With Steve Bannon on his side in impeachment case, how can Ken Paxton lose? Oh — wait | Opinion

Now Steve Bannon has come to Ken Paxton’s defense.

That just shows how hopeless Paxton’s case is.

If you need the cavalry to rescue you and instead you only get Bannon, a convicted former Donald Trump adviser, along with Parker County foghorn Jonathan Stickland, then that means you are probably not the Vegas oddsmakers’ favorite to win.

Bannon, the first Trump aide found guilty in cases connected with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot after he refused to testify before a congressional panel, rushed to Paxton’s defense in recent days.

On his streaming show — seen on DISH, Roku, Pluto TV and several small appliances — Bannon vowed to “make famous” six Texas Republican senators seen as swing votes on Paxton. The attorney general is suspended now that he’s impeached by his fellow Republicans on 20 accusations that he is unfit to hold office.

The Swing Six include two local senators: Sen. Kelly Hancock of Tarrant County and Sen. Drew Springer of Muenster, who represents Parker County.

Apparently, Hancock and Springer are considered dangerously honest.

Bannon fears that they might be unwilling to completely ignore all 20 allegations against Paxton, a variety pack that includes corruption, bribery, abuse of office and obstruction of justice.

Bannon is cranking up his fringy media machine, ranked a runaway No. 1 in a think-tank studies of the most lies and inaccuracies of any political chat show.

Gosh. I can only imagine the social media outcry on TruthSocial or Gettr or Telegram or Gab.

Talking first with Dallas County activist Lauren Davis and then with Stickland, paymaster for Texas’ Wilks brothers and other multi-mllion-dollar West Texas campaign donors, Bannon described Texas as “one of the hearts of MAGA.”

Fine. Paxton can be MAGA. After all, Paxton spoke at the Jan. 6 Capitol rally and filed one of the cases challenging the 2020 election.

And he and former President Donald Trump now have more in common. They are both under felony indictment and free on bond pending trial.

But in Paxton’s case, the complaints against him were filed by Republicans, some by staunch religious conservatives.

When Bannon asked Davis to list the six swing votes in the Senate, she replied eagerly, “I’ve got their names!”

Along with Hancock and Springer, Davis called out Sens. Bryan Hughes, Charles Perry, Mayes Middleton and Charles Schwertner. (Note the absence of local Sens. Brian Birdwell, Phil King and Tan Parker.)

Bannon blustered: “This is an opening salvo! ... We’re going to drill down. We’re going to make all these six famous.”

The next day, Bannon welcomed Stickland, a Willow Park resident who used to represent Hurst-Euless-Bedford in the Texas House.

Stickland said Paxton “inflicted pain on the swamp,” blaming the impeachment on a globalists’ “witch hunt” by “the leftover Bush regime,” referring to former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Huh.

I didn’t see any Bushes manufacturing overnight legal opinions to help donors, or using burner phones and fake Uber accounts, or picking up $100,000 in stock shares in a booth at Dairy Queen, all things Paxton is accused of in the impeachment complaints.

Listen, there’s a reason Paxton has to find help from outside Texas.

It’s because he doesn’t have much here.

Republican voters are split 50-50 on him. For most of the McKinney Republican’s career until impeachment loomed, 25%-30% of voters didn’t know much about him at all.

He has always benefited from religious conservatives’ support — at least until some of those religious conservatives turned him in to the FBI.

He can no longer claim God is on his side.

Just Steve Bannon.