No Fireworks Yet, But a Tinderbox
May 18th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
In the House, where things were expected to be buzzing, the wire went dead for the weekend. Or maybe the electricity just went underground.
Speaker Tom Craddick adjourned until Monday at 10 a.m. in the middle of deciding a point of order during debate on SB 11, a homeland security bill that expands wire-tapping for local authorities. The bill is a nasty piece of business from the authoritarian wing of the Republican Party. Its biggest proponent in the House is Republican Caucus Chair Rep. Frank Corte. In debate on the bill, Corte tried to make the case that if local law enforcement can’t wiretap willy nilly, al Queda will be barbecuing on the Capitol lawn any minute now.
Both the adjournment and the length of time until the House reconvenes are notably unusual this late in the session. And that reveals a lot about the tinderbox Craddick presides over in the House.
The point of order puts Craddick in a bit of a bind. If he sustains it and the bill dies, he’ll piss off Corte and the other GOP jihadists. If he overrules a good point, he is opening himself to another challenge, which could lead to a motion to vacate the chair. A third way is to negotiate with Rep, Lon Burnam, the author of the point of order in order to get him to withdraw it. Based on an earlier amendment, what Burnam wants is the wiretapping out of the bill. Even if he gets his way, there is no reason to believe it wouldn’t be put back in during the conference committee.
No matter what, the break allows Craddick to shore up his position, even though it may cause the death of plenty of legislation as the clock runs out. Rumor has it someone (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) provided a full breakfast spread including fruit and those little egg quiche things in the members lounge this morning.
Keep ‘em full. Keep ‘em happy. And whatever you do, don’t give ‘em a reason to take you out.
May 21st, 2007 at 10:06 pm
[…] Lon Burnam finally knocked out some ugly sections from SB 11, including the nastiest of them all, expanded wire-tapping. Last Friday, it was the Fort Worth Democrat’s point of order on SB 11 that preceded an early […]