{"id":3356,"date":"2013-08-25T00:42:31","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T00:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=3356"},"modified":"2013-08-25T00:42:31","modified_gmt":"2013-08-25T00:42:31","slug":"smithee-for-texas-house-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=3356","title":{"rendered":"Smithee for Texas House speaker?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Et tu, John Smithee?<\/p>\n

Paul Burka, the blogger\/columnist for Texas Monthly, thinks state Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, might be thinking about challenging Speaker Joe Straus as the Man of the House.<\/p>\n

That would be a most interesting turn of events.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.texasmonthly.com\/burka-blog\/brewing-speakers-race<\/p>\n

It’s not that Smithee isn’t worthy of consideration. He’s been in the House since 1985 and is by far the senior member of the Texas Panhandle legislative delegation; I think he’s got something like 18 years on the second-ranking Panhandle legislator, Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, who was elected in 2003.<\/p>\n

Burka thinks Smithee could be among a group of legislators looking to oust Straus, who I guess they believe has become too, um, “mainstream” for their liking. Smithee is set to emcee a fundraiser for an East Texas representative, Republican Kent Schaefer of Tyler.<\/p>\n

I’m trying to figure out Smithee’s end game, if he has one, regarding the speakership.<\/p>\n

I remember asking Smithee about the speaker’s office back when former Speaker Tom Craddick was being ousted from that high post. Smithee considered a run for it, but backed out. He said he disliked the political nature of the office. He preferred to be more of a legislative workhouse, staying in the background. He’s been known to walk across the aisle to work with Democrats, which I’ve become accustomed to believing is a big strike against any Republican serving in the state House of Reps.<\/p>\n

I got the strong sense from Smithee — who I’ve known and admired since arriving in the Panhandle back in early 1995 — that he didn’t like the power brokering the speaker occasionally has to do. I’ve long thought of Smithee as a straight shooter who never was afraid to answer a direct question with a direct answer.<\/p>\n

Smithee for speaker? Seems like a stretch to me. Then again, I haven’t been close to Smithee for some time. Maybe he’s been infected by the right-wing virus that’s been going around.<\/p>\n\n

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Et tu, John Smithee? Paul Burka, the blogger\/columnist for Texas Monthly, thinks state Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, might be thinking about challenging Speaker Joe Straus as the Man of the House. That would be a most interesting turn of events. http:\/\/www.texasmonthly.com\/burka-blog\/brewing-speakers-race It’s not that Smithee isn’t worthy of consideration. He’s been in the House since … Continue reading Smithee for Texas House speaker?<\/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":[2519,2553,4531,4642,4653,4842],"class_list":["post-3356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-joe-straus","tag-john-smithee","tag-tea-party","tag-texas-house-of-representatives","tag-texas-legislature","tag-tom-craddick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3356","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=3356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}