Texas Take

As Texas' legislative session passes its midpoint, name-calling and unpleasantness seem to be the order of the day under Pink Dome.

Attorney General Ken Paxton got bad news, as a judge in his home county of Colin County decides to move his criminal-fraud trial someplace else -- and delay its start, perhaps until the fall when the election season begins.

A school-choice bill -- vouchers to opponents -- has the Senate roiling with argument over whether to use tax money to let parents put their children in private schools.

After House Speaker Joe Straus suggested the Senate's budget accounting amounted to a "riverboat gamble," and a lieutenant called it unconstitutional, Senate leaders shot back that the House was cooking the books with its own math.

Add to that Gov. Greg Abbott's proclaiming that the state, not cities, should set the rules in Texas, at a time when local government are angry about unfunded mandates and property-tax reform they say will whack their revenues, and you have all the makings of an entertaining dogfight at the State Capitol.

Get the lowdown on all the political intrigue in Austin in this week's Texas Take -- the leading political podcast in the Lone Star State -- where you get the inside scoop on the Legislature in simple language every Texan can understand -- unvarnished straight talk, as they say.

There's no political-speak here, y'all.

Just when many Texans thought Rick Perry had moved on past making headlines, he's b-a-a-a-a-c-k.

Perry took time out from his new job as U.S. energy secretary, safeguarding the nation's nuclear stockpiles, to blast the election of Texas A&M University's first openly gay student body president in a Houston Chronicle op-ed piece  -- a move that bewildered Lone Star politicians and political scientists alike.

Why, they asked, would the former Texas governor and two-time unsuccessful presidential candidate  want to take sides in a contested election in College Station. Doesn't he have better things to spend his time on in Washington, than step into a new controversy -- after his famous 'oops' moment that sank his first presidential campaign, and his appearance on "Dancing With The Stars" left him the brunt of national jokes?

Apparently not.

In Austin, the political rivalry between Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus took to the airwaves, as Straus responded on a West Texas radio show to Patrick's assertion earlier in the week, also on air, that he was 'out of touch" for not supporting the controversial "bathroom bill."

Patrick, a former radio talk show host, then called the same show to respond to Straus. Just a day earlier, the San Antonio speaker had blasted the proposed Senate budget and alleged that the upper chamber was "cooking the books" by using an accounting trick to give them $2.5 billion more to spend at the last minute, so they could balance their spending plan.

Straus, with uncharacteristic bluntness, compared the Senate move to Enron, the Houston-based energy giant that collapsed in a massive financial scam in 2001.

Add to the Austin meltdown the passage by a Senate committee of a controversial school-choice bill -- opponents call it vouchers -- and a letter-writing campaign to lawmakers where opponents were listed as supporters and one woman who had been dead some months wrote to support the choice bill. Legislative leaders were calling for an investigation.

Get the lowdown on all the political intrigue going on beneath the state's Pink Dome on this week's Texas Take: The Podcast -- the leading political podcast in the Lone Star State -- where you get the inside scoop on the Legislature in simple language every Texan can understand -- unvarnished straight talk, as they say.

There's no political-speak here, y'all.

The growing fight between the Senate and the House is appearing like an ugly divorce in the making.

After House Speaker Joe Straus suggested the Senate needed to step up its pace in writing its version of the the state's spending blueprint, the upper chamber quickly whipped out its final version.

After the Senate passed the controversial "bathroom bill" and sent it to the House for consideration, a House chairman whose committee will hear the measure said he sees 'no evidence' that Texas needs the bill at all, indicating it could be a dead issue.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Senate's presiding officer and no fan of Straus or the House, told a Dallas radio station that Straus' lack of interest in passing the measure showed that he was out of touch with most Texans on the issue.

Even the tough Senate-passed ban on so-called "sanctuary cities" appears headed for trouble in the House, where leaders say they are considering major changes before letting it come up for a full vote in the chamber.

Even the budget was a flash point between with the two chambers, with Straus pledging that the budget will have to pass first in the House before other issues are considered. His budget gurus are talking about taking $2 billion from the Rainy Day Funds -- the state's savings account -- to make up for a revenue shortfall, an option the Senate has said it won't consider.

In another wild week at the Legislature, battle lines were showing up on a number of fronts -- and there seemed to be no end to the increasing bickering over most every topic.

Get the lowdown on that and all the other intrigue going on beneath the state's Pink Dome on this week's Texas Take: The Podcast -- the leading political podcast in the Lone Star State -- where you get the inside scoop on the Legislature in simple language every Texan can understand -- unvarnished straight talk, as they say.

No political-speak here, y'all.

As bathroom politics continue to dominate the debate in Austin, a showdown appears to be nearing between the state Senate and the House over privacy in the stalls and transgender rights.

Before the Senate State Affairs Committee approved Senate Bill 6 after a marathon hearing featuring hundreds of supporters and opponents, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for a million conservative Christians to let their voices be heard to ensure the Texas Privacy Act will gain legislative approval.

