Scott Caan	Dade Phelan		John Krasinski	Jeff Leach

Alan Ruck	Kelly Hancock		Jim Carrey	Jared Patterson

Mutiny at the Water Cooler: Name Game
and Impeachment Movie Cast Additions

Capitol Inside
September 27, 2023

When Texas House impeachment managers were desperate for a smoking gun, they turned to GOP State Rep. Jeff Leach of Allen for a heart-tugging Hail Mary in a closing argument on the eve of the verdict in Attorney General Ken Paxton's trial. You never would have known how badly Leach's team was losing based on the words he spoke in the House's last hurrah.

The suburban lawmaker waxed with eloquence - the weight of the world plastered on a handsome, bearded face - when he explained to Texas senators in the jury how and he and 59 GOP colleagues demonstrated courage at the highest level and how heavy their hearts would feel if and when they had the guts to do the same. Leach didn't produce the goods to prove beyond a doubt that Paxton traded the keys to the AG's office for a fancy kitchen countertop or a job for a mistress or both. He made no attempt to argue that Paxton had been bribed with a legal contribution five years ago.

When all else had failed, Leach delivered a forlorn serenade on the heartbreak of friendship lost, telling senators how Paxton had been a close friend, mentor and fellow Christian solider before he blew him off, quit calling and shut the door to his office in his face. The sad soliloquy told you everything you needed to know about the evidence when Leach did not bring it up.

But Leach appeared to get choked up at one point - and he even tried to cry in a long pause that let the power of his argument sink in with the jurors. While Senate Republicans found the speech to be highly offensive and absurd, the performance secured Leach a spot in the cast for the Hollywood blockbuster that Capitol Inside has been pitching since the impeachment trial's first week.

But Leach is not the only new addition to the proposed cast for a Paxton movie in a saga that's evolved from tragedy to novel courtroom drama to the full-scale comedy that's it become. GOP Speaker Dade Phelan, who was all but invisible to the naked eye throughout the trial, has emerged in its rollicking wake as the third highest-ranked character in the credit line. State Rep. Jared Patterson - a Frisco Republican - scored a top 10 part as well as a rising Phelan team star who called himself an enforcer before changing it to The Major after we poked some fun at him last week.

Terry Kizer	Dick DeGuerin		Samara Weaving	Laura Olson

State Senator Kelly Hancock of North Richland won a part as a second or third tier character in the impeachment film lineup as one of two Republicans who voted to impeach and sought to fuel a conspiracy about Senate jury rigging without a shred of evidence. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's doghouse where Hancock has spent the past two years may seem more like a jailhouse without a key for him the next three.

But the second-term House speaker is the most important newcomer to the impeachment epic cast after months of invisibility in the eyes of movie goers who couldn't see him in the shadows as the impeachment engineer. Patrick dubbed the speaker California Dade during a brawl on property taxes that the Senate president and trial judge won in the regular session. But Phelan countered the insult in style with a picture that shows him posing with a surfboard. Hollywood native Scott Caan - the son of legendary Godfather family member James Caan - is tailor made for the role of the historic impeachment's founding father as someone who was born to catch a wave.

Stay tuned for updates on the still-untitled Paxton movie project ...