Big Jolly

On the off-chance that some of you have not heard the latest news in the non-race for Texas House Speaker, below is a press release from Speaker Straus and Rep. Beverly Woolley:

After a frank and open meeting with Speaker Straus, I am convinced he is committed to governing as a strong conservative during the 82nd session. As lifelong Republicans, the Speaker and I share steadfast beliefs in limited government, fiscal responsibility and low taxes; beliefs that are fundamental to the majority of my constituents,” said Rep. Woolley. “In the 82nd session, Speaker Straus will manage the House effectively, and with a supermajority behind him, we will pass conservative legislation.”

“Representative Woolley is a proven conservative leader for Texas,” said Speaker Joe Straus. “I’m honored to have Beverly’s support as we work together to address our state’s most important challenges during the upcoming legislative session.”

Beverly Woolley, long time Republican and community activist, is serving her eighth term in the Texas House of Representatives. Presently, Representative Woolley serves as a member on the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence and the House Committee on Pensions, Investments and Financial Services.

Why is this important?

Yes, Rodney, elections do have consequences and you of all people know about at least one of them.

Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis was quoted by the Houston Chronicle in this article as saying “there are consequences to elections” in the context of returning to Austin in January when Republicans will hold a 99-51 House majority (at the time the article was written) and a 19-12 majority in the Senate.

Let’s back up.

Who would have thought that Texas Republicans, fresh off a stunning landslide in November, would focus not on conservative legislation but on booting a conservative Speaker? It is truly an amazing thing to watch because there really isn't a "race" - Speaker Straus will return to guide the House through several minefields, the most important of which, for me, is the budget process. The vitriolic rhetoric coming from paid attackers is beyond over the top and serves no purpose other than to raise money for more attacks and to make sure their donors get their money's worth.

But to be honest, I was in their camp at one time. I too blamed Speaker Straus for the failure of Voter ID in the 2009 session because that was the path of least resistance. He was speaker, bill failed, his fault because, after all, he was elected by Democrats! You know the story. Except the story isn't true, as I found out when I was forced to look at the record after a bunch of friends from various tea parties signed a letter that was nothing more than an attempt to put Rep. Warren Chisum in as Speaker. And while I hadn't looked too much at Straus' record over the years, Chisum's I knew well and knew that as a small government, freedom loving, liberty type conservative, there was no possibility I could support him.

The first thing I had to understand was that Democrats did not select the Speaker. Joe Straus was elected Speaker 150-0. There was a group of Republicans that remembered former Speaker Craddick's actions in 2005 and 2007 and they were never going to vote for him. Most of the Democrats were never going to vote for him because of his actions at the end of the 2007 session. You remember - his parliamentarian even resigned over it. When it became clear that Craddick would lose, more Republicans jumped ship. So simply saying that 11 R's and 65 D's elected Speaker Straus is not a true and accurate picture of what happened. And if, as I've said before, if the current charges against Speaker Straus were even half-truths, how did these principled conservatives, including Ken Paxton and Warren Chisum, vote for him? I'll let you answer that.

Looks like the porkers are back at it. Robert Garrett has a post up on the Dallas Morning News Trailblazers blog saying that good ol' Warren Chisum has finally gotten ten Republican State Reps to sign a letter calling for a caucus to pick the speaker. Not good for Texas but them's the rules, so let'em caucus. It'll be interesting to see what they do when Speaker Straus wins the vote in the caucus. Will the finally shut up and stop attacking fellow Republicans? Doubtful. If I were Straus, these guys' committee assignments would amount to janitorial work while the grownups handle the business of the state.

There has to be a way to uncover the money funding these attacks. You don't think money is involved? Really? Then tell me why Diane Nusbaum would say this:

GREAT NEWS! We have just received large donations for the purpose of using a professional phone bank to make 1000's of live calls to targeted districts the last week before the vote for speaker takes place in Austin - and probably days before a caucus takes place. (bold added for emphasis)

Still don't believe me? Here is an email that she sent out on Dec 13th: