https://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/about-last-night/
Haven't we seen this picture before? Speaker Straus performs well for most of the session, but when crunch time comes, he can't close the deal. His team has no cohesion (except for Geren), and there doesn't appear to be a strategy. So Straus falls back into his old persona of presiding rather than leading. It's happened every session he has been speaker. I wrote much the same story line a few days ago, ending with the prediction that Straus would end up putting Rick Perry in the driver's seat. That is exactly where we are headed. Just wait and see, Perry is going to eviscerate the restoration of the education cuts.
The Senate, of course, has its own problems. It's more cohesive than the House, but Tommy Williams has fallen back into his old House persona of losing his temper at a key moments. (In Straus's case, it's being in a canoe and choosing not to paddle.) Can you imagine what Bullock would say about this situation? Where are the giants when you need them? I'm not going to wax eloquent about the good old days — they weren't so good as we might like to remember — but at least they produced leaders who could close a deal when they had to. Oh, and here's another prediction: SB 11, the drug testing bill that caused so much drama and comedy last night in the House before being killed at midnight, will come back in the special session. What a mess!
Tags: Politics, Budget, Joe Straus, tommy williams
Robert_Morrow
"Just wait and see, Perry is going to eviscerate the restoration of the education cuts." We can only pray.
I hope he does, we need to stop dems from throwing more money into the broken public edu. We need to get the progressives, unions and feds out of public edu to fix it.
Kenneth D. Franks
The "Test Driven Curriculum," we are moving away from was a result of Republicans giving huge contracts to Pearson the testing company which has harmed public education but not beyond repair.
we should probably get rid of the teachers, too. they're all communists.
I don't know about that, Jed, but I do know some of them are incompetent.
maybe we should just cut their pay.
i hear lowering spending improves results.
probably get more competent teachers if we stop overpaying them.
problem is, the lower the pay, the greater the chance they really ARE communists! uh oh.
JBB and everyone else: Abbott is already making the rounds in his coronation to the Texas Governor's Mansion in 2014 by opening a new campaign headquarters in downtown Austin; making speeches to supporters, shaking hands, building grassroots infrastructure, etc., and political insiders say Perry has seen the handwriting on the wall and will NOT run.
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/05/23/abbott-not-waiting-perry-build-his-campaign/
You are praying for education cuts? Schools are in many ways trying to operate on 2006 funds and formulas or less with more students. Pearson is getting enough money in its contract to test students to pay more than a couple of thousand teachers $50,000.00 a year for 15 years.
As I'm a rancher I"ll leave you with this: You don't get a cow to gain weight by weighing it every day. You get it to gain weight by feeding it.
CB_TX
"except for Geren"? What has Geren done? It was another person on the team that saved Straus' from looking like a fool several times earlier in the session. The most inconsistant have been Branch, Hunter, and Hilderbran. They have voted on the other side of the speaker many many times this session.
Ears1foru
You will never know what Geren has done…
"Cohesion…act of sticking together". That's what Geren has done; that's what Paul says he's done. He is one of the few that let's you know how he feels, where he's going, and honors his word. He thinks independently, and does not kowtow to threats made by extremeists. He knows his constituents well and they know him well. He has never kissed Perry's rear, nor will he the next governor's. We need scores more like Charlie Geren. I'm in Arlington. I will trade you one Patrick, two Krause's, and three Zedler's for him.
and 36 Sticklands and Schaeffers………
Of course Perry's going to be in the driver's seat as the 83rd Session of the Texas Legislature is winding down.
While Straus isn't much of a leader he's all the democrats have as they try to hijack the session. I hope and pray Texans have had enough of Straus.
PicklesS
Negative, negative, negative. That's not the way to start your 72nd year on this earth, Paul. Your negative tone is exactly like my Daddy's was – right before he died.
Crass comment.
That cry baby Van Taylor should take up at least half of the spots on your 10 worst list and maybe throw Charles Perry, Stickland, and Schaefer in there too.
Don't forget Steve Toth. But Taylor really is a horrid man and he looks like the sort of person who would walk into a bar and get punched in the face within 5 minutes.
I'm surprised by how well-behaved Debbie Riddle has been this session. Maybe with Leo Berman and Wayne Christian gone, there's no one around to enable her madness.
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