from Talk to Action

Johnny Castle and Baby could have taken lessons from Texas Speaker of the House Tom Craddick and Joe Pojman of Texas Alliance for Life. With the Speaker's one-man rule of the House facing an unprecedented challenge from within his own party, with the passage of a high-impact antiabortion bill at stake, and with the Texas legislative session in its final days, Craddick and Pojman were caught dancing the political payola polka.

"One of the sources of irritation with the Speaker this session is the amount of blood spilled and floor time that has been committed to socially conservative issues," but Craddick and the "pro-life" lobby are longtime partners — and one good move deserves another.

In the Texas Legislature, dirty dancing is only politics as usual.

Although the religious right ensures that its legislative creatures introduce a whole raft of anti-woman bills each session, there are always one or two that surge to the head of the pack and maintain their early lead. This year, the top-priority bill was Sen. Florence Shapiro's SB 785. Shapiro's bill would force women to reveal detailed personal information about themselves to the state before being allowed access to abortion care — and could send a woman to jail for telling the state less than it wanted to know.

Last week, the conflict generated by Shapiro's bill was intensified by allegations that Tom Craddick — whose iron grip on the House is being seriously threatened — fast-tracked SB 785 in exchange for some heavy-handed political backup from Texas Alliance for Life.

SB 785 — whose identical House companion bill died what seemed at the time to be a highly mysterious death in the House Committee on State Affairs — was suddenly catapulted onto the Major State Calendar. And Tom and Joe's dance moves took the spotlight at the end of last Thursday's session, when Rep. Jim Dunnam (D-Waco) addressed the podium.

Perhaps wary of a restive House, Speaker Tom Craddick adjourned today ... before getting to a controversial pro-life bill. The adjournment came soon after Rep. Jim Dunnam hinted from the back microphone that the sudden appearance of SB 785 on today’s calendar was a form of political payola, in exchange for the pro-life movement’s badgering of members to support Craddick in a presumptive speaker’s race.

Dunnam (left) asked Craddick whether he was aware of any connection between a mass emailing to House members from Texas Alliance for Life and the sudden appearance of SB 785 on the House calendar. I watched via streaming video as Craddick paled, mumbled, shuffled a stack of papers on the podium, and denied even knowing what Dunnam was talking about.

Harvey Kronberg of Quorum Report wrote that "the Calendars Committee surprised most observers by setting two heavyweight abortion bills on the Major State Calendar for tomorrow. They point to the Calendar being posted just hours after Speaker Craddick announced his intention to run for a fourth term."

Like Kronberg and Jim Dunnam — who charges that Craddick is rewarding Texas Alliance for Life and "manipulating the calendar to try to save his skin, or save his gavel” — Houston blogger Charles Kuffner is a hard man to fool.

If my previous entry isn't enough to convince you that House Speaker Tom Craddick's closest buddies are worried about his existential future, consider the following email, which was sent today to all members of the Lege:

From: Texas Alliance for Life
[mailto:joe@texasallianceforlife.org]
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 9:08 AM
Subject: Representative, we urge you to OPPOSE any attempt to unseat the Speaker.

May 14, 2007

RE: Please OPPOSE any attempt to unseat the Speaker

Dear Representative ,

We have heard a rumor that there may be an attempt to unseat the Speaker early this week. We strongly urge you to OPPOSE any such attempt.

Texas Alliance for Life categorically opposes any attempt to unseat the Speaker. We will score any vote to unseat the Speaker as an anti-life vote.

Any attempt to remove the speaker is bad for Texas, and it is bad for the pro-life movement. The ensuing chaos that would likely follow such an attempt -- successful or not -- would probably mean the death even the least controversial bills, including our pro-life bills.

If you need any further information, please contact me at 512-477-1244 (o), 512-736-3708 (m), or joe@texasallianceforlife.org. In advance, we thank you.

Sincerely,

Joe Pojman, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Besides, since God Himself put Tom Craddick on the Speaker's throne, the House and the public need to sit down and shut up.

While the question of a possible ethics violation by Texas Alliance for Life remains a blurry one, there seems little doubt that Shapiro's bill got some favored treatment, since it was fast-tracked ahead of 347 other bills. Despite heated denials from State Affairs Chair and Craddick crony Rep. David Swinford, the timeline as excerpted below looks decidedly suspicious.

From: Michael Garemko On Behalf Of Jim Dunnam
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 8:11 PM
To: Jim Dunnam
Subject: SPECIAL EDITION: Monday Memo - May 17, 2007
Calendars Shenanigans Once Again
Coincidences - Or More of the Same?

• H.B. 1750 by Morrison is the companion to C.S.S.B. 785 ... H.B. 1750 died in State Affairs on April 18th. (Source: TLIS)

• C.S.S.B. 785 passed State Affairs on May 7th; the same day Craddick's Point of Order ruling was overturned by the full House. (Source: TLIS)

• As of a full week later, C.S.S.B. 785 was still sitting in State Affairs without the Committee Report being sent to Calendars. Of the 5 other bills voted out of State Affairs on the 7th, all five of the Committee Reports were printed and distributed the very next day - May 8th. C.S.S.B. 785 was not. (Source: TLIS)

Why was the Committee Report for C.S.S.B. 785 being held? And why was it the only bill held?

