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TAMPA, Fla. Amid the jeers, chants and sometimes vulgar signs Monday at the protests against Republicans, demonstrators reserved an extra level of derision for one, simple word: Texas.

Yes, the Lone Star State.

So often a point of pride for displaced Texans across the country, the state was reduced to a punch line as protesters marched in muggy temperatures and rains spinning off of Tropical Storm Isaac.

The reporting mission Monday morning seemed simple enough: find a demonstrator from Texas and chronicle the trip to Florida for the anti-convention rallies.

The problem was that there were no Texans to be found, especially with the expected crowd of 5,000 cut to a couple hundred by the bad weather and perhaps the heavy police presence.

I asked the Occupy Wall Street folks. I asked the group fighting to save the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service. I asked those marching in support of everything from immigration rights to gay rights to womens rights.

One youngish protester in full black garb offered, I have relatives in Texas. A middle-aged woman said warily, George W. Bush is a Texan and others had far worse things to say about him.

Most just seemed bemused by the thought that a red-blooded Texan would join their cause, never mind the states tradition of independence and occasional dissidence.

And more than a few eyed with disgust my Dallas Morning News press credential, replete with a Lone Star flag background.

That was until I met Ramy Khalil, 36, a socialist who grew up in Houston and still has a 713 phone number.

More here:
Tom Benning’s Quick Take: ‘Texas’ a dirty word among protesters at Republican convention