The Midday Brief: Nov. 4, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

• "Meredith Vieira of NBC's Today Show got right to the presidential question when asking GOP Gov. Rick Perry about his anti-Washington book (Fed Up!): 'It does come out right after the mid-term election. Where have we seen that before? Bush released his book right after he announced he was running for president. Barack Obama did the same thing. Are you next?'" — Vieira to Perry: You've got a book. Where've we seen that before?, Texas Politics

• "Could this be the model for politicians in the age of MSM media decline? I would not be surprised to see Perry take an aggressive anti-media stance in the coming presidential campaign, as several Republican candidates did during Senate races." — Rick Perry vs. the media, BurkaBlog

• "Of all the incumbent Democrats fighting for survival Tuesday, few were as surprised as state Sen. Carlos Uresti of San Antonio, whose heavily Hispanic border district stretches from the Alamo City west to El Paso." — For Democratic Sen. Carlos Uresti, thoughts of drowning in the Republican wave, Trail Blazers

• "Warren Robold, who raised more than $400,000 in corporate money for Tom DeLay’s political committee in Texas, testified that he relied on legal advice that corporate money could be used legally by the committee and not be reported to the Texas Ethics Commission." — DeLay fundraiser: ‘I did nothing wrong’, Postcards

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "State Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, died this morning of an apparent heart attack. He was taken to Austin's Brackenridge Hospital with heart problems; an aide in his Capitol office said his defibrillator went off and said he was taken to the hospital." — Rep. Kuempel Dead After Possible Heart Attack