Good morning,

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Thursday, January 14, 2021
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• Texas GOP chairman Allen West issued a blistering statement against the Democrats’ impeachment of President Trump. Joshua Hendrickson has the details.
   
• “The second attempt to impeach President Trump shows that Democrats would rather play vindictive politics instead of engaging in the business of the American people. Vilifying their opponents as neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and Uncle Toms will only deepen mistrust and division in this country.” – Lt. Col. Allen West

• On the first full day of the legislative session yesterday, the Texas House did not address executive overreach during the pandemic, out-of-control property taxes, or the budget shortfall. Instead, the House voted unanimously to create a new honorary position in their chamber.
      
• Previously, the longest-serving member of the House – regardless of gender – was designated as the “dean” of the chamber. Now, they will have two deans: the longest-serving male and the longest-serving female.
     
• Is this a harbinger of the virtue-signaling we can expect from the 87th Session?

• House members did vote against a proposal paving the way for an increase in office budgets for legislators. They instead voted to maintain the office allocation adopted in the last legislative session.
       
• State Rep. Matt Schaefer (R–Tyler)—a vocal proponent of increasing office budgets to pay Capitol staffers more—presented an amendment to the House Rules that would force the chamber to readdress the issue by April 21. To be clear, though, Mr. Schaefer’s amendment itself did not raise office budgets, and he stressed lawmakers could theoretically vote to keep them the same or lower them later.
      
• The measure was voted down 103 to 43.

• Meanwhile, the Texas Senate voted yesterday to reduce their office budgets.
      
• The Senate also set in place what is now called the “Five-Ninths Rule” – meaning, the number of senators who must agree to bring legislation to the chamber’s floor for debate. That number has moved from two-thirds to three-fifths to now five-ninths, reflecting the change in the GOP majority to ensure Democrats cannot kill Republican legislation.
      
• “Texans reaffirmed in the 2020 election that they support conservative candidates and conservative policies.” – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

• When the Texas House gavels into session later this morning, they will take up new operating rules for the legislative session.
      
• Among other things, as Brandon Waltens reports, the proposed rules could result in far fewer record votes being placed into public record, obscuring lawmakers’ actions in office, and thus shielding them from accountability by their constituents.
     
• “These people are terrified of accountability.” – Don Huffines

• In this week's Liberty Cafe podcast, policy analyst Bill Peacock discusses the odds of Texas cutting spending and reducing the size of government.

• Texas Democrats lost another attempt to undermine state voting laws.
   
• Erin Anderson reports the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition filed by the Texas Democrat Party asking the justices to review the party’s lawsuit seeking to force the state to allow everyone to vote by mail – a process more vulnerable to fraud and abuse than in-person voting.
   
• Meanwhile, a Bexar County political operative who boasted on hidden camera about her mail-ballot harvesting prowess has been arrested and charged with multiple voting fraud felonies. 
   
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the arrest of Rachel Rodriguez, self-described “ballot chaser” who was first exposed in October by undercover journalists at Project Veritas. (FWIW: some reports have identified her as “Raquel” Rodriguez; we went with the A.G. office’s spelling.) 
      
• “This is a victory for election integrity and a strong signal that anyone who attempts to defraud the people of Texas, deprive them of their vote, or undermine the integrity of elections will be brought to justice.” – Attorney General Ken Paxton

• A new commentary by Joel Starnes looks at the most under-reported pro-life victory of recent years: the U.S. Supreme Court protecting the life of Tarrant County’s Baby Tinslee Lewis.
       
• “This is a blow to the Texas Medical Association, a liberal lobby group that consistently supports the culture of death in the legislature. This is a blow to a fake pro-life group that fights against abortion but thinks doctors should be able to override patients’ and families’ end-of-life wishes. It’s a blow against the Texas Directive Act (10-day rule), which is especially good going into the 87th Texas Legislative Session.” – Joel Starnes

Quote-Unquote

“If you are an elected Republican who supports impeachment, you support ripping the GOP apart while dramatically increasing the likelihood that Donald Trump forms a third party - something his supporters would overwhelmingly welcome.”

– Ben Domenech,
writing in The Transom​