A Tuesday He’d Like to Forget
May 16th, 2007 at 8:31 am
“He needs to make sure it happens.”
That’s how GOP chairwoman Tina Benkiser, in a March interview with the Austin American-Statesman, described Lt. Gov. Dewhurst’s job when it comes to voter ID legislation.
At the time, Dewhurst resented being put on the spot, but his handling of the bill Tuesday on the Senate floor showed Benkiser had good reason to worry — not about the Lite Guv’s intentions, but about his ability to get the job done.
If he really didn’t care about passing the voter ID bill, and just wanted to pay lip service to the GOP agenda, he had cover. The Democrats’ 11-member opposition would have let Dewhurst watch HB 218 expire with the session. His high regard for the rules of the Senate, he could say, wouldn’t allow him to break the two-thirds rule, or risk stalling the lawmaking process with a filibuster. Unfortunately, a potential future political rival — Sen. Dan Patrick — was on record against the two-thirds rule.
If, however, what he really wanted was to flex his power at the helm of the Senate and ram the bill through, it would have been easy Tuesday, with Sen. Carlos Uresti (D—San Antonio) home sick with the flu during the morning call. With just 10 Democrats around, the path was clear to bring HB 218 to the floor.
Dewhurst’s lead role in spotlight-grabbing legislation, and party priorities like voter ID, are clear signs of someone positioning himself for higher office. We are probably not the only ones watching this session to get a sense of how Dewhurst would fare not only in a campaign for governor but as governor — leadership style, priorities, accomplishments, ability to work with lawmakers. His handling of Jessica’s Law didn’t impress, but Tuesday he did himself one better, managing to alienate an entire body of lawmakers.
Dewhurst was heavy-handed and combative, and picked an unnecessary fight with the Senate’s most senior member. Worst of all for Republicans, his mismanagement of the floor action cost them a golden opportunity at passing HB 218. With Democrats hunkered down in response to the threat, Dewhurst isn’t likely to see another opportunity like Tuesday’s.
His Tom Craddick impression would have won points with GOP leaders if he’d gotten the bill through. What made the day a total loss for Dewhurst was his inability to stay the course, and be the decider, long enough to get the bill to the floor. Dewhurst was by turns lax in his management of the time-critical situation, and conciliatory with those he slighted. By offering a recount vote after taking the time to argue his point, Dewhurst allowed Uresti to reach the floor and make a buzzer-beater vote to block the bill. As with Jessica’s Law, Dewhurst stalled and postured for a while, then finally caved.
Uresti says Dewhurst knew he was home sick Tuesday morning, because he’d called in to the Secretary of the Senate’s office earlier, “out of courtesy. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do, just to let them know,” he says. Dewhurst must also have known Democrats would rush to get Uresti back to the floor, and he didn’t have all day. Still, he let Democratic Senator Eliot Shapleigh quiz the bill’s sponsor, Troy Fraser, on “the history of this issue… into the 1940s, and all of the history of how this hinders the right to vote,” among other questions.
That exchange alone took ten minutes, before Sen. Dan Patrick raised a point of order against debating the bill without voting to consider it. When the vote did come up, Sen. Glen Hegar wasn’t on the floor to vote with other Republicans, something easily prevented by better communication from the top. Benkiser, and other results-oriented GOP leaders, will want to know why Dewhurst saw fit to take his sweet time to finally bring up the bill, and didn’t have his bloc of Republican votes in line.
Instead, to keep his two-thirds Republican majority, Dewhurst took advantage of Democrat John Whitmire’s momentary absence from the floor when the clerk called his name. Whitmire had registered his vote before leaving, as is common practice in the Senate, but Dewhurst said the vote didn’t count.
This casual attitude toward voting — members will register votes with the chair more or less whenever they feel like it, not just when their name is called — has been a way of life in the Senate for years and years. Like suspending the two-thirds rule, Dewhurst’s move Tuesday amounted to breaking the rules, and it left other members wondering if their vote would be the next one Dewhurst refuses to recognize.
“To try and sneak this in was taken as a shot across the bow at just about every senator,” says Jeremy Warren, communications director for Sen. Rodney Ellis (D—Houston). “I’d be shocked if it doesn’t reverberate throughout the session.”
Whitmire put it more succinctly to Dewhurst on the Senate floor. “Y’all don’t have to win this way,” the Senator said. At Whitmire’s objections, Dewhurst first tried a lame attempt at saying he was just following the rules. “We called your name several times. I gaveled the vote,” Dewhurst said — an argument about as convincing as “No passbacks, times two!” on the playground.
After threatening to have Whitmire removed from the floor, Dewhurst had a shaky grip on his composure. He mistakenly called Fraser “Dean,” (Whitmire’s title) instead of “Senator,” he slammed the gavel down to coax senators into their seats, and his voice quavered as he offered a second roll call vote.
All of which allowed Uresti to make it onto the Senate floor just in time to vote with the Democrats. He had missed seeing just how badly Dewhurst bungled things before his arrival, so Uresti says he was surprised that when he walked to his chair — his two raised fingers killing consideration of the bill — he heard a few members whisper, “Thanks for being here,” and “Thanks for making it,” as he passed. They were Republicans.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
[…] is how, on the day after Lt. Gov. Dewhurst got on the fighting side of the entire Senate — when he was probably hoping to lick his wounds and move on — he found […]