Good morning!
Here is today's Texas Minute.
– Michael Quinn Sullivan
• On the newest edition of Texas Scorecard Radio, Tony McDonald and I break down key audio clips from the meeting I had with House Speaker Dennis Bonnen. (Even if Texas Scorecard Radio isn’t broadcast locally, you can catch every edition on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, or Stitcher.)
• After Texas’ GOP leadership – Party Chairman James Dickey, Gov. Greg Abbott, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick – demanded the public release of the audio from my meeting with Speaker Bonnen, all have thus far not commented on the contents of the meeting itself. Meanwhile, Brandon Waltens reports Republican members of the Texas House have begun calling for Bonnen to step down. State Rep. Phil Stephen (R-Wharton) said it was “time to cut the head off the snake.†Ouch.
• “It exposed an underbelly of a culture of corruption in Texas politics [that] I think is probably inexcusable.†– State Rep. John Smithee (R-Amarillo), who also said the scandal amounted to a “forfeiture of the speaker’s right to lead.â€
• “The Texas House cannot tolerate deception from our leaders... In order to restore significant trust and confidence in the people’s Legislature, we must move forward with a change in House leadership.†– State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R-Arlington)
• Texans living in GOP-held legislative districts are being encouraged by grassroots leaders like Julie McCarty of the True Texas Project to find out where their legislator stands on the question of Bonnen continuing to hold the office of Speaker of the Texas House.
• Nationally, the Washington Post seized on Bonnen’s negative assertions about President Trump related to the 2020 elections.
• For years, unelected bureaucrats have been allowed largely unchecked power over the daily lives of Americans. Now, as Rachel Bovard writes in a new commentary, we have president who is trying to change that.
• President Donald Trump is certainly doing the most to clean up corruption in the Lone Star State. Sources in Tarrant County tell Robert Montoya the Trump administration wants two bureaucrats fired before restoring $600 million in federal funding to a troubled government agency – including J.D. Granger, the overpaid son of U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth). During the Obama Administration, Congresswoman Granger was able to funnel large sums of money into the crony-heavy real estate boondoggle known as the “Panther Island Project†– or, as I like to call it, Kay Granger’s Floating Island of Waste.
• It’s not just your “federal†tax dollars being wasted; more than $383 million in federal, state, and local tax dollars have been poured into the corrupt deal. So far, only the Trump Administration has shown real interest in questioning the swamp-like cronyism.
Number of the Day
74,180
The estimated population of Georgetown, Texas, on July 1, 2018.
Today in History
On Oct. 17, 1835, the creation of the Texas Rangers was formally authorized. The group had been informally organized in 1823 by Sam Houston to protect settlers.
Quote-Unquote
“No man in the wrong can stand up against a fellow that's in the right and keeps on a-comin'.â€
– Bill McDonald​, Texas Ranger
