Abbott Pleases Conservatives with Wide-Ranging Call for Special Session. Mike Ward. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
The responses to him doing so are...um.....odd.
House Democrats echoed the sentiment that the governor is trying to appease conservatives who criticized Abbott's performance in the regular session. "I'm not sure why we need a Governor Abbott when we have a Governor Patrick," tweeted state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston.
"After providing zero leadership and interest during the regular session, the governor is clearly panicking and trying to shovel as much red meat as he can to his right-wing tea party base," said state Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.What the Dems don't make clear here is why it's OK for them to march in some kind of odd ideological lock-step but it's not OK for the Republicans to do so?
I don't get that critique at all.
Here you have Abbott, who campaigned for Governor as a conservative-type and who beat the pink tennis shoes off of progressive wunderkind Wendy Davis calling a special session over the Summer that's going to first address some key business, and then address issues important to the GOP base who elected him.
And this is odd to some?
Rep Gene Wu, who's alleged antics were discussed here. Has positioned himself as the Texas Democratic clone of Donald Trump on Twitter. No issue is too small, no take too bad for him to opine on. He has no filter, and to be honest, not much of a clue regarding voter preference in a solidly red State.
"Why do we need a Governor Abbott?" Because he campaigned on a platform that the voters overwhelmingly accepted. That he is now making that platform a priority should not surprise. Nor should it be treated as a "gift to 'ultra-right wing' activists" in Texas. (In reality, issues such as the bathroom bill and abortion restrictions, while infuriating to the left, are not all that controversial on right side of the political aisle.
Just because you don't agree with something doesn't mean that it's controversial, the TLSPM would do themselves a favor by remembering that. As a matter of fact, ALL media would do themselves a solid by remembering it.
Think back to the Affordable Care Act. It was passed on a 100% partisan vote and signed into law. Lawsuits were filed against it, many bills were filed to repeal it, yet it was never called a "controversial" act at almost any level of media. That word is only reserved for issues which the progressives and their courtesan class cronies deem 'evil'. The bathroom bill is certainly partisan, and I've no doubt it will pass under partisan pretenses, as will abortion restrictions and, for that matter, property tax reform.
But when the Texas GOP is winning state-wide elections by 60% or more I hardly think the issues they are running on are all that 'controversial'. Whether I personally agree with some of them or not.
On this, and other blogs, I've long bemoaned the horrible state of both the media coverage in Texas, and the lack of ideological depth possessed by the minority opposition party. Sadly, over the 15 plus years that I've been tracking it it's only gotten worse, not better. The Lock-Step media is more homogeneous and smaller in influence, than ever before, and the Democrats have devolved to the point where their ideological North Star is a State Representative from the Houston area whose Tweets more closely resemble "Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy" than they do any coherent political ideology.
How bad are things? It's still considered OK to quote Molly Ivins for Crissakes. One of the most overrated political writers that ever put letters to paper. When your coup de grace is calling George W. Bush "Shrub"? No.
Lastly. There's going to be some talk about the "cost" of this session and hand-wringing and crying from both the TLSPM and the Left. Don't buy it. The same people who are bemoaning this cost will in the next breath try and argue for a full-time legislature that would be almost exponentially more expensive to the State.
The less these idiots are hanging around Austin the better off we all are.
And that should be a bipartisan area of agreement.
