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Today’s stories
GREG ABBOTT has signaled his first retaliation for lawmakers failing to pass emergency items, a line-item veto of legislative budgets.
It’s a mostly hat no cattle approach to governing with a distinct authoritarian flare. Texans want the goods, not Austin tit-for-tat.
Along these lines, it’s day 2 of Abbott breaking his promise to keep lawmakers in town until election integrity was passed.
When he issued the threat that election integrity must get done before lawmakers can leave, it was already apparent that the marque legislation was in trouble because of the mix of individuals involved and Abbott’s absence.
Anything less than an immediate special session won’t satiate the hunger for election integrity, and Abbott’s positioning isn’t desirable.
Now it’s a wagering game as to when the first of multiple special sessions will begin. The Governor’s chief political consultant tweeted not-so-cryptically about the cancelation of vacation plans.
Meanwhile, Dade Phelan is already floundering less than 24 hours after gaveling out the House Sine Die. Specifically, Dade appears to be in denial that there is a guarantee of at least one special session and nearer absolute certainty of multiple special sessions due to his mismanagement of the Texas House.
Guy’s a complete goofball.
Back to Abbott, Rick Perry wrote the playbook in 2013 for how this is to be played, and Abbott was a benefactor the following year, crushing his opponent Wendy Davis.
Assigning bearish or bullish prospects to the GOP’s margin of victory in 2022 will in part be based on the approach to righting the wrong that was the many farces of the 2020 session.
DADE PHELAN and his lackeys are starting up the spin machine since they have been credibly blamed for the failure of SB7.
Democrats didn’t get anything done in this session without the significant aid of Dade, including killing SB7.
In fact, according to the Houston Chronicle, Democrats would have voted for the watered-down version of election integrity passed by the House. Either they’re lying (live possibility), or it wasn’t that conservative a bill.
This we see over and over, genuinely conservative bills have Democrat opposition, not support.
Related: Dade Phelan agrees with Democrat busting quorum
OPEN BORDERS BY BIDEN seem like a bad idea.
Related: Closed border leads to an uptick in American mules
Hit the links
Lawmakers enriched themselves this session
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