Pro-Straus forces have been out lying, trying to blame the death of the pro-life omnibus bill on somebody else. Straus killed it, but Perry can make it all but certain to pass by calling a pro-life only special session.
Though not clean, among the “Big 3”, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst comes out the best on this, so far. Dewhurst applied pressure before the end of the regular session to add pro-life to the special session call.
Then, when the Senate passed SB 5 he called out Speaker Straus and the House, telling them if he didn’t get the bill back by Sunday afternoon there wouldn’t be enough time to pass it. This put the pressure on Straus, who would’ve much rather passed it too late to matter and played dumb publicly so he could blame it on the Senate privately, when necessary. Then, the Straus decided the House would not work on Saturday, and the House didn’t get the bill out until Monday.
Dewhurst could have ended the filibuster or suspended the 24 hour layout rule and didn’t. However, he telegraphed that these tougher procedural measures were a bridge too far for him when he told the world that Straus had to get the bill done on Sunday for it to be able to get through the Senate again.
Would a Democrat have played hardball and ended the filibuster or suspended the 24 hour layout rule? Of course. Republicans don’t fight like Democrats and Dewhurst was no exception here, much to the dismay of conservatives.
Pro-Straus forces have made hay about the fact that Dewhurst went to Europe for 10 days, but this is silly. Dewhurst left the Senate fully functional, and the man has a cell phone. The Senate was ready for action, even though there was nothing to do besides redistricting at the time and Straus had killed half of the session by calling a two week recess.
Pro-Straus forces are also making hay about the senate taking the fetal pain part out of the omnibus bill. Why, pro-life hawk Straus added what pro-life dove Dewhurst left out, right?
Wrong. What actually happened is Speaker Straus found a way to kill babies with the fetal pain bill. Here’s how.
The Senate took out the fetal pain portion of the bill because they were actually trying to pass it. When that happens so does compromise. Even without fetal pain pro-life groups still loved the omnibus bill.
What Straus did, through his goons, was add fetal pain via a committee substitute in order to change the bill so the Senate had to re-vote on it. Straus made sure to leave too little time for another vote to get done.
He will now pretend to be more pro-life than Dewhurst.
Straus could’ve gotten SB5 on the calendar for Saturday and sent it back to the Senate the same day. That would have made a filibuster virtually impossible. Instead, Saturday was wasted and the bill didn’t make it out of the House until Monday, making Wendy Davis’ job doable.
Thus, Straus killed babies with fetal pain legislation. If you ever needed a clue about whether the crony moderate Rs were on the side of good or bad, you might apply your sniffer to this one.
Gov. Perry should be commended for adding pro-life to the call, though he could have made it much harder on Straus by adding it to the call early on.
Since pro-life wasn’t added to the call until a few days before the House returned, Straus can pretend his unprecedented two week House vacation during a four week special session didn’t make the difference (you can hear it – “Our recess wasn’t determinative. Pro-life wasn’t added until right before we came back anyway”).
And, Perry can say that he only waited so long because Straus had ensured they wouldn’t be back until then, so what did it matter that he did other things first?
Smells like politicians, doesn’t it? Everyone gets to blame someone else.
Still, Perry ultimately added it with enough time for it to pass and should get credit for that. He brought a lot of attention to these issues and gave voice to a drum beat for the features of this omnibus bill that will not die.
Straus is the bad guy. Whoever may or may not have put a gun or bullets on the table, Straus pulled the trigger. He gaveled out for 2 weeks after he set up the redistricting committees in order to kill the clock in case pro-life was added. Then, he didn’t pass anything until there wasn’t enough time left to finish, which is his standard move when killing bills he pretends to support but really opposes.
Still, Gov. Perry is sitting on the ultimate ace in the hole. He can call them back for another special session only for the pro-life omnibus bill.
The House could file the exact bill they just passed, down to the punctuation marks. The only difference would be the “HB” and the new number. Since the same bill just passed, we know that anyone who previously voted for the bill who suddenly gets cold feet and need to waste some time filib…, err, talking it over, they are with Straus as a crypto-pro-choicer, and deserve as much scorn as can be mustered.
Then, the same thing happens in the Senate, since they just passed it, too.
This would be quick, easy, would save lives, is the right thing to do, and it would prove everyone actually means it when they say they want to save lives.