Hundreds of pastors and congregants showed up, as did hundreds of transgender Texans and their supporters who say the bill is discrimination, pure and simple, and should be flushed.

Even though Patrick and other supporters had spent weeks downplaying any similarity with a similar law passed in North Carolina, and where controversy continues to rage, who was brought in to lend his support for the Texas bill? North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest.

He said supporters in both states are trying to reach the same thing: "Do the right thing," by protecting women from men who enter their restrooms.

Jess Herbst, the transgender mayor of tiny New Hope, Texas, summed up the opposition in true Texas-speak:  "If you go into a bathroom and know what's between somebody's legs, you're doing it wrong. That's just  how a bathroom works."

Translation for city folks: It shouldn't make any difference.

In a wild week under the Pink Dome, House and Senate leaders drew the initial battle lines between the two chambers on school finance and school choice and over using the Rainy Day Fund -- the state's savings account -- to make up for an expected $2 billion revenue shortfall, among other things.

One surprise: They agreed on property-tax reform plans, at least for now.

If that was unnerving, so was a White House dinner where Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and his family ate with President Trump. Yep, that's the same two guys who were calling each other liars and scumbags during the GOP presidential primary campaign. Perhaps time heals all wounds, as they say.

Get the lowdown on that and all the other intrigue going on beneath the state's Pink Dome on this week's Texas Take: The Podcast -- the leading political podcast in the Lone Star State -- where you get the inside scoop on the Legislature in simple language every Texan can understand -- unvarnished straight talk, as they say.

No political-speak here, y'all.

As immigration and foster care collided in the Texas House, the state Senate was arguing over whether to send rogue lawmakers to prison.

This is a wild political season in Texas, for sure, and the debate over legislation to fix the state's long-broken foster-care system took an unexpected and ugly turn when an amendment was proposed to prohibit non-U.S. citizens from getting support.

After angry pushback by some House members, amid accusations of racism, the amendment was dropped -- but the tone had already been set, on the chamber's first day of approving bills, perhaps for the entire session.

As it debated a resolution asking Congress to call a constitutional convention to considering reining in federal powers -- yes, they have to ask the Federal Power to do so -- some conservative Republicans were insistent they wanted a stern punishment for any convention delegates who might go rogue and try to broaden the list of topics the convention might seek to change.

Remember that the delegates will be Texas senators and representatives. Some advocates wanted rogues to go to prison for up to 10 years. The Senate settled on two.

Wrap into that week of legislative drama an announced plan to push ahead to pass the so-called "bathroom bill," otherwise known as Senate Bill 6 or the Texas Privacy Act, despite strong opposition and some news for our indicted attorney general, Ken Paxton.

Last was a developing political showdown over school choice -- with a state senator dressing down a group of school students for being "selfish" because their parents do not support diverting taxpayer funds from public schools to pay for charter schools.

What else could happen? Stay on the edge of your seats.

Get the low-down on that and all the other intrigue going on beneath the state's Pink Dome on this week's Texas Take: The Podcast -- the leading political podcast in the Lone Star State -- where you get the inside scoop on the Legislature in simple language every Texan can understand -- unvarnished straight talk, as they say.

No political-speak here, y'all.

The fight at the State Capitol over bathrooms is getting a bit personal.

Thanks to a video from the American Civil Liberties Union opposing Senate Bill 6, the controversial measure limiting who can use which loo,  the new watchword has become: Can you pee with the LGBT?

So it's time to drop your pants to oppose the measure, the ad advises.

For Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other supporters of the Texas Privacy Act, as it is officially known, the answer is no. And they insist the measure will pass the Senate, though the vote-counting is still going on to get it out of committee. In the House, it probably faces a tougher time.

Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott have been out front in recent days blasting opponents such as the NFL and the NBA. And business groups are still blasting back with opposition.

Abbott's pet project for the legislative session, support for a Convention of States that would change the U.S. Constitution to give states mower power over the federal government, has split conservative Republicans on whether changing the Founding Fathers' holy grail for government is a good idea.

Hear all about peeing and all the other fun stuff going on beneath the state's Pink Dome on this week's Texas Take: The Podcast -- the leading political podcast in the Lone Star State -- where you get the inside scoop about what the Legislature is up to, in simple language every Texan can understand -- unvarnished straight talk, as they say.

No political-speak here, y'all.

In just a week, Gov. Greg Abbott seems to be taking on all comers.

First, in an interview on Fox News, Abbott blasted the National Football League for, as he put it, trying to make Texas "come to heel" on enacting a so-called bathroom bill that will require Texans to use only the loo that corresponds to the sex on their birth certificate.

Now, he's not saying the measure will pass, and he's not endorsing it, but he thinks the NFL should stop criticizing Senate Bill 6. If they don't, he might just pass a bill requiring NFL players to stand and put their hand over their heart when the Star Spangled Banner is played.

He also wants the House to shape up and put additional funding into pre-K programs in Texas, just weeks after he implored lawmakers in his State of the State speech to either properly fund those programs or not fund them at all. Many lawmakers shrugged off that offer by saying they'd pass on funding them.

