Every now and then, I post a newsletter in its entirety. This edition of The Peter Morrison Report is especially important because of the upcoming vote on Texas Speaker of the House. The Democrats once again are attempting to influence Republicans in their choice for Speaker and you can do something to help stop them.
The Peter Morrison Report
Summary of this week’s report:
The vote for Speaker of the Texas House is a battle for the heart and soul of the Texas GOP. Supporters of Joe Straus know how important this vote is, and in the past few weeks they’ve been pulling out all the stops in order to slander traditional conservatives who want a change in leadership. This time, though, they’ve reached an all time low: we’re now being told it’s “racist” to bar Democrats from Republican caucus meetings.
Scroll to the bottom to see details on what you can do to influence this critical vote.
Full report:
A new session of the Texas Legislature is about to convene, and the first order of business will be electing a Speaker of the House. This ballot will be the single most important vote House members will cast during the entire session, as the Speaker has tremendous power to set the agenda, appoint committee chairmen, kill bills, etc. During last session, which was divided almost equally between Republicans and Democrats, RINO Joe Straus was Speaker. Straus used the power of his office to thwart conservative goals and paid off the liberal Democrats who voted for him by not rocking the boat. He even helped some of them campaign for re-election against conservative Republicans this past November.
This is totally unacceptable, and there’s no reason Straus should be elected Speaker in this session, because Republicans now enjoy a super-majority in the House. Voters went to the polls all over Texas in November, and we made our voices clear: we want a truly conservative legislature which will work hard to enact a real conservative agenda. We’ve had enough of “me too Republicans” in the House whose main career goals seem to be making friends with Democrats.
Naturally, Joe Straus and his cronies are insisting that they heard us loud and clear, and this session will be different, and Straus will fight for a conservative agenda. Conservatives aren’t buying this line, thankfully. If a man won’t stand for conservative principles when the going is tough, there’s no reason to believe he’ll do so when the wind is at his back. We’ve seen enough of Joe Straus over the years to know exactly where he stands on the issues. He made that crystal clear during the last session, and he’s not the conservative leader Texas conservatives need. All across the state local conservative groups are demanding that Straus be replaced as Speaker.
Party leaders are aware of this, and have scheduled a caucus meeting before the actual start of the session to settle on one GOP candidate for Speaker. The plan is to meet in private and pick a candidate everyone agrees on, rather than fight internal party battles in a public forum. This is nothing out of the ordinary; political parties do this sort of thing all the time. In fact, this is exactly why we have primaries, so the parties can agree on one candidate for the general election, instead of a half dozen people from each party vying for office.
Amazingly, though, one Democrat is denouncing the planned caucus as “racist” – because Democrats aren’t invited! Rep. Joseph Deshotel (D-Port Arthur) has written an open letter making the ludicrous claim that this meeting violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because most of the Democratic representatives in the Texas House are minorities, while most of the Republican legislators are white. Here’s a brief excerpt from his letter:
“The forty-nine (49) Democratic legislators not being allowed to participate in what is tantamount to the election of the Speaker consist of forty-two minorities; fifteen (15) African Americans, twenty-five (25) Hispanics and one (1) Asian. Should the Republican Caucus Bylaws be followed an additional two African-Americans and four Hispanic Republican Elect members and one Hispanic former Democrat would be denied a vote as well. These forty-nine minority House Members and the eight millions Texans they represent are being disenfranchised from the Speaker’s election.”
These days we’re seeing more and more outrageous claims of “racism”, but this one really takes the cake. First of all, the Voting Rights Act is a nearly 50 year old law that unconstitutionally discriminates against southern states. It’s a racist law that presumes black people can only be represented by black people, and that white voters in southern states are wicked racists who are always out to deny black people their right to vote.
Second, the Voting Rights Act doesn’t even apply to this caucus, which isn’t an election at all. It’s a private meeting for Republican legislators to discuss internal party affairs. There is still going to be a vote in the House for Speaker; the idea that this meeting will somehow invalidate the votes of minority legislators when they cast their votes for Speaker is completely ridiculous. No one takes this argument seriously; Rep. Deshotel has embarrassed himself and his cause by writing this letter. Crying “racism” when you don’t get your way is rapidly losing its force in America.However, this letter does further demonstrate why Joe Straus is unfit to hold the office of the Speaker of the House. That’s because Rep. Deshotel has pledged his vote to Straus. How can conservatives support a candidate who’s acceptable to a liberal left wing Democrat like Joseph Deshotel, who stoops to accusing Republicans of being racists for not allowing Democrats to have a say in their internal party affairs? We already knew that Joe Straus was too liberal, but this disgraceful episode reveals just what kind of company he keeps. Joe Straus has got to go. We deserve a true conservative as Speaker of the House, not one who counts men like Joseph Deshotel among his supporters.
