It's time for the Friday Wrap, where your Burnt Orange Reporters comment on all the news that fits in a blockquote.
It was a great week for consumers as Senator Elizabeth Warren attended her first Senate Banking Committee hearing. The gentlewoman from Massachusetts had a few questions for regulators that were long overdue. Upworthy has the video:
Senator Elizabeth Warren, y'all!
Below the jump, get caught up on Ted Cruz, Jerry Patterson, Annise Parker, Steve Munisteri, and religious fervor in Texas.
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It didn't take long for Ted Cruz to be compared to one of the most extreme characters in American political history. Democratic senators compared him to Joe McCarthy this week. Wow.
--Michael Hurta
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According to the Texas Tribune, Jerry Patterson said yesterday: "The First Amendment kills as many as the Second, or is as dangerous."
So, then, what exactly would he mean by bans on magazines?
--Edward Garris
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Republican State Senators Bob Deuell, Donna Campbell and Charles Schwertner are trying to shut down abortion clinics by requiring them to follow administrative code for surgical centers, even though most of the code has little or nothing to do with abortion services. Currently only 5 clinics in Texas meet this standard.
No word if they will include additional funds for hospitals to construct new septic abortion wards to handle the likely consequences of such a law.
--Katherine Haenschen
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At the University Democrats meeting this week, speaker Annise Parker mentioned how great a strong mayor system is. I wish we could experience that accountability in Austin.
--Michael Hurta
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Texas unsurprisingly was ranked as one of the more religious states in the nation according to a new Gallup poll, with 47% of Texans characterizing themselves as "very religious." But Texas actually falls short of the top ten list and comes in behind most of the Deep South and Utah, with Mississippi taking the lead at 58%. As a comparison, most New England states' "very religious' percentages are in the 20s.
--Emily Cadik
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Republican Party of Texas chair Steve Munisteritold a group in West Texas, "we have to get over a perception that Republicans dislike Hispanics or African Americans."
Meanwhile, Midland's Congressman Mike Conaway supports ending birthright citizenship, which Munisteri agrees with -- after all, Republicans can't have those terror babies growing up and voting in Texas.
Republicans appear to still have a ways to go on that "perception" problem.
