The Revolving Door Lets Craddick Allies In

In the wake of a speakership that even his onetime allies have described as dictatorial, Speaker Tom Craddick is not simply alienating fellow members of the House but his own appointees – and using this as an opportunity to load the offices of the House with more loyalists.

On Friday night, Craddick's office had to explain why Parliamentarian Denise Davis had resigned. In its two lines, it said that Craddick had been using advisers other than Davis on "intricate and complicated constitutional issues" and that Davis had quit because of this.

It is a simple statement that means that the speaker has been, for some time, systematically ignoring his own in-house legal advice for the voices of unnamed others. This should be put in the context of many state agencies being savaged in their budget negotiations this session for daring to use external counsel, rather than the cheaper option of the Attorney General's Office. The parliamentarian serves no purpose other than to answer exactly the kind of questions the speaker may pose.

Davis had served as deputy parliamentarian in the 78th session and was appointed by Craddick as parliamentarian in 2004. However, it will be impossible for her deputy to succeed her; Christopher Griesel, who came to the office after eight years on the Texas Legislative Council and four years as Texas Supreme Court’s rules attorney, has also resigned.

Their replacements? Two former representatives - Republican Terry Keel and Democrat Ron Wilson, both historic Craddick allies. How were they available so quickly? As Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, pointed out, Keel was one of those very external voices to which Craddick had been paying so much attention all session.

But the battle is not over: The Quorum Report says that Rep. Garnet F. Coleman, D-Houston, whose frustrations with the session boiled over on Tuesday, has already filed two complaints against Wilson with the Texas Ethics Commission over unpaid fines and an undeclared donation from Dr. James Leininger, a near-legendary Republican money man.