Monday Roundup: Never Say (Sine) Die

After a weekend that saw fight after fight on the floor of the House, culminating in Representative Haggerty forcing Craddick to do something he didn't want to do in adjourning... well, you can guess what most of the news is about on Memorial Day, and likewise what constitutes most of the roundup.

Ideally I could throw a line to anyone who hasn't been paying attention the whole time and say "This all started when..." but this has all sort of had a rolling entry point. The race for Speaker at the beginning of this session is an obvious point to cite, and worth revisiting, as what Craddick has done over the last few days is exactly why he had challenges in the first place. The mutiny more or less continued all session, both quietly and exuberantly, and various parts of the Republican leadership had trouble with their committees — in general, they were having trouble minding the store.

As the Lege wound down towards sine die and deciding on bills to end TAKS in high school and delineate the budget (among other things), the subtle war spilled over into not-so-subtle territory. BOR has a breakdown of Dunnam's questions to the Speaker on vacating the chair from Friday night and of the Parliamentarian resignations, as well as several posts on the action following. The Caller Times has the ever-exciting eyewitness accounts from a few Representatives.

So, over Saturday and Sunday, more battles. Fred Hill made a motion to vacate the chair and Craddick ignored it. Jim Pitts moved to vacate the chair and, since Craddick wasn't around, he was ignored by Sylvester Turner instead. Other things ensued, but the big event happened last night, with Haggerty's informal roll call vote and the breaking of the quorum, the applause, and the incredulity.

Statesman makes the point that the budget is the only bill that the House must pass — everything else can be a wash, and if the battle continues in lieu of legislating, several bills that had a shot at the sun will die. Yes, even the energy bill. Some outlets are reporting, as of late last night, that Craddick will survive, and that his detractors are bailing on the fight in order to work or something. We'll see at 2pm, I suppose, when the House is supposed to reconvene.

All that being said, some other things also happened over the weekend. Huffington accused Senator Clinton of being a historical revisionist on her support (or lack thereof) of the Iraq War. Also, everyone continues to enjoy Ron Paul, which I have mixed feelings about. He has drawn more attention than anyone else on either side that has been relegated to third tier status. Also, whether or not some Presidential candidates read up on the intelligence reports before going to war may be an issue in the election. Who knew?

Stay tuned today. There may be more fireworks in Austin yet to come.