Author Topic: Abbott joins Patrick in criticism of Straus' leadership  (Read 880 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Elderberry

  • TBR Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,284
Abbott joins Patrick in criticism of Straus' leadership
« on: August 16, 2017, 10:46:01 pm »
Corpus Christi Caller by John C Moritz 8/16/2017

One day after the Texas House shut down the special session without completing action on the full agenda, Gov. Greg Abbott blamed Speaker Joe Straus for “dilly-dallying” on such initiatives as lowering property taxes and on the bathroom bill.

“The speaker made very clear that he opposed this (bathroom) bill and he would never allow a vote to be taken on it,” the governor told Houston radio station KTRH in an interview Wednesday morning. “He told me that in the regular session. And he told me during the regular session that if this came up during the special session, he would not allow a vote on it.”

In singling out Straus for thwarting his agenda, Abbott effectively joined forces with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, whose verbal sparring with the speaker was one of the most enduring backstories of both the regular session of the Legislature and the 30-day special session that ended one day early late Tuesday.

Straus called an end to the House’s work shortly before 7 p.m. without responding to a request from Patrick’s Senate that that the two chambers work out a compromise on the bill to address growth in local property tax rates. That left the Senate in the position of either accepting the House version of the plan, or ditching the effort completely.

The Senate chose to ditch it.

And at a news conference after the Senate followed the House’s lead and ended its work for the session, Patrick berated Straus, saying he “walked off the job” with work still undone and one more day to do it. And then Patrick got personal.

“Thank goodness Travis didn’t have the speaker at the Alamo,” Patrick told reporters, referring to Col. William Barrett Travis, the leader of the Texas forces during the doomed battle against the Mexican army in 1836. “He might have been the first one over the wall.”

More: http://www.caller.com/story/news/local/texas/state-bureau/2017/08/16/abbott-joins-patrick-criticism-straus-leadership/574077001/

Offline Sanguine

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 35,986
  • Gender: Female
  • Ex-member
Re: Abbott joins Patrick in criticism of Straus' leadership
« Reply #1 on: August 17, 2017, 12:49:04 am »
“He might have been the first one over the wall.”

 :silly: