Abbott: Speaker ‘Likely’ A State Officer
December 15th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Texas’ Attorney General Greg Abbott showed his true colors Friday delivering a ruling on whether or not Speaker Tom Craddick acted within his authority during the waning days of the 2007 regular session — including weighing in on whether the Speaker could be impeached or was subject to the rules of the Texas House.
Oh yeah… This one is a real profile in courage. Abbott’s office promised to have the decision on Friday — and they dumped it into empty newsrooms all over Texas at exactly 10:15 p.m. Friday night — when television producers were fully halfway into their shows, and when many daytime reporters were at home — in some cases thanking goodness they didn’t have to read the ruling.
And what’s it say, you ask?
Well, from the summary, it appears Abbott has ruled that “a court would likely conclude” that 1) “the Speaker is an officer of the state”; 2) the Speaker is “subject to impeachment”; 3) that fact “does not mean that impeachment is the only means of removing a Speaker”; and 4) Abbott is “declining” to interpret the House Rules.
The upshot? At first glance, it’s a ruling that would have been better off unissued. Score one for Craddick. As we say in Spanish, the “auto-golpe,” the self-coup appears to have legal justification, at least for now. Might this have something to do with the fact that the same donors give to Craddick and Abbott?
Here’s a link to the opinion, it’s the last one of 2007.
Here’s a comment from the speaker’s office, courtesy of the Quorum Report:
“The speaker welcomes the attorney general’s opinion and his acknowledgement that the rules of the House, as well as the interpretation of those rules, are matters to be determined solely by the members of the House. The attorney general’s opinion affirms the speaker’s position on all issues, including that the speaker is an officer of the state, who serves a two-year term of office. “Now that the attorney general has rendered his opinion, the speaker looks forward to continuing to work with legislators on the important business of the state.”
And from two of the speaker’s antagonists in the House, Jim Keffer (R-Eastland) and Byron Cook (R-Corsicana):
“In football terms, the Attorney General’s advisory opinion has punted this issue to the courts and has fumbled in its attempted summary. Craddick is elected from his Midland district which is only 1/150th of the people of Texas. Based on this, we strongly disagree with the unprecedented contention that the office of Speaker is a statewide officer.
“Furthermore, it is unprecedented to contend that the House Speaker is subject to removal by a vote of the Texas Senate. Sadly, the Attorney General’s advisory opinion only reaffirms the adage: ‘Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ Tom Craddick’s declaration of ‘absolute authority’ is an abuse of power and undermines the basic premise of democracy in Texas government.
“We firmly believe Craddick’s application of ‘absolute authority’ has violated constitutional rights of members of the legislature and the constituents they serve. We firmly believe our state constitution did not create the Texas House Speaker post as a dictatorial position.
“It is our understanding of the state constitution that the Speaker is a legislative post constructed to serve the members of the Texas House of Representatives as a presiding officer over its operation. Because of the Attorney General’s own admission of a lack of clarity by past Court cases, it now appears that the integrity of Texas Government is still at a critical crossroads.
“Enough is enough. The people of Texas need to let their local representatives know that they’ve had enough of Tom Craddick’s one-man dictatorship.”
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