Give John Carona credit for resolving a conflict with style. Carona and Dan Patrick have sparred over the last few days, starting with words exchanged during Wednesday’s Senate caucus. Thursday, Patrick knocked four Carona bills off of the Local and Consent calendar. For some reason, Carona took this personally. According to reliable sources, Carona confronted Patrick in the member’s lounge and initiated a heated and colorful exchange. Readers with long memories will find it ironic that it fell to Royce West to steer Carona away before things deteriorated too far.
David Dewhurst ameliorated Carona’s grievance by suspending Senate rules and allowing passage of the bushwhacked bills. Still, Carona — who is fiercely proud of his Italian heritage — got the last laugh with the delivery to Patrick’s Senate desk of a horse head, God-father style. Except that the head was once attached to a hobby horse.