And while Abbott was making his opinions known on those issues known, his close ally, Attorney General Ken Paxton, under indictment and facing a May court date on felony securities fraud charges, was facing likely possibility of not one, but two, trials on the pending charges.

As the Paxton legal drama unfolded, the Senate approved an ethics reform bill designed to make officeholders more accountable, the San Antonio offices of state Sen. Carlos Uresti were raided by the FBI and IRS as part of a wide-ranging fraud investigation. State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, is already facing criminal charges from a January indictment for alleged official misconduct.

Hear all about that and everything else going on under the Pink Dome  on this week's Texas Take: The Podcast -- the leading political podcast in the Lone Star State -- where you get the inside scoop about what the Legislature is up to, in simple language every Texan can understand.

Call it the week of the throwdowns.

First came Gov. Greg Abbott, blasting away at Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez and the "liberal Austin city" that he blames for allowing a wrong-headed "sanctuary city" policy to take hold, a policy he wants to ban under a new law wending its way through the Legislature. He also wants to punish violators.

Then, there was Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who went off on opponents of his so-called "bathroom bill" that would allow Texans only to use the loo for the sex listed on their birth certificate. Polls and economic estimates that claim the new law would be a disaster for the Lone Star State are flat wrong, and Patrick insists he will have enough votes to pass it through the Senate this year -- even though by most accounts he has only 15 of the 19 needed.

Next up: President Trump, who suggested (perhaps jokingly) that he might ruin the career of an unnamed Texas senator, after an East Texas sheriff suggested the lawmaker was wanting to make it more difficult for lawmen in Texas to seize assets from criminal defendants until a conviction occurred in a criminal case. The senators who have bills on the subject all pointed fingers at each other as the one Trump was referring to.

And then there was U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, claiming during a Senate speech in Washington that Democrats were the party of the Ku Klux Klan, during the fight over confirming U.S. Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Democrats tried unsuccessfully to block the nomination, and at one point the Republican majority invoked a rule to cut off Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren from an old anti-Sessions letter from Coretta Scott King, the widow of civil rights icon Martin Luther King.

Hear all  about the liberal cities, the bathroom votes, the Klan and all the other throwdowns on this week's Texas Take: The Podcast -- the leading political podcast in the Lone Star State -- where you get the inside scoop about what the Legislature is up to, in simple language every Texan can understand.

The arguing and fighting of Washington has come to Austin.

Gov. Greg Abbott's State of the State speech, where he gently lectured the House and Senate to approve more money for Pre-K and child-protection programs, has some lawmakers rolling their eyes over where the additional money is going to come from, when the budget already faces a significant shortfall.

A Senate hearing on a bill to ban so-called "sanctuary cities" was quickly and repeatedly interrupted by vocal protests from the public gallery, with hundreds of witnesses still waiting to register their opposition, including law enforcement groups that a key constituency of the Republican leadership.

School choice? There's wide disagreement among lawmakers on the controversial issue, even in the Senate where the leadership has tagged it as a must-pass issue.

The bathroom bill? Ditto.

On the Convention of States that Abbott supports to rein in the federal government, even Republicans are not all on board with the concept.

Just three weeks into the legislative session, a lot of disagreement about a lot of issues is building fast.

And back in Washington, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn jumps to the defense of his junior colleague, Ted Cruz, a guy with whom he seldom sees eye to eye.  He defended him from none other than U.S. Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who most recently yucked it up with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry at a public hearing over, of all things, a couch.

Hear about the couch and sanctuary cities and all the Austin eye-rolling in this week's Texas Take: The Podcast -- the leading political podcast in the Lone Star State -- where you get the inside scoop about what the Legislature is up to, in simple language all Texans can understand.

 A cringeworthy joke it was, for sure, but conservative Texas Republican Rick Perry and liberal Minnesota U.S. Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota nearly brought down the house during Perry's confirmation hearing in Washington.

"Thank you so much for coming into my office. Did you enjoy meeting me?" deadpanned Franken, the former Saturday Night Live comedian. Perry responded: "I hope you are as much fun on that dais as you were on your couch."

"May I rephrase that, sir?" Perry quipped, breaking down in laughter, as did the rest of the audience and normally serious senators. "Well, I think we've found our Saturday Night Live sound bite."

While Washington types were yucking it up over that exchange, Democrats were angrily boycotting President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration -- and Trump was busy asking them to return their tickets so all his supporters could attend the festivities.

Dissent was boiling in Austin, where a split between Senate and House leaders over the proposed budget and the controversial bathroom bill appeared to widen.  Then throw in the indictment on ethics charges of a House member, a Democrat from Austin, and a controversial poll of Texas muslims by a freshmen representative who's concerned about radical Islam.

Texas politicians are rarely boring, and this week was no exception. You really can’t make up stuff this good. Get the inside scoop and behind-the-scenes insights about the legislative session in Austin and the doings in Washington  in this week's Texas Take: The Podcast -- the leading political podcast in the Lone Star State. 

There's no couch in our studio.