Right before our eyes, the People's House is devolving into authoritarian chaos. Armed guards are on the scene to try to keep order (aka: intimidate).
Tonight, the Texas House of Representatives is on the verge of a revolution...and Speaker Tom Craddick doesn't like it.
[Updated] There appear to be serious rumblings on the budget. That, overnight, the GOP leadership made alterations to the budget to try to sway some of the "insurgents" to come home. The budget has to lay out for 48 hours from approval of the conference committee report; today is DAy 138 of 140. If any changes were made late last night, they cannot bring up the budget without blatantly violating the rules. Also, it would be the use of state tax dollars to, in essence, keep Otto Craddick in power.
[Update 2]: The House is in complete meltdown mode at this point. Craddick is nowhere to be seen and his Lieutenants are basically saying "nyah, nyah you can't replace him!"
The rumor is that the budget will be spiked via a point of order and the Legislature will shut down. Craddick is hoping if he can get out of town, he can hold onto the seat long enough to reconsolidate power by one or two votes when they come back into special session on the budget.
Read More
