THE NEW PHASE IN THE CONVENTION OF STATES PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN IS MAKING THE IDEA SEEM MAINSTREAM

The proposal to hold a "convention of States" to amend the U.S. Constitution is a favorite on the right, but most political observers continue to regard it as a fringe idea. It looks as if powerful forces want to change that.

Today, Texas governor Greg Abbott announced his support for the idea:

Ar­guing that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has “run amok” and trampled over states’ rights, Texas Gov. Greg Ab­bott on Fri­day un­veiled a plan to over­haul the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion through a con­ven­tion of the states.
Ab­bott, the first-term Re­pub­lic­an, rolled out nine amend­ments that he said would “re­store the rule of law in Amer­ica.”

Here's what he's proposing:

Here are the nine amendments to the U.S. Constitution that Texas Gov. @GregAbbott_TX is calling for #txlege pic.twitter.com/xbziSVL6Zs

— Brian M. Rosenthal (@brianmrosenthal) January 8, 2016

This comes two days after Marco Rubio wrote in USA Today that he also advocates a convention of states.

The idea has been promoted by Koch-affiliated organizations as ALEC and Citizens for Self-Governance. And when you look at the amendments Abbott is pushing, you can see why this would be a pet idea of the Kochs:

... in a speech Fri­day be­fore the Texas Pub­lic Policy Found­a­tion ... Ab­bott spe­cific­ally took is­sue with the En­vir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency’s rules lim­it­ing car­bon emis­sions from power plants, which he has long op­posed. Ab­bott said the rule moved by “un­elec­ted bur­eau­crats” would cost the state and con­sumers bil­lions of dol­lars each year in high­er elec­tri­city costs....

Ab­bott said that his con­sti­tu­tion­al plan would let states re­buff the Clean Power Plan (which was based on the EPA’s au­thor­ity from the Clean Air Act) and would open up more room for states to sue....

Ab­bott also pro­posed amend­ments to block Con­gress from reg­u­lat­ing activ­ity oc­cur­ring en­tirely with­in one state (for ex­ample, cer­tain En­dangered Spe­cies Act reg­u­la­tions, he said)....

Someone clearly thinks that it's time to associate this idea with mainstream officeholders rather than talk-radio cranks. Someone clearly thinks it's time for this idea to go mainstream. Will it? Will right-wing billionaires succeed at this? Will more high-profile Republicans join Rubio and Abbott? A few months from now, will Chuck Todd and Ron Fournier be asking whether we should take this idea seriously?