Villalba Protects Straus

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ."
2 Corinthians 11:13

Earlier tonight, this website published a piece about Jason Villalba's refusal to debate the Speaker's race at home; it begat the following response:

@VoteBeebe @MattRinaldiTX @cahnman LOL. Austin Club. Live audience. 60 minutes. @scottbraddock moderates. Week before vote. #TxLege #BringIt
— Jason Villalba (@JasonVillalba) December 28, 2014

This is a cop-out.

Villalba and Rinaldi were originally scheduled to debate tomorrow; Villalba's tweet is an attempt to stall while he shops for a friendly audience.

Villalba wants to run out the clock.  If he faces in district questioning, that will make it harder.  Thus, he prefers Austin in two weeks to Dallas tomorrow.

Make no mistake: An Austin event is easier for this author to attend.  But Villalba lives in Dallas.  It's telling that he would rather appear in our hometown than his own.

As Matt Beebe Says:

.@JasonVillalba will dance for the Austin lobbyists, but skips out on the hometown audience? #TXLege @MattRinaldiTX @cahnman @scottbraddock
— Matt Beebe for Texas (@VoteBeebe) December 28, 2014

Rinaldi follows up:

Point is to have constituents hear the debate. @JasonVillalba wants to debate in front of lobbyists. Tomorrow @6:30 660am. You in? #TxLege
— Matt Rinaldi (@MattRinaldiTX) December 28, 2014

This author proposed a compromise:

@JasonVillalba Nice Try; debate @MattRinaldiTX tomorrow, then @evanasmith 2 hr forum with @SpeakerStraus and @ScottTurnerTX on 1/12
— cahnman (@cahnman) December 28, 2014

Which, upon being ignored, we proposed again:

@scottbraddock Nice try; how 'bout @JasonVillalba/@MattRinaldiTX tomorrow and @SpeakerStraus and @ScottTurnerTX on 1/12?!? @rumpfshaker
— cahnman (@cahnman) December 28, 2014

But nobody wants to make things interesting:

@JasonVillalba Why not @MattRinaldiTX tomorrow and @SpeakerStraus/@ScottTurnerTX 1/12?!? @rumpfshaker @evanasmith @scottbraddock
— cahnman (@cahnman) December 28, 2014

Which, once again, begs the real question: Why not have Matt Rinaldi and Jason Villalba debate tomorrow night in Dallas then have Scott Turner and Joe Straus debate on January 12th in Austin (we don't care if Evan Smith or Scott Braddock moderates)?!?