Dear Republican Members of the Texas House of Representatives,
Swing Texas voters don't care about what you care about.
Since 2003, you have pushed highly partisan issues -- namely congressional redistricting, school vouchers, and voter ID -- to the forefronts of your legislative agendas. Throw in some gay-bashing and the bi-annual Pro Lifer contests, and your legislative agenda looks gets Rush Limbaugh so excited he has to double-up on his order of oxycontin just to cope with the pain of triumph.
I also know that you probably don't care that Speaker Straus proved himself to be a total pansy this past weekend. Remember these words:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." This statement, that originated in the Bible, has been preached by Sam Houston and Abraham Lincoln, and it is appropriately used here today. The Texas House of Representatives cannot conduct the people's business if it is divided. And this is why I became a candidate for speaker.
I will try my best to empower members so that they can do what is right for their constituents and for the people of Texas. After all, that is why we are here.
For the next 140 days, the 150 of us have the important responsibility of representing 24 million Texans.
Yeah...turns out Straus couldn't lead his way out of a brown paper sack. No surprises, I guess.
But you, House Republicans -- probably still pretty pleased with yourselves. You got to be the "party of No" -- just like your national allies. You got to be obstructionists -- despite holding the Governor's office, the Senate, the House, and, well, every other office of importance, you proved to your constituents that you just couldn't get the job done.
You have (almost) killed CHIP expansion. You killed the unemployment insurance bill (saving Rick Perry the hassle of having to veto it). You did a little Tier 1 expansion of higher education (after the Legislative Study Group basically told you what needed to happen), but not much else with higher education.
And if you're thinking this will help you in the 2010 midterms -- think again. As Matt pointed out before, Democrats have only picked up seats since we went to Ardmore -- you really think that talking for a few days will be the thing that gets us beat? Get real.
Sure voter ID is popular -- but you know what is even more popular? Helping Texans who get screwed by insurance companies. Getting health care for Texas kids. Making college more affordable. Pick an issue -- you're not on the right side of it.
Keep crowing about voter ID as your silver bullet. You're going to need more ammo than voter ID in your gun if you plan on holding the House with Pinocchio Joe at the helm. A limosine Republican that couldn't get voter ID through the House and, in effect, may have killed a pro-life bill in the process? How are you all even going to get through the primaries?
Meanwhile, swing voters will continue resonating with the policies Texas Democrats have worked on all decade long. Keep working as obstructionists -- it is the easiest way for us to show you the way to the minority.
Earlier today, current Texas House Speaker Joe Straus filed paperwork that would enable him to campaign for re-election as speaker upon the conclusion of the legislative session. While not unexpected, the timing would indicate that he feels like he is in a position to secure votes from fellow Republican for having not caved on Voter ID, and killing off debate and passage of Rick Perry's "do not want" bill regarding unemployment insurance.
Of course, all of the following items were as a result deemed less important than Voter ID. Straus and the GOP set the agenda. They, along with the actions of Senate Republicans at the start of session, took actions which had a cascading effect across the legislative calendar.
* The electric co-op reform bill
* Eminent domain
* Averitt's clean air bill
* TDI sunset
* Enabling legislation for $5 billion in highway construction bonds
* Informed consent for abortion
* Solar energy incentive program
* Windstorm insurance (Hurricane season begins Monday)
* Dewhurst's overhaul of health care (SB 6, 7, 8 )
* Unemployment insurance
* Flores' enabling act creating a homestead exemption for disabled veterans
* Criminal asset forfeiture reform (to prevent the abuses that took place in Tenaha)
* Constitutional authorization for bonds for water projects and the state water plan
* Watson's renewable energy bill
So if you were to ask, what is is the House that Straus built- it's constructed of just one brick called Voter ID. Oh, and maybe a budget. But that's about it.
For other thoughts on what this might mean moving forward, I'll point you to read replies by Off the Kuff and Burka.
Because there are valid points of order on the Voter I.D. proposal, Democrats early on ask Speaker Joe Strauss if he would sustain one of them -- the fact that committee minutes for the bill were not filed within the three day deadline. He said the violation of the rule would make a bill ineligible for consideration.
Later, Straus indicated he might have, uh, misunderstood the question.
If it was a misunderstanding, it is a misunderstanding that cost the House several days work. Because if Straus had stuck with his original statement, Voter I.D. could have been called up, dispensed with on a point of order, and the House could have gone on to work on insurance reform and other issues.
But Straus and Republicans don't want to bring those bills up. It's clear they've gamed the calendar and the process to help their friends in the insurance industry, as well as Gov. Rick Perry who says he doesn't want to accept federal stimulus money for unemployment compensation -- another bill behind voter I.D. on the calendar.
House Speaker Joe Straus and dozens of GOP House members who signed their names to blanket objections which block insurance reform are doing what Republicans do best: serving their masters in the insurance lobby.
When they placed their partisan voter ID bill at the top of the regular calendar -- ahead of the Texas Department of Insurance sunset bill, they hoped to block key insurance reforms. Like the common-sense, pro-consumer amendment that would require Insurance Commission review and approval of insurance rates before companies could assess them.
