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January 04, 2009
A Good Day For Texas
Word via the Chronicle this evening is that Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick will not seek reelection to the top House post, and that San Antonio GOP representative Joe Straus has the votes to become the new Speaker.
Straus, a fiscally conservative, socially moderate Republican, has pledged a new day in the House, eschewing partisanship (which kinda makes sense in a body evenly divided between the two parties), and said that his goal is to restore "civility, fairness and transparency to the House of Representatives and its public policy-making process."
Hallelujah.
To outgoing Speaker Craddick, the message is clear -- you reap what you sow. Craddick ruled the House with an iron fist, forcing an intensely partisan, special-interest driven agenda down Texans' throats. At the end of the last legislative session, he lost control of the body, and only survived with draconian parlimentary measures. Tom Craddick did this to himself.
Texas is a better place now that Craddick's choke-hold on the House has been broken. Joe Straus seems like a sensible pragmatist -- exactly what this state needs.
So to our friends on the religious right: we're so sorry for you that you now have one less ally in distracting Texans from the real public policy challenges facing our state -- public education, healthcare, utility rates, college tuition, etc. Good luck peddling your 1950's Beaver Cleaver version of America. The rest of us are trying to live in the real world.
Posted by houtopia at January 4, 2009 10:36 PM