Spanking a Freshman
January 9th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
There’s a fine line between courage and stupidity. Which side newly minted state Sen. Dan Patrick found himself on Tuesday is in the eye of the beholder.
The Houston radio talk show host campaigned on a promise to fight the Senate’s 2/3rds rule — the traditional requirement that 21 senators agree to allow a bill to reach the floor.
Patrick kept his promise just hours after being sworn in. The sight of a freshman rising to speak on his first day is rare enough, let alone to buck his 30 colleagues.
In an impassioned speech, Patrick invoked Ronald Reagan, JFK, Madison, Monroe, and the grandchildren of Texas to argue that the Senate should function on simple majority votes. As rhetoric goes, it was not a shabby maiden effort.
To which three more senior senators — Kyle Janek, Eddie Lucio and Royce West — politely encouraged Patrick to give them a bit more credit for their commitment to conducting the people’s business.
“Hopefully you will see what I saw as a freshman, that my way is not the only way,” West chided.
Patrick’s notion went down on a 30-1 vote, and the Senate promptly adjourned for the day.
“Some of the best battles, the most important battles, are the ones you fight by yourself,” Patrick said after the vote. “It was a good day. All the butterflies are gone.”
After a hit like that, only the cockroaches survive. Senator Patrick, welcome to the NFL.
January 9th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
The posted recap of Dan Patrick’s first day out is a pitch-perfect welcome to big league, or at least Texas League, baseball — to mix sports metaphors. Reminds me that 2007 is shaping up as of those rare odd-numbered years in which I will deeply regret not covering the Texas Lege for some publication.
Blog on, McDuff.
Full disclosure. I’m a former TO editor and current board member.