Sources:
http://www.redstate.com/hogan/2011/01/06/the-establishment-vs-the-people-texas-style/
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/01/eagle-forum-calls-speaker-vote.html
http://www.texasinsider.org/?p=39786
Take Action:Contact Your Legislator and Demand They Vote for Rep. Ken Paxton or Rep. Warren Chisum for Speaker. Find your state representative here: Â http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/
The following list is from Donna Garner, and those highlighted in red have pledged to NOT vote for Straus. All others desperately need pressure:
Name Party Capitol Phone Aliseda, Jose R (512) 463-0645 Anderson, Charles R (512) 463-0135 Anderson, Rodney R (512) 463-0694 Aycock, Jimmie Don R (512) 463-0684 Beck, Marva R (512) 463-0508 Berman, Leo R (512) 463-0584 Bohac, Dwayne R (512) 463-0727 Bonnen, Dennis R (512) 463-0564 Branch, Dan R (512) 463-0367 Brown, Fred R (512) 463-0698 Burkett, Cindy R (512) 463-0464 Button, Angie Chen R (512) 463-0486 Cain, Erwin R (512) 463-0650 Callegari, William R (512) 463-0528 Carter, Stefani R (512) 463-0454 Chisum, Warren R (512) 463-0736 Christian, Wayne R (512) 463-0556 Cook, Byron R (512) 463-0730 Craddick, Tom R (512) 463-0500 Creighton, Brandon R (512) 463-0726 Crownover, Myra R (512) 463-0582 Darby, Drew R (512) 463-0331 Davis, John E. R (512) 463-0734 Davis, Sarah R (512) 463-0389 Driver, Joe R (512) 463-0574 Eissler, Rob R (512) 463-0797 Elkins, Gary R (512) 463-0722 Fletcher, Allen R (512) 463-0661 Flynn, Dan R (512) 463-0880 Frullo, John M. R (512) 463-0676 Garza, John V. R (512) 463-0269 Geren, Charlie R (512) 463-0610 Gonzales, Larry R (512) 463-0670 Gooden, Lance R (512) 463-0458 Hamilton, Mike R (512) 463-0412 Hancock, Kelly R (512) 463-0599 Hardcastle, Rick R (512) 463-0526 Harless, Patricia R (512) 463-0496 Harper-Brown, Linda R (512) 463-0641 Hartnett, Will R (512) 463-0576 Hilderbran, Harvey R (512) 463-0536 Hopson, Chuck R (512) 463-0592 Howard, Charlie R (512) 463-0710 Huberty, Dan R (512) 463-0520 Hughes, Bryan R (512) 463-0271 Hunter, Todd A. R (512) 463-0672 Isaac, Jason R (512) 463-0647 Jackson, Jim R (512) 463-0468 Keffer, Jim R (512) 463-0656 King, Phil R (512) 463-0738 King, Susan R (512) 463-0718 Kleinschmidt, Tim R (512) 463-0682 Kolkhorst, Lois W. R (512) 463-0600 Kuempel, John Langston R (512) 463-0602 Landtroop, Jim R (512) 463-0604 Larson, Lyle R (512) 463-0646 Laubenberg, Jodie R (512) 463-0186 Lavender, George R (512) 463-0692 Legler, Ken R (512) 463-0460 Lewis, Tryon D. R (512) 463-0546 Lyne, Lanham R (512) 463-0534 Madden, Jerry R (512) 463-0544 Margo, Dee R (512) 463-0728 Miller, Doug R (512) 463-0325 Miller, Sid R (512) 463-0628 Morrison, Geanie R (512) 463-0456 Murphy, Jim R (512) 463-0514 Nash, Barbara R (512) 463-0562 Orr, Rob R (512) 463-0538 Otto, John R (512) 463-0570 Parker, Tan R (512) 463-0688 Patrick, Diane R (512) 463-0624 Paxton, Ken R (512) 463-0356 Pe?a, Aaron R (512) 463-0426 Perry, Charles R (512) 463-0542 Phillips, Larry R (512) 463-0297 Pitts, Jim R (512) 463-0516 Price, Four R (512) 463-0470 Riddle, Debbie R (512) 463-0572 Ritter, Allan R (512) 463-0706 Schwertner, Charles J. R (512) 463-0309 Scott, Connie R (512) 463-0462 Sheets, Kenneth R (512) 463-0244 Sheffield, Ralph R (512) 463-0630 Shelton, Mark R (512) 463-0608 Simpson, David R (512) 463-0750 Smith, Todd R (512) 463-0522 Smith, Wayne R (512) 463-0733 Smithee, John R (512) 463-0702 Solomons, Burt R (512) 463-0478 Straus, Joe R (512) 463-1000 Taylor, Larry R (512) 463-0729 Taylor, Van R (512) 463-0594 Torres, Raul R (512) 463-0484 Truitt, Vicki R (512) 463-0690 Weber, Randy R (512) 463-0707 White, James R (512) 463-0490 Woolley, Beverly R Also, there will be a rally in Austin to help remind our hapless spineless Republican leaders that the Tea Party is watching and waiting for them to do the right thing. The more people who can attend, the better. Information below, also from Donna Garner:
If you support conservative House leadership, we ask you to JOIN US in Austin on January 10th and 11th to send a message to the Republican members of the Texas House,
Ladies and gentlemen, we all worked too hard last year to stand by and watch self-described conservatives negotiate a surrender to the other side after we’ve already won the battle.
And yet, if we don’t show up in Austin next week, that is exactly what could happen.
Republicans and independent conservatives from across the State of Texas will be coming together next week in Austin to let the members of the Texas House know that the people of Texas demand conservative House leadership.
Details are posted here: http://GrassrootsTexans.org/ events/
The Peter Morrison Report
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If you are a Texan and haven’t signed up to receive your free copy of the Peter Morrison Report, I urge you to do so. ~’bot
Democrats are low-life scum!
Teresa, you are being too nice. :)
And what are the chances Rep. Deshotel would be amenable to the same sort of conditions were Democrats in the ascendant?
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
[…] Mind Numbed Robot: Dems Pull Race Card in Texas Speaker’s Race†[…]
Wow, talk about blatant nonsense.
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