During the holidays there are people who are nice, people who are naughty, and then there are these people. These are the people we have to fight - help us keep up the fight in 2014!

10. Congressman Randy Neugebauer

    After voting to recklessly shutdown the government, Rep. Neugebauer decided he should head down to the WWII Memorial and berate a Park Service Ranger - telling her she should be "ashamed" of herself for doing her job. Seeing the irony in his gesture, he later apologized.

9. Texas Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman

   

   Calling for the hanging of elected officials? Sadly, this only gets you #9 on this list.

8. State Representative Jodie Laubenberg

   "You have hospital emergency rooms. We have funded what's called rape kits, that will help the women. It's basically cleaning her out. And then hopefully that will alleviate that."

   THESE PEOPLE WRITE OUR LAWS?? Oh, never mind, silly me. They don't do that - ALEC does it for them.

7. Senator John Cornyn

   

   Terrified of a Tea Party primary (and he just got one!), Texas' Junior Senator (in practice) John Cornyn did his best Ted Cruz impersonation in 2013. Some of his lowlights include:

   • Voted against the Violence Against Women's Act
   • Continued his unprecedented obstruction of President Obama's judicial nominations
   • Warned of French people illegally crossing the US/Mexico border in South Texas
   • Claimed gun trafficking in the US isn't a problem
   • Tweeted that the US/Iran nuclear deal was a ploy by Obama to distract the country from the ACA rollout

6. Macy's

   

   Mitt Romney and the US Supreme Court believe corporations are people. So congratulations Macy's - you're a person and made our list! Just not the sort of person we want to spend our holidays with...

   For those unfamiliar, earlier this year Macy's signed a letter urging Governor Rick Perry to veto the Texas equal pay law, which he eventually did. The bill was written by Senator Wendy Davis and Representative Senfronia Thompson and approved by the Texas Legislature. This law would have given legal standing in state courts to women who are paid less for doing the same job as a man.

5. Congressman Blake Farenthold

   

   *Note: Yes, this is an actual picture of Rep. Blake Farenthold...on the right*

   Rep. Blake Farenthold - aka "Congressman Ducky Pajamas" - gave us several gems this year. Among them was his vote to cut food stamps for the needy after this millionaire accepted farm subsidies, and his assertion that veterans need to sacrifice a bit more for the government.

   But the cherry on the cake of his year may very well be an appearance on MSNBC to defend the GOP government shutdown. During the interview Farenthold claimed the shutdown would be "like a paid vacation" for government employees. Either Blake Farenthold takes the worst vacations in history, or he is an idiot. We will go with the latter.

4. Governor Rick Perry

   

   He might have been in contention for the #1 spot, but he did announce his retirement. So that was a positive! As for the bad in 2013...

   • Signed into law one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country
   • Rejected Medicaid expansion, costing Texas $9+ billion dollars and preventing millions from getting health care coverage
   • Vetoed the Equal Pay Act
   • Compared anti-LBGT equality activist to abolitionists
   • Called justice color blind after the Trayvon Martin ruling

3. Lt. Governor David Dewhurst

   

   *Note: Not actually a picture of Lt. Governor David Dewhurst*

   Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst - whose winning personality makes Mitt Romney seem hip - spent 2013 desperately attempting to prove his conservative credentials. After being embarrassed by Ted Cruz in 2012 and terrified of Senator Dan Patrick, Dewhurst spent 2013 fighting women, insulting veterans, and being generally disliked by folks of all political persuasions. Who does like Dewhurst?

   His lowlights of 2013 include:

   • Attempted to forge the official vote time of the anti woman's health bill. Unfortunately for him, it was in front of 125,000 witnesses watching it via live stream
   • Laughed while Senator Wendy Davis read extremely personal and tragic testimony of Texas women
   • Tweeted that the goal of SB5 was to shutdown Planned Parenthood clinics - then declared Planned Parenthood "not germane" during the Davis filibuster
   • Attempted to end the Wendy Davis filibuster with dubious parliamentary procedures
   • Referred to citizen protestors as an "unruly mob"
   • Attempted to schedule SB5 vote while Senator Leticia Van De Putte was home for her fathers' funeral
   • Ordered Texas State Troopers to confiscate tampons from women entering the Senate gallery
   • Caught hanging out a steakhouse with lobbyists during the SB5 debate
   • Insulted veterans by claiming they don't matter
   • Called for President Obama's impeachment
   • Touted doctor against ACA who thinks women need permission to work outside the home
   • And the worst, he gave us Ted Cruz...

2. Senator Ted Cruz

   

   Seriously, do we really need to explain this one? Here is a short summary of some of the worst Ted Cruz moments in 2013:

   • Became the de-facto speaker of the US House and forced a US government shutdown
   • Launched a fake filibuster attempting to defund ACA
   • Ironically missed the moral of Green Eggs and Ham while reading it on the floor of the Senate regarding ACA (Note to Ted: It's about trying something you think you don't like and realizing you actually love it)
   • Claimed on Meet the Press that there was no gun show loophole
   • Slammed General Colin Powell for speaking out against GOP racial problem
   • Claimed gun control is unconstitutional
   • Praised racist Jesse Helms, saying we need 100 more like him in the Senate
   • Voted against the Violence Against Women's Act
   • Continued the unprecedented obstruction of President Obama's judicial nominations

1. Attorney General Greg Abbott

   

   Attempting to ride the coattails of the worst Governor in Texas history, Greg Abbott has been busy in 2013. While he doesn't have the national recognition of Ted Cruz and Rick Perry, his actions have been just as extreme and devastating to our state.

   So congratulation to Greg Abbott - Progress Texas' Worst Texan of 2013!

• Turned a blind eye to cronyism allowing millions of dollars for cancer research to be misused
• Threatened international election observers with arrest and prosecution
• Supported new restrictive abortion laws and vowed to defend them in court
• Opposed Medicaid expansion that would have provided health care to 1.4 million Texans
• Defended the GOP's $5 billion cuts in Texas public school funding
• Accepted an award from a bigot Dave Welch 
• Claimed "nobody in the state of Texas has done more to fight to help women than I have"
• Thanked a supporter who called Senator Wendy Davis "retard barbie"
• Claimed "no problems" caused by Voter ID in the 2013 election - when in fact there were many