Chisum For Texas House Speaker ?

The current Speaker of the Texas House is Rep. Joe Straus (R-San Antonio). Straus is finishing his first term as Speaker, having been elected to the position in January of 2009 (the Texas legislature only meets every other year). Straus is a member of that rare and dying breed -- a moderate Republican.

The Texas House is pretty evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. There are 77 Republicans and 73 Democrats. Since Democrats knew they could not get one of their own chosen as Speaker in 2009, they did the next best thing -- they voted for the moderate Straus. The Democratic votes, along with a passel of Republican votes, were enough to get him elected.

This worked out well for Democrats. While Straus was still a partisan Republican (no doubt of that), he at least allowed the Democrats to have their say and gave them a chance to get some of their bills to the House floor. That has angered many of the right-wing Republicans in the House. Fairness is not something they want to have any part of. They think the only bills that should be voted on are those written by right-wing Republicans and only right-wing Republicans should be allowed to have their opinions heard on the House floor.

There is a movement brewing among the right-wingers to replace Straus as the House Speaker when the legislature meets again in January of 2011. Right-wing fruitcake Leo Berman (R-Tyler) has already declared he is a candidate for the Speaker's position. Berman is best known for the string of obviously unconstitutional bills he has introduced on immigration and abortion (most of which never reached the House floor and none of which were passed). Berman is not just right-wing -- he's actually to the right of Glenn Beck and the teabaggers.

Now it looks like another right-winger is about to toss his hat in the ring to be Speaker. Rumor has it that the Panhandle's own Rep. Warren Chisum (R- Pampa) is going to soon declare his candidacy for the job. He told the AP yesterday that he is considering it and will announce his final decision before the November election.

Chisum (pictured) is not the most accomplished of legislators. A creationist, his main claim to fame is writing a bill that requires Texas high schools to teach a Bible class. He wanted to make the class mandatory, but Democrats and moderate Republicans nixed that. Now Texas high schools must teach a Bible class, but it is an elective course that no student can be required to take.

Both Chisum and Berman would be a disaster as House Speaker. Neither man is up to the job. Could either one be elected? That all depends on how the November election comes out. The Republicans would have to win several more seats in the House (maybe as many as 10) before it would be a possibility. Barring that, Democrats and moderate Republicans would probably be able to re-elect Straus (or put a Democrat in the seat if the Dems have a good November election).

If you live in Texas this is something to remember as you go to the polls this Fall. It is imperative that Democrats maintain as least the current precarious balance in the Texas House. If they are not able to do that it could result in the installation of an incompetent fringe right-winger as Speaker, and that would be the death knell of legislative sanity (and there is precious little of that in the Texas legislature already).