Ziravan.....Now your post really explains it all....thanks so much for taking the time to educate me on what has been going on in my own back yard. Seriously.....thanks a bunch.
It remains only to add that guys like Straus go well beyond the label "RiNO", which describes a shilly-shallying sort of vote-swapper and backfiller.
Straus is a Democrat in All But Label Only -- a DIABLO -- because he has been so proactive, and so "agile, mobile, and hostile" (as someone used to say about NFL linebackers), against conservative representatives in the Texas Lege.