The latest in the fight over the adoption of rules for the Senate: First off, see the posts below about the fight over the two-thirds rule and voter ID if you're not up to speed. After the Democrats unsuccessfully tried to amend SR 14 to death, Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, raised a point of order that has shut things down for a while. He claimed that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's many rulings on various amendments and points of order today are moot, because his power to make such rulings was granted by the rules of the 80th Legislature. Since this is the 81st Lege – for which no rules have been made yet – Shapleigh says Dewhurst does not have the power to make the rulings, and the past four hours – as well as the swearing in of the senators and senate staff yesterday – have been for naught. And that's the circular argument that has everyone vexed today: How do you have a debate to create the rules, when no rules have been created to govern the debate? At that, Dewhurst and his parliamentarian had the equivalent of a computer logic error and crashed. We are currently in a 15-minute recess to sort it out. I just heard Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, joking that he's been "voting illegally." UPDATE: Oh, this sucks: City Council Member Mike Martinez's big campaign kick-off is set to begin in one hour (5:30pm) at Nuevo Leon. But his wife, Lara Wendler, is an aide to Sen. John Whitmire of Houston. And she's still stuck here. Oops. UPDATE2: The came back, and then recessed again when Whitmire asked for a "caucus of the whole" (all the Senators), so they're off to the back room again. Dammit, I wanted to go to the Martinez event too.

The Senators are back on the floor after their closed-door meeting, and Democrats are laying siege to Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, the author of Senate Resolution 14, which would abandon the "two-thirds rule" of the Senate specifically for the voter ID debate (see previous posts below for explanation; redistricting has been dropped from the resolution). It's getting heated, albeit not quite to the level of the near-fisticuffs on the floor that happened over the voter ID issue last session between Lt. Gov. Dewhurst and Sen. John Whitmire of Houston. In fact, while everyone else is bickering, Whitmire and Dewhurst are having what appears to be a chummy conversation behind Dewhurst's desk on the dais. AMAZING: Now Williams and Royce West, D-Dallas, are now actually debating voter ID rather than the actual two-thirds rule. That means, in effect, they are debating a bill that isn't actually before the Senate and without any rules. UPDATE: The Dems are now trying to kill the resolution by amending it to death, and making a point in the process. They have offered up four amendments so far, each saying basically, "if we're going to create a special class of bills exempt from the two-thirds rule, why don't we include more important issues like children's health insurance, the rising unemployment rate, veterans' benefits," et cetera. Each amendment has been shot down so far.

Remember last session, when it was the House that looked like a bar-fight and the Senate was the big kids' table? Not any more. While the Senate was still caught up this morning in behind-close-doors discussion (read: screaming match) about the efforts to overturn the two-thirds rule on voter laws, the House had a quicker and smoother opening session under new Speaker Joe Straus (which probably means there's a bunch of state reps waiting for Senate to get done so they can start today's scheduled Sunset Advisory Commission meeting.) Catching up with Straus yesterday just after he was sworn in, he seemed happy but still a little surprised that he's actually really speaker. How did he feel the process had gone? "It went great," he said. "I've had outstanding help, so I had nothing to worry about." So now he's got the gavel, what's up on the agenda? Actually, agenda is probably the wrong word, since Straus is keen to re-enforce that (unlike Speaker Tom Craddick) he's the manager of the House, not its boss. "I've said over and over again, I'm the speaker of the House, but the members will drive policy," he noted.

If you want to watch the action on the floor of either chamber, go to the House or Senate webpages and you'll find links to live streaming video. Could be fun if this quibble over the two-thirds rule turns into a brawl on the floor, although I think they're getting it settled behind closed doors right now.

The Senate adjourned today only nine minutes after starting, presumably to discuss Houston Sen. Dan Patrick's proposal to suspend the two-thirds rule on the issues of Voter ID and redistricting behind closed doors. The senators are set to come back at noon. Best quote on this fight so far: Sen. John Carona, quoted on Texas Monthly's "Burkablog," said, “It’s dead on arrival. In large part because of the author.” Patrick is conservative talk radio show host from Houston elected in 2006, who is known for having the personality of … well, a conservative talk radio show host. UPDATE: They've emerged, but have not banged the gavel to resume yet. Great moment: Sens. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, and Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, hugging near the media table, with Nelson asking, "Can't we all just get along?"

For the longest time, President George W. Bush was nicknamed Shrub. After yesterday's farewell press conference with the White House press corps, possibly that should become Shrug, as he shrugged off any criticism. Not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? A "disappointment." Torture? His lawyers said it was fine. Recession? The economy was broken when he got it. The infamous Katrina fly-over? Standing on rubble in New York after 9/11 good, standing in water bad. Every failure of his administration, just shrugged off. But possibly the most remarkable moment of shruggage from the latest president from the Lone Star State (Sorry, Texas, but for all the claims that he's a carpet-bagging Yankee, Connecticut never made him governor) was a seemingly throw-away comment about why politics got so bitter under his administration. "The rhetoric got out of control." "Why?" asked a reporter. "I don't know," said the outgoing incumbent. "You'll have to ask those that used the words they used." Oh, really? And who could have approved such rhetoric?

Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst just told reporters on the Senate floor that he thinks reports of GOP senators trying to suspend the two-thirds rule over the issues of voter ID and redistricting won’t come to pass, but made it clear he still wants a voter ID law. “As far as I know, and I haven’t gone into the caucuses yet, but I don’t think the two-thirds rule is going to change," Dewhurst said. "That’s not really an issue. I’ve been talking with Democrats for the past year, as late as yesterday. "I think what their concern is, is we don’t want to turn away some of our elderly voters that may not have photo IDs, and some of our middle aged voters that need to know more and understand that they need to bring a photo ID. And that makes all kinds of sense to me. We don’t want to disenfranchise anybody. I think this issue and the polling I’ve seen is overwhelming: Everybody wants to make sure that only U.S. citizens vote in our elections. So I don’t think there is a lot of controversy."

1.59pm: After the brief obligatory appearance by former state rep Gov. Rick Perry (“Grab a deep seat. It’s going to be a long ride,” he advised the freshman legislators), Reps. Charlie Geren and Burt Solomons get to do some house business about House Rules and keeping the committee staff on until their next budget is sorted. Solomons will hold the world’s smallest working group with himself and the Parliamentarian tomorrow on rules changes. But in the biggest sign of the change of the order of things, Speaker Straus recognized former Speaker Tom Craddick to make the motion to adjourn and introduce the list of former legislators that died in the interim. Then, with a clack of the gavel, Speaker Straus adjourned the session until 10am tomorrow. 1.43pm: Speaker Straus's speech struck all the right notes for the mood of the event: Bipartisan, forward-looking, bereft of loaded language, and, most importantly, with the obligatory tribute to outgoing Speaker Tom Craddick and his wife, Nadine. So far, only Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, has mentioned his name, but Straus' comments got Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland (that's going to be weird to get used to) a standing ovation. Focusing attention back on policy, he emphasized that it was time to cross both party divides and the urban/rural split.

Sen. Robert Duncan of Lubbock is being nominated for president pro tempore of the Senate. I've never sat through one of these ceremonies before. The routine is apparently that each senator who wishes gets to second the nomination and gush – and I do mean gush – as much praise as possible on Duncan. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but good lord, I'm about to retch. Apparently Duncan is just short of Jesus Christ on the heirarchy of really great guys.