Ross Ramsey’s analysis of Lt. David Dewhurst’s worst nightmare coming true this week reminded me a late, great Texas politician who once held that office.
Bob Bullock once ruled the Texas Senate like a tyrant. I’m trying to imagine the late Democratic lieutenant governor getting steamrolled in the manner that Dewhurst got trampled during the final hours of the fractious Senate debate over a restrictive abortion bill.
Ramsey’s piece in the Texas Tribune is linked here. It’s worth taking the time to read it.
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/06/26/dewhurst-critical-failure-large-audience/
A couple of key aspects about the way Bullock ran the Senate come immediately to mind.
I don’t believe he would have changed the Senate’s long-standing two-thirds rule merely because it was meeting in a special session. Here’s how it goes: The Senate needs 21 votes – out of 31 total senators serving in the body – in favor of any bill to bring it to a full floor vote. Senate Bill 5, the anti-abortion bill in question, didn’t have that many votes. The two-thirds rule is intended to ensure bipartisan support, meaning in this case at least two Democrats would have to cross over to support SB 5.
Dewhurst, a Republican, decided prior to the start of special session to waive the two-thirds rule. One of the results of that decision was the chaos we saw ensue on the Senate floor late Tuesday.
Bullock would have run the place with an iron fist. No, make that two iron fists.
The second factor I think of is Bullock’s deal-making skills. Although he was known have hard-headed – and some would say hard-hearted as well – the man knew how to grease the system with pols from the other side of the aisle. His legendary relationship with Republican Gov. George W. Bush has become the stuff of legend around Austin. Bullock knew how to schmooze the other side when it needed schmoozing.
In Dewhurst, I see a supreme policy wonk who knows the nitty-gritty of just about every bill under consideration in the Senate. His deal-making skills? Well, they seem to need lots of need work.
Rick Perry followed Bullock into the lieutenant governor’s office, but didn’t stay there long enough – just through one legislative session, in 1999 – to make his mark. He moved into the governor’s office in December 2000 after Bush’s election as president. Perry certainly has made his mark as the state’s longest-serving governor.
He’s going to seek to deepen his imprint on the office next week as he calls his second special session while trying to ram this punitive abortion bill into law. Will the lieutenant governor step up this time? I’m betting he won’t.
Wherever he is, Bob Bullock is laughing.