From the diaries by Erick

What’s more corrupt than the lieutenant of a sitting Speaker of the House making threats against Representatives who refuse to support that speaker? Is it possible for someone to go further up the shameless meter than to draw redistricting maps to cut Representatives out of their districts in order to punish them for standing up to a bad politician?

If you answered, “No, it’s not possible,” then you’d be wrong.

Conservatives who came out and voted on Election Day need to make their voice heard again. We can not let the political class ignore us, and select a speaker who is not a conservative.

I told you on Friday that Rep. Brian Hughes had made allegations that a Straus lieutenant had made those very threats to him. He said that redistricting maps were being drawn to hurt Rep-elect Erwin Cain and Rep. Dan Flynn. When Straus said that those claims were outrageous, Rep. Hughes sent him an email naming the offending member. That brings us to today.

This morning there was a hearing of the Committee for General Investigating and Ethics. This committee is chaired by one of Straus’ closest allies, Rep. Chuck Hopson. Among the other four members of the committee, three are strong Straus supporters.

At the beginning of the committee meeting, Chairman Hopson announced that Rep. Larry Phillips (vice chair of the Ethics committee) was the member named by Rep. Hughes and that Phillips would not sit on the committee during this hearing. Following that two-minute statement they went into secret session. Representatives Hughes and Phillips were apparently the only non-committee members in the meeting.

When they emerged from their three-hour secret session, Hopson’s verdict that without a recording there wasn’t enough evidence to take action.

Here are the problems with this hearing:

1. Hopson should have handed this investigation over to the Attorney General’s office. He was given $42,000 from Straus during his campaign and the allegations that Hughes made against Phillips indicated that more than one member of the Straus leadership team was involved in the wrongdoing. In fact, if the allegations were true then it is likely that Straus himself was involved. Giving the investigation over to the AG’s office would have gone a long way to build voter confidence in the proceedings.

2. The meeting should have been open to the public. What we are dealing with here isn’t about a member of the House of Representatives saving face. It’s about whether or not you can use Capone-esque tactics to get yourself the Speaker’s chair! Transparency is critical and no one on Straus’ side seems to care about that at the moment.

3. Hughes testimony was under-oath while Phillips was not. While we have no idea what happened during the three hours of secret meeting, when the parties emerged and gave public testimony only Rep. Hughes was sworn in. Phillips’ testimony was given without any oath and he carefully avoided the press when he left.

This whole affair is turning into a circus. The Straus camp is trying to avoid dealing with the attacks made against him and just hoping that if they ignore the problem long enough that we will forget about it.

The responses to critiques of Straus can be pretty neatly organized into three categories: 1. Ad hominem attacks – Striking out at individuals that dare to question the Speaker Straus’ record. 2. “Nuh-uh!” – Saying that we’re wrong but failing to provide any evidence to support that statement. 3. Straw man – Promoting the idea that this whole fight is about getting Tom Craddick back into the Speaker’s chair.

Here’s what this whole fight boils down to: For the first time in Texas’ history, ordinary citizens have the opportunity to help impact the choice of who the Speaker of the House will be. It’s the epitome of a watershed moment. This is being made very clear by the number of establishment Republicans who are telling their constituents that this is a decision that should be left up to the members rather than influenced by us common folk.

Texans, Our Representatives work for us and every vote they cast is a reflection of our will. As conservatives, we care whether or not the speaker is a conservative. Representative Straus is not. Make sure your Representatives know where you stand! Hold them accountable if they go against you. Remember, we’re only a year away from the 2012 primary election filing deadline! Have you thought about running for the House? We need more conservatives to stand up and run.

By the way, check back tomorrow for some pretty interesting information about donations that Speaker Straus made during this year’s campaign cycle!

Freedom of speech is under attack courtesy of Texas House Speaker Joe Straus. He is effectively trying to stuff as much speech as possible into the definition of “political advertising,” hassling average Texans out of the conversation. In his interim charge to the General Investigating & Ethics Committee Straus commanded the following:

Review the definition of “political advertising” and determine whether the definition should be expanded to include content contained in blogs and other types of Internet communications.(For the complete list of interim charges click here.)

