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Michael Dukakis now knows how he could have won the 1988 presidential election: Dump on Houston.

Dukakis, the epitome of a wonkish Democrat with zero charisma, was handily defeated by George H.W. Bush, partly because of the heinous "Willie Horton" political ad, which blamed Dukakis for a convicted felon committing violent crimes while on a weekend release.

He's now reminiscing about the race, blaming himself entirely (and nobly) for the mistakes made.

And how should he have battled the Horton ad? By putting the spotlight on Houston.

The list of women who say they've been subjected to the unwanted sexual advances of Brazoria County Judge James Blackstock is getting longer.

Brazoria County Clerk Joyce Hudman and two other women have told District Attorney Jeri Yenne they too were groped and kissed by Blackstock, who was indefinitely suspended with pay last week after 14 charges of misdemeanor official oppression were filed against him following allegations by three women employed by the county's juvenile probation department.

Blackstock, 61, has been a county court at-law and probate judge since 1988.

Hudman, the county clerk, told The Facts
newspaper that Blackstock suddenly accosted her in his office in April 2006 after summoning her to a one-on-one meeting in his chambers.

Kirbyjon Caldwell, the Houston pastor who presided over Jenna Bush's wedding, has made it clear his love of Republicans doesn't extend to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Caldwell let it rip, breaking out the hate just because McCain attended a biker rally in South Dakota and suggested his wife should enter the annual topless contest held there.

The first indication something was rotten at the Brazoria County Juvenile Probation Department arose last year, when a probation officer was charged with trading sex with a 16-year-old girl in exchange for not revoking the kid's probation. He copped a plea bargain and got probation.

Now, the chairman of the county's juvie probation board, Judge James Blackstock, is charged with 14 criminal counts of "official oppression" for groping, kissing, and sending nasty e-mail pics to three female employees of the department (and, oh yeah, for asking one of the women to show him her boobs. In the office!)

Blackstock, 61, a bearded and portly Marine Corps vet (and Baylor Law grad) who's been a judge since 1988, has resigned his position as board chair and been suspended indefinitely with pay by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. He hasn't issued a denial to the Class A misdemeanor charges yet. The Republican-dominated Brazoria County Courthouse, a cauldron of gossip and behind-the-scenes politics (like most county courthouses), appears fairly dumbfounded by the latest turn of events.

In its just-released dissection of Hillary Clinton's failed presidential campaign, The Atlantic magazine notes that Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee urged the candidate to play the gender card following the much-admired speech on race relations by Barack Obama.

The time frame was last March and Hillary had just won the Dem primaries in Texas and Ohio, but Obama countered with his race speech, described by some as "historic," and the Clinton camp needed ideas.

Jackson Lee, one of Clinton's national co-chairs, "urged" her to "deliver a speech of her own on gender," writes Atlantic reporter Joshua Green.

The Democratic National Committee launched the first web ad for the Exxon-McCain Campaign today, a campaign that protests McCain’s much-too-close ties to big oil. (You can see the ad here.)

Along with the web ad, there’s a National Day of Action planned (kinda). Activists across the country are supposedly lined up to “highlight John McCain’s promise of $4 billion in new giveaways for oil companies already enjoying record profits and a gas tax gimmick that will line their pockets even more,” according to statements released by the DNC.

New Jersey, Indiana, Maine, Arizona, and Idaho are reportedly among the 18 or so participating sites.

But what about Texas?

This is what I don’t get regarding the whole John Edward thing. And the Bill Clinton thing. And the Bob Livingston, Larry Craig, Eliot Spitzer thing. (And so on.)

We spend a lot of time talking about politicians who cheat.

Why?

Let’s go back fifty years ago or so. It was the 1950s, and you couldn’t get a diaphragm unless you were married (and sometimes not even then), you couldn’t say “pregnant” on television, and if someone said you were gay, you were cheerful and nothing more.

The breaking political news today is that John Edwards admits in an interview to be televised tonight that, yeah, he did have that affair.

Which means the thing will finally get some MSM coverage.

If you're going to admit to an affair, we guess it's best to do it on the day of the Olympics' opening ceremony and a burgeoning war between Russia and Georgia.

But the admission leads us to reflect on Hair Balls' brief but important part in this sleazy episode.

A first meeting of "The Houston John McCain Supporters Group" has been announced, an invitation-only event where fans of the GOP candidate can discuss the race.

Where will it be held?

The Vietnam Elvis Museum, of course.

Or maybe not "of course"; we really don't know. But that's where it's being held.

The Vietnam Elvis Museum is actually the private home of Henry Nguyen. It's crammed with memorabilia, but it's not a "museum" in the sense that people can just come in and look around.

For a while there, we were wondering -- as a reporter for the Columbia Journalism Review put it to us the other day -- "No offense, but why is it that the only reporter who has asked John Edwards the question [about infidelity rumors] is an editorial assistant from a Houston alt-weekly?"

We don't know.

What we do know, though, is now that the rest of the media seems finally open to asking the question, Edwards is ducking the press.

Oliver Stone has been speedily rushing production of his new bio W., a look at the life and times of George W. Bush.

The first trailer has hit the nets, and Houston is a star!

Kind of.

But the clips do include scenes of the infamous night when W drunkenly crashed a car onto the front lawn of Daddy's Houston home, then challenged the old man to a fight.

Kyle Janek's resignation from the State Senate earlier this year has caused a big scramble for his seat.

Everyone's gunning for his job. Janek, though, has found a job of his own -- he'll be schmoozing for a health-care company that runs the "blood test of the future."

Biophysical, based in Austin, is one of the leaders in the emerging field of biomarkers -- expensive tests for well-off patients that can detect diseases before symptoms show up.

No matter what happens this fall, big changes are coming to the Harris County District Attorney's office.

For the first time since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, the office will not be headed by a card-carrying member of the good-ol'-boys who have been in charge. (Not counting interim DA Kenneth Magidson, in office until the new person takes over).

At some point longtime vets, wary of what will come under either Clarence Bradford (a Democrat!) or Pat Lykos (not well-liked!), are going to start storming out the doors.

And, it seems, the parade has begun.

There are some naysayers out there who might claim that Harris County government has a problem with ethics.

These carpers will point to a DA and Sheriff who think county e-mail systems are a good place for racist jokes; a longtime revolving-door tradition that sees county employees move on to jobs that involve getting county contracts; elected officials who pay only passing attention to campaign-finance laws.

There's no pleasing some people.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett did what every elected official does when faced with such controversy -- he appointed a task force to study the problem.

And now their report is out.

We've already dealt with the less seemly, more trashy (and more entertaining!) aspect of John Edwards' visit to Houston today.

What was the serious, wonky, earnest (and boring!) stuff he was really here for?

Housing. Helping the poor. Saying he was "a megaphone" for low-income Americans, Edwards took part in a roundtable discussion with local leaders.

Last week, George W. Bush said Houston and Dallas were exempt from the housing collapse. (Mainly because Bush was a) in a mansion in River Oaks at the time; and b) trying to buy a mansion in Dallas.)

Edwards disagreed.