04.25.07

Burka Tries To Tell Democrats What’s Good For Them - UPDATED

Posted in 80th Legislature, Commentary, Around The State at 3:25 pm by wcnews

Paul Burka, to his credit, is trying to save the Democrats from making, what he believes, would be a horrible mistake. In his estimation the Democrats have so far had a good session, even though they CHIP has not been reinstated, the System Benefit Fund (SBF) has not been reinstated, a horrendous voter IDiocy bill was just passed, etc.. But any attempt to shine a light on the shenanigans of Speaker Craddick, his hypocrisy on point of order rulings, would be “irresponsible”, and would “marginalize” them as “obstructionists”. No, Paul, what it would do is draw a nice clear line, if the media would report it correctly, between Democrats and Republicans. It would show that the Democrats are for funding health care for children, assisting the elderly with their utilities, and allowing everyone to vote without harassment, etc.. and Republicans aren’t.

There’s an excellent response to Burka’s post, in the comments, which points out the rank hypocrisy of Speaker Craddick’s rulings on point’s of order.

It seems like the only valid points of order that Craddick sustains are Talton points called on Sylvester Turner bills like CHIP and System Benefit Fund (hmmmm…that’s kind of curious). You and I both know that many of the points he has overruled would have been valid under any other Speaker, however, Craddick still exhibits no regard for the rules.

To suggest that D’s are throwing a hissy fit in killing the calendar is unfair and disingenuous - if that was their goal they’d call a point every day on the calendar because 4 days out of 5 there’s a mistake on it.

The point here is Craddick still refuses to sustain points called by D’s on bad bills that Craddick supports - he’s more than willing to sustain points on good bills that D’s support. If he ruled equally and fairly and impartially, none of this would be a problem.

The Democrats won back seats in the House not by playing nice, but by taking the fight to the GOP. When Democrats fight the results are much better for Democrats than when they try to play along with Craddick and his ilk. For proof see the difference between Rep. Rick Noriega and Rep. Sylvester Turner - CHIP is in the hands of a GOP controlled conference committee - this session.

[UPDATE]: After posting Sylvester finally got the SBF through the House, now onto the Senate.

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