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I love analogies. The kryptonite analogy really captures the attitude of politicians who have been at the trough too long. Still, most politicians have the discipline not to tell you outright to butt out of the political process, much less investigate you like the Stazi.

Like Erick pointed out the other day, even in Texas being a Republican doesn’t necessarily mean you are a conservative. Here is more proof.

Until 2008 it was actually a crime in Texas under the state’s ethics rules for citizens to voice support or opposition for anybody running for Speaker of the House. This law, while longstanding, was blatantly un-constitutional. Thanks to the hard work of the great team at the Liberty Institute the situation was remedied (back then it was called Free Market Foundation.)

The Federal Court ruled that, “The election of the speaker is not, therefore, a matter of internal Housekeeping. It is an issue of great political importance and a legitimate subject for public debate.” (Free Market Foundation v. Reisman, 573 F.Supp.2d 952, 955 (W.D. Tex. 2008)

Since the decision in 2008 it has been legal for Texans to use their Constitutional right to free speech to voice their opinion regarding the election of one of Texas’ most powerful leaders. Still, some people don’t seem to like common folk like us speaking up.

A few weeks ago, Speaker Joe Straus (the liberal Republican speaker that is running for re-election) lashed out at “outside forces” that were trying to have an impact on the Speaker race. From that kind of label you might think that big corporate donors or crony lobbyists were slandering Straus and throwing big wads of money to fight his re-election. The reality is that the outcry for a conservative speaker is coming from you, the conservative resurgence.

As if the incumbent Speaker telling you to sit adown and shut-up isn’t enough, Chuck Hopson (Straus’ Democrat-recently-turned-Republican Chair of the House Ethics Committee) sent a letter to the legislature offering them a “word of caution.” In this letter Chairman Hopson points to anti-bribery statutes and insinuates that letting a constituent or organization influence your vote for Speaker is illegal.

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From the diaries by Erick

I wrote last week emphasizing the importance of TEA Party involvement this election cycle. In it I asked the question, “Are You Astroturf?” and I expressed my frustration with TEA Partiers who fail to follow through with meaningful action (phone-banking, block-walking, etc.) to back up their protest.

For those of you un-convinced of the impact that TEA Party activists can make in the next week and a half, I want to give you a case study:

Right now I’m in St. Louis, MO working for American Majority Action, in partnership with the St. Louis TEA Party and the Jefferson County TEA Party. We’re operating one of nine Liberty Headquarters funded by American Majority Action. Our goal is to lend aid to conservative organizations that are interested in getting involved in the hard work of winning elections. The non-glamorous side of politics, the block walking and phone banking, is what wins elections and the organizations we partner with understand this well.

The race that AMA and these Missouri TEA Party groups are focusing on is the Congressional battle in Missouri’s Third District. Incumbent Russ Carnahan (D) is facing off with TEA Party insurgent Ed Martin (R). While polling at the time of the primary showed Martin down by a very large margin, the activism of TEA Partiers has brought the race to a statistical dead heat.

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Early voting started today in Texas and conservatives have two pretty clear choices in the Governors race: Vote for Rick Perry or dont vote. Apparently Perry’s opponent, Liberal Bill White, agrees 100%!

Remember, don’t go alone to vote! Bring friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. Also, make sure you vote the FULL ballot. Conservatives often win the top-of-the-ticket races but lose more local races because people don’t pay attention to the races further down the ballot.

For the last year and a half the TEA Party movement has rallied Americans around the cause of bringing fiscal responsibility back to our Government. We have protested. We have made catchy t-shirts. We have raised awareness. We have confronted our liberal representatives and served notice that they will soon join the unemployed.

Each of those activities is important and has a place but now it’s time to put your money where your mouth is: Protest must become action.

Winning requires action! It’s politics 101 that if you want to make policy then you must win politically. The only way to do that is to get more of your people to vote than the other guy turns out.

On November 3rd, as we look back on this election, there will be no comfort in saying, “Well, we lost by 5% but check out those awesome signs and pun-ridden bumper stickers we had!!”

NOW is the time for you to put down your signs of protest, stop preaching to the choir and get into action! Many organizations and individuals understand this necessity but far too many lag behind.

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