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Today’s Stories

DADE PHELAN, the allegedly “Republican” Speaker of the Texas House, attended a fundraiser for a half dozen Democrats in the Rio Grande Valley

This is noteworthy for several reasons, none of them good.

At the most obvious level, this is a partisan affront. It’s not a secret that the RGV is one of the top GOP growth areas in the country. For the #3 Republican elected official in the state to undermine his party in this manner is a criticism that has been made elsewhere.

There are at least two more layers.

After Ryan Guillen switched parties, the Austin lobby read the tea leaves. They know change is coming to South Texas. At this point, their objective is to preserve as many friendly committee chairs as possible.

[Note to new readers: It’s a common practice in the Texas legislature, despite lopsided Republican majorities, for Democrats to receive significant numbers of committee chairs.]

The awarding of committee chairs to Democrats is an issue the GOP base would remedy. Committee chairmanships are valuable; doling them out to your opposition is self-sabotage.

Again, this is nothing new. The Austin lobby has been anticipating and co-opting these sorts of changes for half a century. Phelan is just their current hatchetman.

See the next item for the most interesting and potentially alarming aspect of Phelan’s venture. (AC)

TERRY CANALES’ presence at the Phelan event speaks volumes.

A fourth-generation legislator, Canales comes from a family that has long been “active” in South Texas politics (in the worst sense of that term).

Terry’s kin, Jose Canales, was a state representative from Brownsville during the early part of the twentieth century. While closely aligned with political boss Jim Wells, Canales was the only Mexican-American in the legislature during that era.

Canales notably led efforts to reform the Texas Rangers following documented abuses during the 1910s.

Terry’s uncle Armando, and his father Terry Sr., were state representatives from Jim Wells and Duval counties, respectively, in the ‘60s and ’70s.

In Jim Wells and Duval Counties, this story becomes interesting because that previous generation of Canales men were confessed cabrons in the machine of notorious South Texas political patron George Parr.

The so-called “Duke of Duval,” Parr is best known for fixing the 1948 U.S. Senate election in favor of Lyndon Johnson (and thus, ultimately, ensuring the Vietnam War). But Parr’s misdeeds were hardly limited to a single election in 1948 (or 1960), monumental though those consequences may have been.

While a historical discourse on George Parr is outside the scope of this newsletter, liberal historian Robert Caro summarizes Parr’s relationship with honest elections:

In the other [overwhelmingly Mexican] rural counties, where there was no reform strength to speak of, Parr had been able to “count ‘em” as he wanted. (309)

In that context, author Jimmy Banks’ recollection of a 1974 meeting between Parr and then-aspiring Texas House Speaker Billy Clayton is illustrative. At the time, Clayton wanted Parr to ensure that Terry Canales Sr. would support the former’s bid for Speaker.

Regarding Armando Canales’ relationship w/ Parr, Banks writes:

During the drive to San Diego, Clayton recalled that about ten years earlier, Representative Armando F. Canales of San Diego had introduced a bill to prohibit deer hunting in Duval County for five years. [Note: HB 614 58(R)]
“I was on the committee that heard his bill,” said Clayton, “and there were two or three busloads of people who came to Austin to testify against it. Nobody but Archer Parr (George’s nephew) testified for it. After all the testimony had been heard, somebody asked Armando, ‘Are you sure you want to do this? You’ve got all those people testifying against this bill. It’s liable to put you in hot water down there.
“Armando said, ‘Oh you don’t understand. Me? I’m not elected -- I’m appointed….

It was about that time the three legislators realized that Armando Canales’ bill to close deer season in Duval County had merely reduced the deer hunting competition for the Parrs (181...84)

[Note: Emphasis added.]

Banks continues with this vignette about how Terry Canales Sr. came to support Billy Clayon for Speaker without even being in the room:

“Mr. Parr asked again why we were there. I told him that Terry Canales was pledged to [state rep Carl] Parker [, Clayton’s opponent in the speaker’s race,] and Billy sure needed [Canales’] vote. [Parr had] never heard of Billy before but I told him, ‘Mr. Parr, this guy will work good with me, he’ll be a big help to us; he’s one of the closest friends I’ve got in the world -- and if we’ve got some problems down here and I need some help in House, [Clayton] can get it for us.
“ ‘Well,’ said Parr, ‘I think you can count on Terry to do the right thing.”
Shortly after the [1974 Texas state] constitutional convention reconveniend on Monday, Canales dropped by Clayton’s desk and told him that he was sending Parker a letter withdrawing his pledge and that he had decided to help Clayton. (184,5)

Terry Canales Sr. was even a pallbearer at George Parr’s funeral, following the latter’s suicide while facing likely conviction on federal criminal charges.

Fifty years later, the current generation of Canales is conspiring with the current generation of Texas House Speaker. Moreover, a Texas House Speaker who just gutted the criminal penalties for illegal voting.

There’s nothing new under the sun, folks.

While we’re on the subject of illegal voting…. (AC)

Related: Democrats desperate to stop red wave

The TEXAS COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS justice who wrote the opinion gutting the enforcement of election laws was appointed to the bench by Greg Abbott last year.

How convenient. (AC)

Hit the Links

Amnesty is on the rocks in D.C.

Texas keeps beating Biden in court on immigration.

Feds Arrest Former Houston School District Executive

Van Taylor called out for berating MTG on the House floor

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FRI brief 12.17.21

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