Of course, if they succeed in passing voter suppression legislation, they'll put into law bureaucratic barriers to the ballot box. They'll have fewer angry voters to overcome because fewer angry voters will be allowed to vote. That's the whole point of the GOP voter ID plan: put structural barriers into the law that guarantees them power no matter how voters might feel.
Democrats have tried several times to move insurance reform to the top of the calendar. Republicans have said no. But they've made it clear they put their cronies in the insurance industry before the needs of hardworking Texans who now pay the highest insurance rates in the nation.
In this, new Republican House Speaker looks more and more like the man he vanquished, notorious former Speaker Tom Craddick. It's a shame, really. No matter the face in the chair, it's the insurance industry that controls the Republican Party. It's not really a party at all. It's an insurance industry PAC.
It was a holiday yesterday, so you might not have been paying full attention to the Texas legislature-- specifically the Texas House.
Voter ID has slowed the Texas House to a near crawl. Republican's put the bill on the calendar and refuse to take the highly controversial bill off the general calendar.
KT then made it a point to discuss who controls what part of the legislative process. It looks a little like this:
Republicans control the Texas Senate.
Republicans control the Texas House.
Republicans set the calendar.
Republicans set the speaker.
Republicans set the agenda.
Had Craddick not be ousted, had they still hovered somewhere just south of 90 members, etc., etc. But the fact is, he was, and they don't. So it's up to the House Rs, not the House Ds, to get the train back on track. They're the ones who have to get the Ds to compromise, because unless they do, the Ds can use, in the Speaker's parlance, the process that's available to them.
Smith even quotes the Speaker himself from the Quorum Report.
"Democrats have been using the process that's available to them to use in a way that I wouldn't suggest is helpful," he said in an impromptu gaggle with the press during floor discussion of the Top 10 Percent Rule debate. "I would say the more they talk, the more explaining they have to do and I feel like the entire Republican caucus agrees with me on that. And I just hope they put aside some of this, some of the abuses of the process - legitimate - but I think ill-timed beyond just making their point."
Smith finally boils down the debate to the simplest point.
As for the explaining to be done, I would say it falls to those people who are so hell-bent on passing voter ID ahead of windstorm, insurance sunset, and other bills that pass the test of pressing need.
This is a complicated issue. Republicans control every branch of government in Texas. The far right wants voter suppression legislation over any other bill. They have made that decision... not democrats.
We have 1 day left to get to work on the people's business. It is only up to the Republican's in the House to get that done. They are the ones in power after all.
Republicans control the Texas Senate.
Republicans control the Texas House.
Republicans set the calendar.
Republicans set the speaker.
Republicans set the agenda.
But let's add one more thing to that list in regards to speed this session.
Republicans set the pace of progress. And it's been slow since January.
Ever since the Speaker's Race, we've see a general lazy pace of legislation. It began with a late appointment of committee chairs and members and continued with the slow pace of getting any legislation passed out of the house until halfway through session.
But now Republicans are wanting to blame Democrats for not allowing them to get as much done as they wanted. Democratic Caucus Chair Jim Dunnam calls them out on who started the slowdown.
Texas Observer: "We didn't take up bills on the House floor until maybe latest point of any session," Dunnam said. "Why wasn't insurance reform on the house floor weeks ago? Why wasn't the windstorm insurance bill on the floor weeks and weeks ago? Why'd we go home last week every day at 6 or 7 o'clock so that committees could go have dinner? And then turn around and say that [Democrats] are wasting time? Those were decisions that the Speaker made."
Of course, Democrats have offered over a half dozen times to take up many of the other issues that Republicans placed behind Voter ID on the calendar. Yet, Republicans each time have refused to move forward and debate the very bills they are whining about being killed. That's because in the end, they have bills that they want to kill to, but just don't want to be responsible for killing.
"[Republicans] are offering no compromise. They seem to be very pleased with the way things are going. I think that it's clear, from what they've told me, that it's because they don't want to get to the insurance reform bill."
House Republicans, led (or not led depending on how you look at it) by Speaker Straus are obstructing ruling on the points of order announced against the Voter ID bill. By withholding that information, they are now hiding behind the Democrats. They are in control of obstructing movement on the calendar.
Voter ID is nothing other than a raw political tool by Republicans to extend their lease on life for a few more years. Need we be reminded by this report by Elise Hu from 2008 that previewed this fight over a year ago?
Except that its his Calendar, Republicans chose him in their "gang of 11" meeting, and Republicans are the majority.
Mr. Speaker, if you had the balls to lead, then you'd lead. But you can't stand up to your own Republican caucus and keep this divisive issue of voter ID off the front-burner. You've caved to the extremists -- because you don't know how to lead a divided House.
Call us obstructionists -- boo-hoo. Democrats can stand on principles while you stand on politics.
Then you and Burka can go join the ten best hypocrites list in Texas.
ast Thursday I received a cryptic message from a well placed staffer in Speaker Straus' office.
Question: I hear you have a list you're working on, can we talk?
Answer: The only list I have is a grocery list for diapers and baby wipes. I am around if you want to visit.
