Little Victories
January 10th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
I was on The Davis Rankin Show on KURV in McAllen this morning talking about the speaker’s race. My fellow guest was none other than Edinburg Democrat Aaron Peña, who seconded Craddick’s nomination on Tuesday. Peña said that because five Valley Democrats supported Craddick, it was less likely that the speaker would cotton to fooling with immigration issues. It’s a hot-button issue and a number of cheerful troglodytes like Leo Berman and Pitt O’ Hell Debbie Riddle have filed plenty of mean-spirited legislation such as HB 28 which cuts off state benefits to U.S. citizen children of illegal immigrants.
It would indeed be great if the D’s support for Craddick stopped that train before it left the station. Only problem is, I can’t help but remember a conversation I had about a month and a half ago with a lobbyist who is close to Craddick. I asked about the speaker’s position on the immigration debate. The lobbyist replied that Craddick had no appetite for delving into the issue. Craddick it seems sensibly believes it is a federal issue and not a state matter. The speaker is not interested in cutting up the House over it, the lobbyist told me emphatically.
If that’s true, the immigration bills were on life support well before the Valley Dems threw Craddick their support.
