06.22.07
The Battle Over Reagan, Commandment Breaking, & Oh What Fun The Texas GOP Primary Is Gonna Be
The GOP base in Texas is well stirred over all the breaking of the 11th commandment over the last six months or so. From today’s AAS, Legislators hid behind Reagan.
Though Ronald Reagan’s name is invoked often in the Texas Legislature, precious few legislators champion Reagan’s vision.
Like a poorly written political novella, the legislative session began with an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the speaker of the House and an undercurrent of insurrection continued through adjournment.
As the mutiny played out, a number of legislators found themselves in the eye of the storm and looking for cover.
As the dust settled, Speaker Tom Craddick still had control of the gavel, which sent insurgents scurrying for cover. A handful of legislators found temporary sanctuary invoking the Ronald Reagan name and creating a political action committee to protect Republicans who joined the minority party in efforts to unseat the speaker.
In the process, these legislators have attempted to rewrite history. Speaker wannabes chose to establish the so-called 3R PAC: “Ronald Reagan Republicans for Local Community Control and Speaker Term Limits.”
This PAC has left critics chuckling (see Greg’s Opinion), Reaganites offended and history buffs baffled. Not only is it a group of Republicans who attempted a revolt, in clear violation of Reagan’s famous 11th Commandment, but its objectives are policies Reagan opposed.
Reagan backed spending caps and appraisal caps on steroids. He practically invented them, leading the property tax revolution with his Proposition 1 in 1973, which paved the way for California’s Prop. 13 property tax cap in 1978.
In contrast, Rep. Fred Hill, R-Richardson, a leader of the 3R PAC, is the leading legislative opponent of spending and appraisal caps. This session, Hill helped pass legislation limiting citizens’ ability to petition for elderly and disabled exemptions.
Ms. Venable could clearly use an history lesson on the GOP’s “11th commandment”. Clearly it was not about not having intra-party revolts, because St. Ronnie tried one of his own. It was, “Speak no ill of a fellow Republican”. It has been revised to suit any purpose over the years. I’m not sure why, but Ms. Venable didn’t 11th commandment Rep. Mike Krusee for his invoking of Reagan.
Hopefully this will continue so there can be much more left-critic-chuckling all the way throug the primary. More below the fold.
QR, June 7, 2007:
June 7, 2007 4:13 PM
SREC CONSIDERS OPTIONS ON ANTI-CRADDICK REPUBLICANS
Anti-Craddick walkout inspires ireThe abortive Speaker coup d’etat was the talk of the State Republican Executive Committee in a meeting held over the weekend. Two committee members told QR today that the mood was hostile toward Republicans involved in efforts to unseat Speaker Tom Craddick.
“I can say there are a lot of people concerned about this coalition between RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and Democrats,” said Jane Cansino, an SREC member from Lubbock.
“Yes, everybody was furious,” said Oneta Leutwyler, an SREC member from Woodway. “The consensus was they did wrong and they need to be reprimanded.” Leutwyler added that she’d be happy to unseat any incumbents that walked out of the chamber with Democrats the night before session’s end.
Texas Conservative Review, June 11, 2007:
What happened, what went wrong and what can we do about it?
In simple terms, the GOP era has been hijacked by the lobby in Austin with the cooperation of too many GOP legislators elected as conservatives, but voting otherwise in Austin. The loyal conservative legislators are there, but unfortunately they are in the minority in both houses. When you understand that, you know why we failed on a lower appraisal cap, the Governor’s budget reform and spending controls, voter ID, reform of higher education admissions without “diversity” quotas, a pilot program for school choice (couldn’t even get it for special needs children), and real reform of out of control state agencies.
Instead, we had the spectacle of a political brawl in the House over who should be Speaker for the last two weeks of the session, while critical bills were dying left and right.
So what to do? TCR feels we need to make sure we elect conservatives who will not wilt in Austin and stay true and weed out those GOP imposters now in office or who are candidates in the future.
You get that by accountability. The Republican Party of Texas can deliver this with a simple Compact with Texas for the 2008 election. The compact can be presented to candidates and officeholders seeking a pledge of support for the compact and down the line be reminded of their pledge, rated on their votes and defeated if they sell us out. Maybe then they will get the message from us.