I know I do not necessarily agree with the what you are writing. However, I am across the country and have no personal knowledge of Texas politics beyond what I read here and in the news. However, with that said, I do believe a “Republican” Speaker of the House who appoints Democrats to chairmanships of committees when Republicans hold a majority does need a good figurative horse whipping. I believe he has earned the criticism and figurative beating he is getting.

I was always raised with the principle that our actions have consequences. There is even a law of physics that says that each action has an equal and opposite reaction. This man, and you as well, obviously have a detachment to this simple principle. Both of you are now being reintroduced to it. -deal with it-

After signing a pledge to vote Craddick for Speaker, he gathered a bunch of fellow left-leaning Republicans and made a deal with the Democratic Caucus. They vote him Speaker and he assigns them the Chairman’s seat in nearly half of the House Committees, including several of the most powerful.

So, in the end, Straus was elected Speaker with 10 GOP votes and every one of the Democrats’ 72 votes.

This, by itself, is enough for me to oppose him returning as Speaker.

Yeah, calendars is an important committee but nothing of consequence makes it there without the Speaker saying grace to the Committee Chairs who can bottle up and kill anything. He owns the chairs- get it?

You speak of rifts. Either way this split isn’t getting healed until 2012. Texas has a super-majority of conservative R’s and it’s nuts that we may wind up with a RINO and NARAL approved Speaker.

I’m afraid you’ve been misinformed. As TexasGalt mentioned above, the Speaker of the TX House exercises a great degree of direct and indirect power over the legislative session and the bills that come for a final floor vote. Speaker appointments determine the legislative philosophy which will run through the session and the career influence of many members.

No one has been able to make a substantial case for why Straus should be Speaker outside the logic of the good-ole-boy system. It’s been members running away from the demands of their constituents that support him and more than a few serious ethics related allegations have clouded his race. He has a liberal voting record; his committee chairs are more liberal on average than the house as a whole, critical conservative legislation was killed as a result of his steering and he did nothing to grow the conservative majority in the House this election cycle. In fact, whenever it was possible, he worked AGAINST efforts to make the house more conservative or to put more conservatives in office.

It’s impossible for me to justify his record and a philosophy of moving Texas in a conservative direction. Read this blog post for a bit more background on why a conservative speaker is important: http://no2joestraus.com/2010/12/15/why-a-conservative-speaker-matters/

On a side note, I would be interested to know how you reconcile your previous post regarding a grassroots takeover of the GOP with your desire to see Straus be put back into office and the grassroots silenced. Advocating a takeover in one post and a group hug in the other seems to be inconsistent. I see no inherent good in intra-party strife but am more than willing to fight with those who claim to be members of my party while undermining the principles for which it stands.

it is true that the speaker has much more behind the scenes power that you might find from just from researching the actual law, but you are also right when you identify that this thing has been blown out of proportion.

I was villfied for being really the only one to actually speak out against this strategy when it was first rolled out on Redstate, I was called a RINO, troll, sellout or good ole boy what have you for simply stateting that this was a very dumb idea. I maintain that the best course of action was to support and persuade Strauss rather than attack and crucify him. Now, unless Taylor wins, the only message Strauss will take from this is that he doenst have to listen to the grassroots when it comes to his speakership, and it didnt have to be that way.

But if Straus is re-elected (and MY inside sources suggest he will not) there will be a big problem, in that Texans sent 101 (or actually 99 on election day) Representatives to a body that will be led by a representative of the 51 or 49.

Rift? No. Dirty rotten shame, that will not happen without lots of blowback? Yes.