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Joe Straus – Texas TEA Party Public Enemy Number 1

By: irish067 (Diary)  |  February 6th, 2012 at 07:09 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

TEAParty911.com recently launched a new blog as part of their site and they really came out swinging. Their first post on Joe Straus does not leave any doubt that Texas TEA parties are not happy with the Texas Speaker of the House. Also receiving harsh criticism were incumbent Senators Robert Nichols and Bob Deuell.

“Joe Straus, Texas TEA Party Public Enemy Number 1” details some of the disastrous results of the 81st and 82nd legislative sessions under the “leadership” of Joe Straus. I found it extremely interesting how Straus was elected to the speakership in the first place – he had the support of only 11 Republicans and all 65 Democrats to defeat then Speaker Tom Craddick. What kind of “conservative” receives unanimous support from Democrats?

The post also goes into detail on how Straus and company were going to use redistricting to punish his rivals as alleged by Representative Bryan Hughes. The matter was brought before the House Ethics Committee, but Committee Chair and recipient of $42K in campaign contributions from Straus, Chuck Hobson found no evidence of ethics violations. Strangely, freshman Representative Erwin Cain, who voted against Straus’ speakership, found his district eliminated in the redistricting process.

“State Senator Robert Nichols Fails Texas Voters” shows a school-like report card with the grades of Nichols as stated by numerous conservative organizations such as Eagle Forum, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, and the Heritage Alliance. Nichols is portrayed as the kid who has to come home from school and show his parents (Texas voters) his failing report card. I got a chuckle out of the suggestion that Nichols should be sent to an alternative school – the Democrat Party.

In “Bob Deuell vs. Bob Hall”, the author brings to our attention specific pieces of not so conservative legislation that Deuell has either sponsored or supported. One of the comments on this post points out that Deuell is actually very conservative, but only on two issues – right to life, and gun rights issues. Once upon a time in Texas, if a candidate was solid on pro-life issues and gun rights, it would be enough to get that candidate elected. However, with the arrival of the TEA Party and other grassroots conservative groups, candidates are now more scrutinized on fiscal issues. Deuell apparently does not measure up to TEA Party standards with a conservative rating on economic issues in 2009 of only 32% by both the Texas Eagle Forum and the Heritage Alliance. Deuell scored slightly higher with the Young Conservatives of Texas in 2009 receiving a 41% conservative rating.

The author of this post then introduces Bob Hall as an alternative to the poor fiscally conservative ratings of incumbent Senator Bob Deuell. Bob Hall is the founder of the Canton TEA Party and was recently chosen as one of the top ten conservative challengers by CPAC-Texas voters. It will now be in the hands of Texas voters to decide which is the right Bob for the job.

The TEA Party 911 blog looks like it is going to be an interesting blog to follow.

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  • paladin1

    Joe Strauss is an abomination elected, at pointed out by a few Republicans and a huge number of Dems. His ruthless attacks on his opposition in the last session was culminated in the edistricting of his main competitor, Ken Paxton, who lost much of the southern part of his district. Not to worry, Tea Partiers; Paxton is running for and is probably a lock, on the Senate seat vacated by Sen. Shapiro.

    We Texans must really keep an eye on our state Republican party to insure that the urban Rs don’t drift us to the left as has happened nationally.

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    Republican Primary voters elect the Republican candidates who will appear on the general election ballot, their precinct chairmen, and their county chairmen. Thus, primary voters have a greater influence on the final outcome of the general election than those who only vote in the general election.

    From: http://staging.electionmall.ws/texasgopsite/inner.asp?z=2

    Here’s another good resource re “how it works” in Texas:

    And here’s a link to a Texas Republican Party precinct committeeman handbook:

    http://www.collincountygop.com/wp-content/uploads/precinct_chair_handbook.pdf

    I hope this helps.

    Thank you.

    ColdWarrior

  • http://www.teaparty911.com irish067

    I just Googled “RINO Joe Straus” and was amazed at all the results. It looks like the Texas Speaker has a lot of people who have a problem with him.

  • greyeagle

    You are correct, Joe should never have been Speaker. The Republicans outnumber the Dems, so they should throw him out. He has always played dirty politics.

  • mikeymike143

    texas deserves better

  • falconflight

    Quite by accident yesterday I was purusing the Legislative websites and found a link collating all the bills voted on during the Session. Do you want to take a guess how many? Nearly 700. The link that id’s the bill number, sponsor, and a 1 liner about the nature of the bill creates a 100 page document. It shows another window into the intensely corrupted nature of the GOP, I suspect around the country. Do you know that Texas has the most indolent grazing eligible voter body politic in the Nation? Do you know that the most indolent of all party affiliated voters is none other than a republican rank and file member. It is little wonder that Boehner, McConnell, Cornyn, and my rep Kay Granger can utterly ignore and deride citizens rising the slightest question about the member or Senator or their damninable party.

  • paladin1

    I rather hate to tell you this because you may try to explain it and that could be infinitely worse.