Texas Governor Greg Abbott was in hot soup over his state’s freezeup meltdown. So he did what any politician would do: change the subject.

Abbott announced the end of covid restrictions in his state. All business open 100%. No masks necessary. His hope was that freeing Texans to let the good times roll would deflect them from talking about how badly their government screwed up the power system.

It should work, at least in the short term. Another covid surge in Texas will take a few weeks to materialize, and in the meanwhile people will flock to churches, bars and restaurants (not necessarily in that order) and forget about the power issues.

But chances of another surge are good. When Abbott gave his order, Texas had one of the lowest vaccine rates in the US. It was also in the middle of a small surge in cases from the low point in late February.

If Texas sees a big surge and is one of the only states to roll out the portable morgues again, it could reflect poorly on Abbott. His opponents in both political parties could benefit.

Rolling snake eyes could come back to bite him.