It turns out the question was a serious one, as the staffer began to tell me about a rumor to oust SO3 from the Chair. I couldn't help but laugh because I thought it was both silly and pretty far from reality. What was funnier was that I was on a short list of folks responsible for gathering the names.
I thought this was the sort of play that was ill conceived by a junior staffer who had one too many at the Cloak Room. I laughed it off and went about my day.
By Monday this issue was way behind me- - it was an old rumor. But many learned about this for the first time yesterday when a conservative website wrote an article confirming there is an orchestrated attempt to remove SO3 (This is why there needs to be a 2 drink limit at the cloak room).
Jim Dunnam and I are the first ones on the record saying it ain't so as reported in Jason Embry's First Reading.
To be clear there is no list. I have not signed, seen or heard of anyone working on this. I am unaware of any overt, covert or osmotic effort to begin one.
Go back to your lives, citizens. Crisis averted.
P.S. Don't take candy from strangers. And don't get your info from a guy that misspells Deep Throat's real name ( Hey genius, it's Mark Felt, not Feldt)
There you go. There is no way a motion to vacate the Speaker of the Texas House happens without leaders like Jim Dunnam or Trey Martinez Fischer. It just can't happen.
I am not saying something isn't brewing, but this emphatic denial casts a very large shadow of doubt on this rumor.
Mark Feldt, Texas Insider: Word around the Texas House of Representatives is that a phantom list of nearly 76 signatures is circulating that will take out Speaker Joe Straus when the time is right. A few representatives wishing to remain anonymous have told Texas Insider they have signed the sheet calling for a motion to remove the speaker.
...
Many Democrats had high hopes for plumb chair posts and committee assignments, but when appointments came out they were surprised to see their support for Straus didn't pay off they way they anticipated.
Consequently, a large number of Democrats and a few Republicans have signed a list that may unseat Speaker Straus when the time is right. It has been rumored that the proper timing would be shortly after the budget passes the House, which it is expected to go for a vote the week after Easter (April 12).
The obvious irony in all of this, is that the coalition of 11 Republicans and 60+ Democrats who worked so hard to unseat Craddick finally have power. Rather than ensure they keep power, this same coalition made it even easier to oust a speaker mid-session by setting the bar for removal of the Speaker at 76 votes in the House Rules. A group of Republicans and a handful of Democrats failed in a vote to set the bar at 90 votes.
For the Democrats, the vote is obvious. Every Democrat would rather have a Democrat for speaker than a Republican. By removing the Republican chosen by 60+ Democrats and the 11 Republicans, Democrats hope to replace Speaker Straus with a Democrat immediately or throw the House into chaos without a Speaker.
For Republicans signing the list, the motives appear less clear. Some may hope to bring back Tom Craddick as Speaker, or simply improve position in committee assignments or with a subsequent Speaker.
I don't see how such a vote is obvious for Democrats. Sure, there is some grumbling, and to a certain extent, it is still in Democrats interest to make sure that Straus gets attacked for any type of legislation that goes forward that isn't good (Voter ID included). I don't envy Straus's position, but it's not like "throwing the House into chaos without a Speaker" helps Democrats. Even the most partisan Democrat still wants to get their mundane everyday good government bills passed. And remember, Speaker elections and upsets in the end, don't happen unless there is a candidate to replace them.
Yesterday Gov. Rick Perry continued to show his hypocrisy and lack of leadership. Perry accepted stimulus dollars after launching an aggressive campaign opposing the needed funds.
House Democratic Leader and Chairman of the Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding, Jim Dunnam, wrote a memo to Gov Perry explaining the importance and benefits of the infusion of federal money. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act requires the Governor or the Legislature to formally request investments from the stimulus bill. In addition there is a small window, 45 days, to request the federal stimulus.
As you know, President Barack Obama will today sign into law H.R.1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the federal economic stimulus bill. The stimulus bill contains nearly $790 billion in tax cuts and key federal investments, including billions of dollars for infrastructure funding and incentives for job creation in Texas.
[...]
I respectfully request that you immediately take the appropriate action under the Act to certify both that Texas will request and use the funds provided for by the Act and that the funds will be used to create jobs and promote economic growth. Because of ongoing deadlines, we do not need to delay acceptance, as there is a great deal of work necessary. If you would prefer to have the Legislature make the acceptance of the funds by concurrent resolution, which is also provided for in the Act, I stand ready to assist in that option. And if this is the case, I would request you designate the Legislature's consideration of the Act an emergency item for this legislative session so we can move the resolution more rapidly through the process.
Rep. Dunnam copied Speaker of the Texas House Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to the letter as well. It is time to act and create and preserve Texas jobs and insulate our economy from further deterioration.
The clock is ticking. We have 45 days to accept or reject the Recovery and Reinvestment funding. The Governor can take a pass and let the legislature do the work or he can end his political posturing and help the tens of thousands of Texans in need.
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Because there are valid points of order on the Voter I.D. proposal, Democrats early on ask Speaker Joe Strauss if he would sustain one of them -- the fact that committee minutes for the bill were not filed within the three day deadline. He said the violation of the rule would make a bill ineligible for consideration.
