A minority of Senators can still prevent a majority from even discussing the public's business -- and the body voted to honor a corrupt, philandering drunk from the minority party by placing him third in line of gubernatorial succession.

The first disgrace was the inability of Senator Dan Patrick to get even a single additional senator to vote in favor of majority rule in the Senate by repealing the "blocker bill" rule.

He came, he spoke, he did not conquer.

Dan Patrick, Houston's fiery star of conservative talk radio, filled the Texas Senate chamber with his booming voice Tuesday, but his words fell flat.

Patrick's fight to kill a long-standing Senate rule requiring a two-thirds vote to debate a bill failed, 30-1.

* * *

For freshman Sen. Patrick, the day was more about challenging tradition than embracing it.

"I expected the vote to be 30-1," he said in an interview. "No one wants to let a rookie freshman change the rules of the Senate. I did not plan on diving into the pool on the first day, not in the deep end."

Patrick campaigned on trying to replace the two-thirds rule with a simple majority vote, a change that he thinks would give Republicans better control of the agenda.

The current Senate makeup is 20 Republicans and 11 Democrats. It takes 21 votes to bring a bill up for debate.

The rule, Patrick told his fellow senators, stifles debate.

"No controversial bill is brought up for honest debate on the floor," he said, adding that people want senators to take a stand on difficult policy matters.

"As long as we have the two-thirds rule, that doesn't happen," he said. "What's wrong with majority rule? It was good enough for Jefferson, for Madison and Monroe. It's not good enough for the Texas Senate?"

Since it was clear from the start that Patrick had no chance of prevailing, he kept his remarks under 10 minutes.

Looks to me like it doesn't really matter that we have nearly 2/3 of the Senate if we can't even get a majority to vote in favor of allowing a majority to talk about the business of the people of the state of Texas. Shame on every last GOP member who sided with Democrats against the people of Texas.

But equally troubling was the decision to honor Senator Mario Gallegos, a Democrat, by making him president pro tem of the Senate.

The Texas Senate's first day began on a far more poignant note, however, as the upper chamber honored recovering alcoholic Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, naming him the Senate's new president pro tempore.

As third in line of succession to the governorship, Gallegos will serve as "Governor for a Day" sometime during the session while Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst are "out of the state."

"For a young man who grew up in the barrio of Houston, this is truly a humbling experience for me," Gallegos said in his acceptance speech, joined on the dais by his wife, Theresa, and mother, Olga.

And that is strangely appropriate, given that Gallegos has been using Mom's address to run for office while living outside his district and carrying on with a stripper. And let's make no mistake -- this was about saving Gallegos from a possible primary challenge from fellow Democrats disgusted with his actions.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, lauded the ailing Gallegos for undergoing rehabilitation for alcoholism last spring.

Whitmire told senators he's confident that his "best friend" in the Senate has stopped drinking.

"I've been here long enough to see the human side of state representatives and state senators," Whitmire said. "We're not perfect. Mario's got some issues, but he's the first senator I've been familiar with that recognized his problem, sought help, went public and has been successful with his sobriety."

Whitmire then issued a warning at-large to anyone thinking of challenging Gallegos for his Senate seat: "You mess with Mario Gallegos while he's in recovery, while he's doing well and representing his district, you mess with Mario, and you're messing with me and the rest of this Senate."

Frankly, this is a disgusting show of buddy-buddy politics -- and a disgraceful decision on the part of the Senate.

I don't really ahve much to say about the race for Speaker of the House her in texas. I don't like Craddick and didn't like his challengers, because none of them are right on property tax relief, or on teacher pay and benefits. I just didn't have a dog in this hunt.

But I'm still a bit pleased that Craddick won.

After all, the lefty blogs are howling.

Posted by: Greg at 11:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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