Sen. Dan Patrick could be headed to the Oscars. Ok, maybe not that far - but he’s done pretty well with his documentary “The Heart of Texas.”

According to his Facebook: “We were humbled tonight to win 3 of the top 4 awards at the largest world film festival-Worldfest in Houston-1500 films from 33 countries entered. People from across the world came. We won Runner-Up Best Overall Festival Film, Best Documentary & Best Texas Film.”

Congrats Sen. Patrick!

John Sharp, looking for a run at U.S. Senate, infers that Perry is a radical in his latest political ad on youtube. Quorum Report alerted us to this - here’s a look at the video.

Sen. Dan Patrick joined me on Session ‘09 this morning and we covered it all! If you’re interested in immigration, abortion, stem cell research or even an award winning documentary (produced by Patrick), take a look.

Our political roundtable consisted of the trustworthy trio: Ted Delisi, Harold Cook and Jason Embry. We went over the recent news on the Governor, what’s next for the legislature and the love happening in the House.

My award for “Wild Bill of the Week” went to Sen. Kel Seliger for his piece of legislation that makes cattle rustlin’ a 3rd degree felony.

We had an interesting conversation post-show about the split in the Senate. In case you’re wondering on the hold up of various bills, it looks like it is split this year with 13 Republicans, 12 Democrats and 6 Independents - according to some insiders.

I guess the Governor’s remarks on Texas seceding from the union isn’t earning him any love from his colleagues in the Legislature. While debating the budget, the House just passed an amendment that would take $23 million of the Governor’s $24 million budget and put into mental health care services instead. If that plan sticks, the Guv might have to set up a tent in the burned out mansion’s backyard. And, while the national media has given Perry some sought out attention, the Senate took a jab at him as well when they voted to go over the Governor’s head and accept the $555 million dollars in stimulus money he rejected.

How ironic would it be if he had to let some of his staff go due to a depleted budget and they were the next ones in line for the unemployment money he rejected?

Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell, told me today that she was misunderstood when she made what some are calling a “culturally insensitive” comment. During the committee hearing on voter ID, she told a Chinese-American who testified against the bill, that he and his “citizens” should consider adopting names for photo identification card that are easier for poll workers to understand. This came after Ramey Ko told her that naturalized Asian citizens were getting turned away from the polls because the translation of their names were often spelled differently on various documents. Here’s the exchange:

Sen. Steve Ogden joined me this morning for Session ‘09 Austin News In Depth. He brought with him a prop (no don’t get excited)…the state budget, of course! With little time, I tried to touch on several different aspects of the budget - the lack of money for CPS (Ogden said another $12 million bill was passed for more CPS workers), the anti-embryonic stem cell research rider, the rainy day fund and money for Texas jobs.

For our round table this week, we had Matt Mackowiak, Jay Root (AP) and Harold Cook. I teased Harold that they looked like the Three Stooges because they were sitting so close together. In all, it went pretty well.

In the week ahead, we’ll be hearing a lot about voter I.D. when the House brings it up for debate. I have no doubt that some of the more colorful characters in the lower chamber will make the debate interesting. The Senate may also vote on Sen. Dan Patrick’s bill that would mandate doctor’s show a woman about to get an abortion, the ultrasound images of her fetus (as well as have her listen to the heartbeat).