In the good old summertime
You can see the train wreck coming: a special session over the budget and the stimulus package. Speculation is rampant that Perry will veto the appropriations bill, but he may not even have a bill to veto. The difficulties of melding the budget with the stimulus funds (and the rules that come with them) and the rainy day fund may not be doable in a regular session–especially in the House, where the lack of floor action means that the Straus team (whoever that is) has had no experience in working the floor. The machinery broke down on something as simple as Garnet Coleman’s resolution expressing no confidence in TxDOT a couple of weeks ago. The resolution didn’t lay out for the requisite hour, and nobody got the word out to Republicans that they were supposed to vote for it. The conservative Republicans have held their fire thus far, but you know they will come after the appropriations bill. The first test will be the Eiland hurricane bill when it comes to the floor. Eiland wants to use the rainy day fund, and that requires a supermajority vote. The absence of floor discipline means that spending bills will be subject to attack from the left and the right, the former because the spending isn’t enough and the latter because it is too much. This is an accident waiting to happen, and it will play right into Perry’s game plan.
Which is: dance with the ones that brung him, namely the Republican right. He has never given any indication of trying to broaden his support. His rejection of the unemployment stimulus package was straight from the same playbook he has always followed. The special session will be no different. Is this smart politics? The Republican party has lost a lot of ground during the Perry years, and the disenchantment with the hard right, nationally and in Texas, shows up in the polls. But Perry shows no indication that he seeks to reclaim the support of these disaffected Republicans. I suppose the question is, just how disaffected are they? If they no longer vote in Republican primaries, so much the better for Perry. The risk, for Perry, is that they will vote, and that they will vote for Hutchison.
Speaking of whom: Where is she? Hutchison hasn’t been heard from much. I know from the story that I wrote on the governor’s race in February that their strategy is not to engage with Perry. That is the advice that Karl Rove gave them. (There is no love lost between Rove and Perry, going back to Perry’s 1998 race for lieutenant governor. Rove wanted Bush to demonstrate his strength among Hispanic voters by carrying El Paso, and the more Hispanics he turned out, the more votes he produced for Perry’s Democratic opponent, John Sharp–at least that’s the way Perry saw it.) Hutchison is going to have to start positioning herself in this race. Perry wants to make her the candidate of Washington (as opposed to himself, the candidate of Texas), and she is going to have to burnish her GOP credentials by taking on Obama and the Democrats. Perry is not going to let her run on her personality.
So, as the special session is meeting in early July, the governor’s race will be heating up too. In the good old summertime.
Tagged: budget, special session, Texas house, txdot.
Spiro Eagleton says:
Frank Perez has just used an urgent plea asking Phillip Martin to please come back to The Burka Blog’s comments section.
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linda says:
Will there be any affect on Perry and/or Republican “leadership” (I use the term loosely) for needing (?) a special session? Maybe the reaction will be ‘ Oh, Look at the Republicans in charge of the Texas House and Senate, and Gov Perry. They are spending more money on a special session due to lack of leadership.’
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Harry Doghiney says:
Republicans + government = trainwreck
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Martin says:
Would you buy dinner from someone who hates to cook?
Would you buy a roof from someone who hates heights?
Would you trust an auto mechanic who hates his job?
What do you expect…? When you put people who hate government…in CHARGE of government…guess what happens.
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Anonymous says:
Yawn. You were saying there was going to be a special session on the budget last time around as well, Paul.
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paulburka Reply:
March 18th, 2009 at 1:05 am
You’re making this up. I don’t recall having any conversation with anyone in 2007 about an impasse on the budget, and I talked to members of the conference committee regularly. Perry would have been foolish to call a special session after the House blew up over Craddick’s ruling of his own invulnerability to being removed. It was chaos. A special session would have been more of same, and Perry surely knew it.
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paulburka Reply:
March 18th, 2009 at 1:18 am
To Anonymous:
I’m calling you out. I went back and looked at my posts for May 2007. Not one word about a special session. Everything was about Craddick and the insurgents. You just made it up.
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Anonymous says:
“The absence of floor discipline means that spending bills will be subject to attack from the left and the right, the former because the spending isn’t enough and the latter because it is too much. This is an accident waiting to happen, and it will play right into Perry’s game plan.”
Managing the Texas House is like herding Cats, anyone miss Craddick – no one can dismiss the fact that he was good at “managing” the house.
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Texas Conservative says:
I miss Tom, no offense to Straus. I kind of feel like Jim Dunnam is running the House right now.
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paulburka says:
Dunnam is making the most of his moment in the sun regarding the stimulus package. That is not the same as running the House.
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Anonymous says:
Dunnam reminds me of Martin Frost before the last redistricting. Cause come 2011, he knows what will happen to his seat: some of it will go this way, another part this way, a little bit goes this direction, etc.
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Call it a day says:
What personality does Hutchison have to run on?The GOP is in sorry shape and really showing it’s age gap. They are so disconnected and self serving cheats. I can’t believe I voted for all those do nothing bozos like Dewhurst (who looks like the grinch who stole Christmas played by Jim Carey), Corndog, the former democratic cheerleader Perry, and “your-UT- money -is- my -money- to- buy -the- Rangers” Bush. What a bunch of cronied big money profiteering maroons. They are really so out of touch with Texans and this recession.
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REALLY Call it a day says:
Craddick and Straus ( whose mom’s pro Nixon campaigning is scary enough) are toxic to the public. Neo Cons grasping at bizarre idealizations from the past like Reaganites do is what is taking them down. Who relates to that ancient philosophy?
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The ghost of Frank Perez says:
I heard that Phil Martin dresses in drag ala Dr. Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror. Does this mean that a Republican will be elected mayor of Detroit in 2014?
Spiro, does that give you your Perez fix?
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