What we're learning about the masterful, magical Greg Abbott

First of all, he's a professional magician who could put even Penn and Teller to shame. Per his State of the State address, anybody who favors reordering the state's fiscal priorities to do more for schools while at the same time wanting to cut $2 billion from the state's franchise tax is a sleight-of-hand master indeed. That sleight of hand is doubly true when he also urged cutting school property taxes.

Surprised nobody in the Texas GOP has yet invented the phrase "trickle-down property tax cuts."

That's why the likes of a Christy Hoppe are right. There's really nothing to see here but the wizard behind the curtain, trying to straddle Dan Patrick and Joe Straus, so move along, everybody.

Even more wunderbar? Also this, in calling for President Obama not to veto the Congress' Keystone XL bill, along with other GOP governors, Abbott touted the blessings of "good-paying job(s) ... garner(ing) the support of many of our nation's largest labor unions."

Attaboy, Greg. Come out for that good old unionized workingman!

In reality, of course, this is more reason why Hoppe and others are right.

It's also why, after he gets his sea legs (oops, can I say that) as governor, he may be a whole lot more scary than Tricky Ricky Perry. He may be able to peddle snake oil pretty skillfully. It already seems that, with the amount — and skill level — of straddling he's doing, he's got some political skills.