>> I don’t think Phelan will be so empowered very long.
If I remember correctly, Phelan is not currently polling well in his own congressional district. We may not have to endure that POS for another term.
But the RINO problems in the Texas house are pretty deep; Dade Phelan’s ascent to speaker is a symptom, not the cause. Here is a good article from Powerline Blog that speaks to the systemic issues there:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/06/why-arent-red-states-red-part-1.php
“The House Speaker and the Lieutenant Governor (who presides over the Senate) have essentially absolute control over what bills will come to the floor for second and third readings. There is no “discharge petition” practice, whereby members can force a vote on a particular bill. As a result, if the Speaker or Lieutenant Governor do not want a particular bill passed, they can simply never let it come up for a vote.”
“a Speaker does not get elected by obtaining the support of a majority of his party’s caucus. Instead, he cuts deals with individual members (e.g., sign your pledge card for me and I’ll put you on this committee; get your faction to sign their pledge cards for me and I’ll make you chair of this committee).”
“Following the ‘pledge card’ practice means that a relatively small number of often nominal Republicans can elect a speaker by allying with the Democrat minority, which understandably would prefer to have a Speaker who is not a GOP stalwart . . . especially if that Speaker also gives Democrat members control of certain committees as a sweetener.”
From the linked article, which goes on to described how anti-DEI legislation was rendered worthless.
Thanks for the link. It is correct, there is a long history of shared power via strong Speaker.
But that was back before the Communist totally controlled the Dem Party.
The last of the fiscal conservative Southern Dems, died or changed parties in the 1970’s. The Dems are all Communists.