Talafreako hypocritico — now on pulpit endorsements

James Talarico, by late July Fox polling, and other sites, continues to post a small polling edge over Ken Paxton.

Kenny Boy remains much more ethically challenged than Talafreako, but the latter is not simon-pure.

Shock me again, but he's apparently violating his pledge not to accept endorsements from church pulpits. And, though he's not a lawyer, he's doing so in Strangeabbott-type legal-Jesuitical fashion: 

The Sunday before he’d announced his Senate candidacy, he’d gone to his home church of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, he said, where his pastor, Jim Rigby, had addressed it explicitly. 

“He said, ‘You know, the new IRS rules mean that I can now endorse candidates from this position,’ ” recalled Talarico. “And he said, ‘But I won’t be doing that, because I still believe in the separation of church and state.’ That’s exactly how I feel. I will not seek, nor will I accept, any endorsement from the pulpit anywhere, because that boundary is sacred in my mind.” 

It’s a strong statement—one on which he seems to have compromised. On Sunday morning, at the Luke Church, in Humble, Pastor Timothy Sloan brought Talarico up to the pulpit and made a strong statement of his own. “In the spirit of my pastor, Reverend William Alexander Lawson—he would always say this whenever he had an official that came to the church. He’d say, ‘Now, we don’t endorse candidates. That’s not the church’s role. However, you should know who your pastor endorses and believes in.’ And I want you to know my full, total, and complete weight is behind James Talarico.” Talarico’s team shared the clip across its social media accounts, touting the endorsement of “one of the most respected pastors in Houston.” 

Sloan’s caveat that he is endorsing the candidate in his personal capacity, and not as a representative of the Luke Church, is delivered as a knowing wink—the congregation bubbles up with laughter at his “however.” It’s a technical loophole—not that such things matter anymore, as far as the IRS is concerned—that is pretty well annulled by the fact that it is being delivered from the pulpit on Sunday morning.

Yet more reason to either undervote the race or hope some write-in candidate is entered. And, yet one more thing that Kuff either will ignore or else put in his spin cycle. (The Monthly story was Aug. 11 and as of Aug. 18, Kuff had nothing, so it's on his ignore cycle. I know he reads the Monthly online often enough.)

And, per the next paragraph, Team Talarico immediately put it in their spin cycle:

When I reached out to the team, citing Talarico’s previous denouncement of pulpit endorsements and asking whether his position on the matter had changed, spokesperson JT Ennis pointed to the distinction. “James is honored to have the support of Pastor Sloan, a dedicated and trusted spiritual leader in Houston. As Pastor Sloan made clear, it is not the church’s role to endorse candidates—but that does not preclude faith leaders from speaking out in their personal capacities,” Ennis said in a statement. “As James travels across Texas to engage with places of worship, he will continue speaking beyond political talking points to address the deeper spiritual crisis facing our country.”

Gads.