• At 9:08 a.m. on May 14th, House members received a threatening email from the Texas Alliance for Life stating that they "will score any vote to unseat the Speaker as an anti-life vote." [attachment]

• On May 14th, the Committee Report for 785 was finally sent to the Committee Coordinator, the bill being printed and distributed at 11:51 p.m., 14 hours after the Alliance did the Speaker's bidding. (Source: TLIS)

• On May 15th, C.S.S.B. 785 was sent to Calendars. Calendars considered the bill on the same day, and it was placed on the Major State Calendar for May 17th. C.S.S.B. 785 leapfrogged 347 other bills then pending in Calendars to be placed on Major State. (Source: TLIS)

C.S.S.B 785 is a reward to Texas Alliance for Life for threatening Members

Starting May 12th, members started receiving threatening emails regarding any move to unseat Craddick. [see attachment - GOP county chairs email].

C.S.S.B. 785 was being held for some reason until after Texas Alliance for Life issued the email to members threatening them on the Speaker vote. At that point, the bill was put on the fast track.

This "coincidence" shows a number of things - but mainly that Craddick will never change.

It is apparent that the threatening email and the sudden movement of C.S.S.B. 785 are related - this in exchange for that.

::

C.S.S.B. 785 will put moderate Republicans in a political minefield for their primaries. 785 is also a bone Craddick is trying to throw hard line conservatives.

On May 17th, Tom Craddick said he had never seen the Alliance for Life email. Buy that and I'm sure the Speaker has some ocean front property in Midland for you.

Meagan Headley at the Texas Observer sums up Craddick's dilemma nicely.

Tuesday is the deadline for the House to pass Senate bills, so if the bills’ opponents have valid points of order, the legislation could be killed on Monday. Craddick seems caught between the demands of his pro-life base of support, members who don’t want to have to vote on this contraversial (sic) legislation, and rumblings of a speaker overthrow.

Rep. Ellen Cohen (D-Houston) has an amendment to Shapiro's bill that would relieve doctors of the legal requirement that they lie to women about a link between abortion and an increased risk of breast cancer.
Rep.

Mike Villarreal's planned amendments are framed to change the terms of the debate entirely: “Do we believe that women are capable of making healthcare decisions for themselves, and should the government support campaigns of misinformation?”

Austin sources inform me that those amendments are only the beginning, and that pro-woman House members will be lined up at the microphone to fight this bill every step of the way.

On Monday Republican supporters of Craddick made repeated trips to the microphone with motions that the hearing of SB 785 be postponed — until 2:00 PM, until 4:00 PM, and ultimately until the next and final possible day. And then, shortly before adjournment, the long-awaited move against Craddick finally came.

Civil Affairs Chair Byron Cook, Craddick's fellow Republican, asked to be recognized for a point of personal privilege. His voice heavy with anguish [mp3 link], Cook told the House that even though he has voted three times for Craddick's as speaker, "I will not and cannot support his re-election. And I beg him to step down.” Saying he has been warned that party bosses are recruiting an opponent to run against him, Cook responded, "So be it."

“I love this Texas House,” Cook opened. “I love every member in here.”
::
“The consolidation of political power and influence is detrimental to this House, this state and it must end and it must end now.

“To all, I say simply I will not yield, I will not yield to tyranny, bullying or threats. This body will never realize its potential as long as a speaker’s intimidation, retaliation and character assassination are allowed to be tolerated…

“This is wrong. I believe it’s unethical, and it must be stopped.

“This session, we witnessed manipulation of rules in the legislative process. it appears the budget has been stopped, delayed, exploited…. I say this is wrong. It appears we have lost our tradition of a grueling work schedule and appear to be working at a bill-killing pace… '

Cook said that Craddick had promised him there would be no retribution toward members who supported Rep. Jim Pitts for speaker at the beginning of the session, and then referred to Craddick's $4 million war chest, “or should I add a zero and make it $40 million ... to attack fellow Republicans."

“Release us and submit to the will of the House. Please. This is a battle worth fighting. For me, it means risking my political career. And I am at peace with that. I understand consequences. But it’s still worth fighting.”

He closed by quoting Shakespeare’s reference to a band of brothers: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now-a-bed Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here. They fought with us…”

“God bless Texas.”

As noted by an anonymous commenter at Texas Monthly's BurkaBlog, governing in Texas is about raw power -- not the rule of law, inside or outside chambers. Tom Craddick's power to impose his will upon the House no longer goes unchallenged.

With midnight tonight as the deadline for the House to pass any bills originating in the Senate, the chances for Shapiro's abortion reporting bill are shrinking by the minute.

And as his former supporters continue to drop away, Tom Craddick's dancing shoes might have begun to pinch his feet, but a stand-up Texas Democrat will waltz all night.

To quote my new favorite Republican, God bless Texas.