On the Lege

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst expressed his "disappointment" that 11 Senate Democrats broke the quorum and left the state before he could convene a second special session. (Photo By Jana Birchum)

Following the Monday afternoon Senate-fugitives-and-media circus, Tuesday at the Capitol seemed likely to be fairly uneventful -- except for the raging public-relations war. Simultaneous press conferences in Albuquerque and the lieutenant governor's press room featured Senate Democrats arguing that they were "taking a stand" for their constituents and Senate Republicans plaintively pleading with their colleagues to come home and devise "a fair congressional map." In the absence of a quorum, the GOP senators soon dwindled away.

But in the House, Speaker Tom Craddick came up with yet another strategy to impose his will -- a suspension of the rules to enable the passage of bills without committee discussion, without calendar rules -- even without the bills themselves. At roll call, the House was short of a quorum (there was an unofficial and haphazard Democratic boycott), and on a motion of Round Rock Republican Mike Krusee, Craddick put another call on the House, but it wasn't long before enough members wandered in unprodded to hit the magic 100, with a supermajority of Republicans to vote the rule suspension. First item of business was the GOP's redistricting map (HB 1), attested as "the same map" they'd passed in the first special session but with no means to confirm that. ("We've had hearings ad nauseam," said nominal map author Phil King, R-Weatherford, reflecting the GOP leadership's consistent response to public input.) They also passed a school money-management bill (HB 2) and amid much confusion, Krusee's third attempt at an accurate transportation bill (now HB 25).

For the members' review, Krusee submitted the first special's Senate bill that had contained provisions addressing the Aircraft Pooling Board that the House didn't support -- so Krusee just crossed out those passages by hand or tore the pages out altogether. Asked by Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, why he hadn't just resubmitted the House version, Krusee barked, "That's just the way we did it." Angry Republicans also demanded to know where absent Democrats had been that morning but were chastened a bit when Dallas Rep. Roberto Alonzo informed them his brother had died the night before, and Houston Rep. Garnet Coleman said he was handling a family crisis. El Paso's ancient warrior Paul Moreno declared bluntly, "I was trying to break a quorum," and told his Republican colleagues they had "devastated democracy and become an oligarchy."

The week's prize for hypocrisy was handily won by Gov. Perry, who had claimed the day before that the absent Senate Democrats were preventing $800 million in funding for health care for children, the elderly, and pregnant women -- although those items are nowhere on the session call, and he and the GOP troops have rejected every Democratic attempt to fund them.