All the gamesmanship that was involved with replacing the parliamentarians (it's obvious their resignations were forced and/or based on their own ethical concerns since the resolution honoring their service was withdrawn) seems oddly familiar.
For me, Craddick's staying put conjures up shades of Election 2000 ~ and the so-called Brooks Brothers Riot ~ where paid Republicans converged on Florida to help George Bush win the election. What a pleasant memory.
Star-Telegram editors report that Republican State Rep. Tony Goolsby of Dallas and Republican State Senator Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio are joining forces in an attempt to pass legislation that would dissolve the states protection under sovereign immunity. This move would have serious long-term ramifications should it pass, as civil lawsuits all over the state would begin pouring in like the Guadalupe River after a hard rain.
The reason behind it reeks. These two legislators wish to allow Republican Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht to sue the state for over $340,000 in expenses related to his ethics defense from the Judicial Conduct Commission. This panel admonished Hecht for openly campaigning on behalf of ex-girlfriend Harriet Miers nomination to the United States Supreme Court. A three-judge panel reviewed the admonishment and reversed it only because the Judicial Code was unclear in governing this type of behavior.
The Elections Committee of the 80th Legislative session will commence their regular meetings starting tomorrow Wednesday 2/14. The hearing tomorrow is an organizational meeting with testimony by invited witnesses only. The meeting is open to the public.
2:00 PM or upon final adjourn./recess
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
PLACE: E2.028
CHAIR: Rep. Leo Berman
Invited testimony will be from the offices of:
The Secretary of State and
The Texas Ethics Commission
Yes, dear readers, it's time for your legislative session feature here on BOR: Bill Buzz! Grab your morning coffee and, for those of you keeping score at home, whatever matrix you use keep track of who has the most bills on the good and bad bills list.
We've got a lengthy list of the good and the bad for you this week. And, believe it or not, there are even some bills we are indifferent about. Whodathunkit?
We did good bills last week, so we'll start with the bad bills this morning.
(This should stay on top for a while.... - promoted by Sam Jones)
[I didn't get to this over the weekend, so I'm going to post it today-VL]
It's time for yet another installment of the favorite BOR feature for people who follow legislation with the same addiction that I do: Bill Buzz! Only we would read legislation so mundane its main purpose is to allow the state to buy plants for the Capitol's interior (see the end of the post for more on that).
Last week, we took the good bills first, so we'll start with the bad ones this time.
Bad Bills
Defending Marriage...From Immigrants. HB 691 by Betty Brown (R-Terrell). Leave it to Republicans to find more and complicated ways to "defend marriage." This legislation would change the requirements for obtaining a marriage license so that the applicants must state, among other things, that they aren't getting married for immigration purposes. (Yawn...) It's a case of "same song, different verse" when it comes to legislation aimed at illegal immigrants.
We are all aware of our governor's sudden interest in matters of national affairs, but it turns out he's not the only one in higher office who has their eyes on juicy topics for this Legislative Session.
In his inaugural address, David Dewhurst has come up with a brilliant idea on how to save our children from sexual predators: allow repeat offenders to face the death penalty.
