Special Session Begins to Melt Down

In addition to passing a funding bill for schools that reduces funds the bipartisan anger at Govenor Perry shot his bill down unaminiously.

"Sarcastically saying that the House did not legislate by press release, Keffer actually introduced the first version of the Governor's plan as a floor amendment. It went down 126-0 with 16 present not voting."

Burnt Orange - When you can't get a single vote for your flagship piece of legislation in a chamber dominated by members of your own party, you are in trouble. The fact of the matter is that the GOP is starting to split right down the middle in a way that I always suspected that it would- religious/cultural conservatives on one side and business conservatives on the other. See- Perry, Craddick, Grusendorf and the entire GOP leadership really are all under the thumb of huge donors, they represent the corporate conservative wing. Most rank and file Republicans, particularly House members, however, are cultural conservatives. They care less about economic/fiscal issues than issues of public morality. So when Perry/Craddick/Grusendorf say "get rid of the taxes on business and expand gambling" you know that its going to be an ugly day for the GOP.

So the Governor cuts their legs out from under them, they shoot him down unanimously, they pass a meaningless piece of legislation (shirking their obligations to the voters of Texas) but only after being bullied by their leadership, then they forget what the entire purpose of the session is for several hours before giving the big heave ho to Craddick and Perry by resoundingly defeating the HJR. Don't you love it when Republicans are fighting? I do- because we can just vote against whatever freak of nature this legislature tries to pass and we can campaign as the people who didn't raise your taxes and gut your schools all at the same time.

I will add that Ron Wilson continued to suck up to Perry and the GOP for a future job - the only Democrat(?) to vote for any of the bills, he voted for all three. He is said to be setting up as a lobbyist in Austin.