{"id":24,"date":"2013-06-27T13:47:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T13:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2013\/06\/27\/try-to-imagine-bullock-getting-rolled-like-this"},"modified":"2013-06-27T13:47:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T13:47:00","slug":"try-to-imagine-bullock-getting-rolled-like-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=24","title":{"rendered":"Try to imagine Bullock getting rolled like this"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

Ross Ramsey\u2019s analysis of Lt. David Dewhurst\u2019s worst nightmare coming true this week reminded me a late, great Texas politician who once held that office.<\/p>\n

Bob Bullock once ruled the Texas Senate like a tyrant. I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

Ramsey\u2019s piece in the Texas Tribune is linked here. It\u2019s worth taking the time to read it.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2013\/06\/26\/dewhurst-critical-failure-large-audience\/<\/a><\/p>\n

A couple of key aspects about the way Bullock ran the Senate come immediately to mind.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t believe he would have changed the Senate\u2019s long-standing two-thirds rule merely because it was meeting in a special session. Here\u2019s how it goes: The Senate needs 21 votes \u2013 out of 31 total senators serving in the body \u2013 in favor of any bill to bring it to a full floor vote. Senate Bill 5, the anti-abortion bill in question, didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Bullock would have run the place with an iron fist. No, make that two<\/em> iron fists. <\/p>\n

The second factor I think of is Bullock\u2019s deal-making skills. Although he was known have hard-headed \u2013 and some would say hard-hearted<\/em> as well \u2013 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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Rick Perry followed Bullock into the lieutenant governor\u2019s office, but didn\u2019t stay there long enough \u2013 just through one legislative session, in 1999 \u2013 to make his mark. He moved into the governor\u2019s office in December 2000 after Bush\u2019s election as president. Perry certainly has made his mark as the state\u2019s longest-serving governor.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s 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\u2019m betting he won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Wherever he is, Bob Bullock is laughing.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ross Ramsey\u2019s analysis of Lt. David Dewhurst\u2019s 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\u2019m trying to imagine the late Democratic lieutenant governor getting steamrolled in the manner that Dewhurst got trampled during the … Continue reading Try to imagine Bullock getting rolled like this<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}