I continue to marvel at the mess down in the Texas Legislature. I know all the attention is on the several hundred people running for governor of California, but for my money, the Texas Tangle is really the wacky political story of the year.
First, as you may recall, the House Dems fled to Oklahoma in May to deny the Texas GOP a quorum to vote on Tom DeLay’s redistricting bill. It worked, albeit only temporarily. More importantly, there were lingering questions as to whether Republicans in Texas — and DC — misused federal resources in their zeal to capture the “missing” Dems.
A report issued yesterday by the U.S. Justice Department concluded that the GOP did make several attempts to enlist federal law enforcement officials in the search for the House Dems (a.k.a., the “Killer Ds”), but that in nearly all of the instances, the federal officials did not comply with the requests.
Justice’s Office of the Inspector General said it found nine instances in which Republicans improperly sought federal help. Only once did a federal official get involved, and even that wasn’t too big a deal — an FBI official, acting at the behest of the Texas Department of Public Safety, called a Dem member of the Texas House to confirm that the group had fled to Ardmore, Okla. The Justice Department concluded the agent shouldn’t have done that, but it wasn’t pursuing it any further.
Thought the Justice report seems to conclude that this matter is done because federal officials largely ignored the GOP requests, it still begs several questions, including why Texas Republicans were so anxious and willing to unlawfully recruit federal help in their ridiculous search, plus, why they lied about seeking that assistance when asked about it early on.
As for the ongoing controversy regarding “The Texas 11” who are still hiding out in New Mexico, the Texas Supreme Court decided Monday to deny a Republican request to order the Dems back to Austin. Apparently, someone down in Texas still appreciates the principle of separation of powers.
With their lawsuit shot down, Republicans in Texas moved on to the next part of their plan: levying harsh fines against the 11 state senators.
The Texas Legislature, despite not having a quorum in the Senate, approved a plan yesterday to fine the Texas 11 beginning today. As of 4 p.m. this afternoon, the 11 state senators will be fined $1,000. Tomorrow, it doubles. On Friday, the fine reaches $5,000, which will be the daily fine every day until the boycotting lawmakers return. To add insult to injury, the proposal specifies that the payments of the fines must be paid “out of each senator’s personal funds,” not their campaign accounts.
If the Dems stay in New Mexico through the rest of the special session, they will, according to the Republicans, each owe $57,000.
The tricky part, however, is how the GOP would collect this money. The 11 Dems have said they have no intention of paying these fines and many in Austin doubt that the legislature has the authority to fine its own members for denying a quorum anyway. It seems the only meaningful outcome of the fines is to irritate the boycotting lawmakers.
The 11, however, seem more amused than annoyed. While watching the proceedings on TV from New Mexico, State Sen. John Whitmire said, “I went from chairman of criminal justice to the chain gang,” prompting his other Dem colleagues to begin singing Sam Cooke’s “Chain Gang.” At least they’re having some fun out there.
In Austin, however, things aren’t as jovial. Several Texas Republicans, including Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, said the 11 Dems will not be able to vote as members of the state senate until they pay the imposed fines after their eventual return. This, of course, prompted the Texas 11 to accuse the GOP of creating a new “poll tax” similar to those imposed on African Americans as part of several states’ Jim Crow laws.
Sen. Rodney Ellis (D) said there is no better comparison. “It brings back images when you had to pay a poll tax to vote in Texas. We won’t be able to exercise our privileges of being a senator, which means going on the floor and other things unless you pay your $60,000, and we are not going to pay that.”
This just keeps getting uglier.