, and corrects the record:

"In sum, to single out Islam as an unabashedly positive force that has "always been part of America" is simply not supported by the historical record. No mosques were even built in the United States until the early twentieth century. Muslim slave traders enabled the market for slaves to grow in America. The first war was the young United States fought against foreign powers was against Muslim states. The founding fathers cited by Obama who owned copies of the Korean were not comfortable with the rigidity of Islamic doctrine and its warrior mentality. Muslim Americans' contributions to such fields as science and jurisprudence, such as they are, did not begin in earnest until well after the middle of the twentieth century."

"If Obama decided to speak at another U.S. mosque while he is president, he would do better to focus his remarks on encouraging Muslim Americans to assimilate more fully into American culture. This would include respect for the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land."

Last week on Red White & Blue, your editor asked the five Democrats on the show, including co-host David Jones, this: "How is it that Bernie Sanders won New Hampshire big and split Iowa, yet is losing in the delegate count 394 to 44?

The answer: 712 "superdelegates". These are party activists and Democratic elected officials. By calculations, each superdelegate represents 10,000 citizen votes, while the Democratic primary vote counts as one, still think the Democratic Party believes in the voters deciding their nominee?

Independence and standing up for values is a Texas tradition. It is a spirit that is encouraged and indeed celebrated across Texas. Everywhere that is with the possible exception of the Republican Party of Texas, as this story will show.

In advance of this past weekend's meeting of the State Republican Executive Committee, the meeting's agenda contained an item labeled cryptically, "internal investigation." SREC members curious about the item inquired and discovered that allegations were made against Houston area SREC member Bonnie Lugo which required an "internal investigation" and potential sanctions.

While it may seem like a James Bond thriller, the story has much more to do with LBJ-like arm-twisting than the intrigue of a 007 novel. This particular story starts at the end of 2015, when the Dallas City Council double-downed on their 2002 anti-discrimination ordinance with the addition of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity expression." You may recall that the timing of the Dallas move was curious in the fact that it followed on the heels of the overwhelming defeat of Houston's Proposition 1, which would have granted similar status in Houston. In response to the Dallas vote, Jared Woodfill, who was a leader and spokesman for Campaign for Houston, the Prop 1 opposition campaign, called on the RPT and RPT Chairman Tom Mechler to pull the 2016 Republican State Convention to environs considered more ideologically hospitable. Mechler, who had been conspicuously absent in the Houston fight, immediately bristled at the idea, rejecting it out of hand. Conservatives across the state though, began to rally behind the idea - among them Bonnie Lugo. Lugo voiced her support for the idea of moving the convention and disputed Mechler's contention that the move would be unfeasible due to penalties of nearly $1 million. When Lugo requested to see copies of the contracts and records of financial disbursements made in connection to the May 12-14 convention, she was stonewalled. In response to denial of information to which she is entitled as a member of the SREC, Lugo sent a letter in which she pointed out the RPT's apparent lack of transparency and demanded an immediate accounting, writing in part, "It is my request that all SREC members be given (1) a full accounting of the financials, as it relates to the Dallas Convention, (2) a copy of the contract, (3) dates and amounts of any payments...by the end of business on Monday, November 23rd, 2015."

It would now appear that the price Bonnie Lugo pays for speaking out, standing up for Republican values and for demanding fiscal accountability is intimidation and strong-arm tactics at the hands of Chairman Mechler and company.

The good news, for the moment, is that the righteous prevailed, with Mechler backing down and dropping the "internal investigation."

Mechler called off his dogs, but not before sending a message to Bonnie Lugo and all members of the SREC that if you disagree with him or speak out, he's coming after you. Who knew that service on the SREC (a grassroots, volunteer position) would require a blood oath and vow of silence to Mechler? Maybe better questions are, "How did a thug like this take over our party in the first place," and "How quickly can Texas Republicans get rid of him?"

Coming Super Tuesday March 1: TCR Editor Gary Polland helps helm KPRC's (NBC Houston) political coverage live on Click2Houston.com with host Khambrel Marshall.

Red, White & Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland and liberal commentator David Jones on Fridays at 7:30 pm on PBS Houston Channel 8, replaying Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8, Mondays at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.

Upcoming show:
Super Tuesday Preview with guests Senator Paul Bettencourt and Senator Sylvia Garcia.

Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his sixteenth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last fourteen years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 13 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his 14th year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on PBS Houston, longest running political talk show in Texas history. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.