(Texas House)Democrats 2003's biggest political losers

Quorum Report/News 8/On the Agenda ^ | 12/29/2003 | Harvey Kronberg

[SwinneySwitch]

The biggest loser of the year in Texas politics were the Democrats in the Texas House. It has nothing to do with fleeing to Ardmore. The reason the House Democrats get the raspberry is because they never adjusted to their role as the minority party.

Here is what I mean.

The Texas House works best when the left and the right form coalitions and hammer out compromises somewhere near the center.

About 25 percent of the House this year are freshmen. Their perception of the Legislative process was largely fashioned by clueless party ideologues.

They had no doubt heard about the collegiality between the two parties, but never experienced it.

The first major floor debate was the massive tort reform bill. A normal floor debate of a major bill might take three days. This one rambled on for two weeks.

The House Democrats threw an unprecedented 300 amendments at the bill in an effort to gum up the process. Many of the amendments were near duplications of others.

As a result, the significant amendments were indistinguishable from the frivolous ones.

On the first two days, the freshmen from both parties tried to listen and cast informed votes. By day three, the listening was over and the freshmen were looking to their leadership for direction.

The air was poisonous and House Speaker Tom Craddick routinely bent the rules and coerced members in order to keep the most Draconian elements of the bill intact.

But anger at Democratic tactics trumped the frustration caused by a heavy-handed speaker.

Most Republican freshmen simply stopped listening to Democrats. Even worse, in the eyes of the Republican freshmen, the conservative talk radio caricature of Democrats had been validated.

As the minority, Democrats must depend on some support from Republicans to impact legislation. After their performance this session, that will be much harder to get.

[SwinneySwitch]

I'd like to give all the democrats a big RASPBERRY!!!

[Dark Wing]

FYI

[thulldud]

Even worse, in the eyes of the Republican freshmen, the conservative talk radio caricature of Democrats had been validated.

Trouble is, these guys have got beyond the possibility of caricature. Talk radio hosts make up outlandish parodies of Democrat statements for fun, only to hear them later issue from the mouths of real Democrats in all serious intent.

[Redbob]

"The air was poisonous and House Speaker Tom Craddick routinely bent the rules and coerced members in order to keep the most Draconian elements of the bill intact."

And the author of this screed certainly knows poisonous!

[archy]

I'd like to give all the democrats a big RASPBERRY!!!

I'd suggest the treatment former Attorney General Morales got would be more appropriate: a felony conviction, disbarment, and jail time.

-archy-/-

[jtminton]

I would like to think we will never forget the Chicken D's and the way they acted by running away during the redistricting fiasco. But, we will. Maybe not us good conservatives, but Joe Q. Public will.

[SwinneySwitch]

What ever happened with the grievance filed with the state bar against the 21 fugitive democrat attorney/legislators?

[hocndoc]

Hmmm, funny that the Texas Monthy never even mentioned the Flea-ing Dems in this year's Bum Steer Awards. (That's because TM is about as biased as they come.)

[solo gringo]

Don't worry the dummiecreeps will get the berry on election day.Not only did they cheat the tax payers they tried to pin a race complex on all of us.I thought we were all Texans but i found out we were from another planet.Join me and help unelect as many dummiecreeps as possable next election.

[deport]

Interesting.........

[MeekOneGOP]

07-08-2003
House passes remap
Veteran Democrats may lose seats if bill goes through Senate

As King began his argument for the new congressional boundaries Monday afternoon, about 30 Democrats in the gallery donned white socks as hand puppets to mock King. Every time he spoke, the little white mouths flapped.

[Dog Gone]

The Democrats were never interested in compromising, and if anyone poisoned the session it was the party of the sock puppets.