The vacation is over, and it's time to get back to work.
For the over 50 run-away Texas Democrats who fled to Washington over a month ago, it is time to do the job they were elected to do. A job they received by fair, and legal votes.
No more beer on private jets, or trips to Portugal. After one of the biggest PR debacles ever, an embarrassing publicity stunt that did absolutely nothing except hurt taxpayers, there is finally a quorum in Austin.
It came about on Thursday night when Garnet Coleman was surprisingly joined by two other Democrats, which gave the Texas House the long awaited number. It was surprising, because the rest of the run away Texas Dems had no idea that the other 2 were going to show up. After hours of caucus conference calls, the Texas Democrats thought the lack of a quorum was going to continue. They were wrong, again.
"There were several Democrats who actually got quite frustrated with them" said Daniel Friend, who has been covering the 2nd special session for The Texan, "So we do see that rift in the Democrat party."
After being criticized across the country for neglecting their duties, and partying in Washington, the Texas Democrats are now under fire for a lack of unity. It's bad enough what they did. Now, they're not even on the same page. Is there any chance it could happen again? Would the Texas Democrats run away again? "It is definitely possible that the Democrats would do this again" Friend told KTRH, "What you'll really want to watch is whether there's more Democrats who come back."
More Democrats did come back over the weekend, so the quorum will remain, at least for now, with the session set to resume on Monday afternoon. "We'll see Republicans try to rapidly push through the election bill" Friend said, "There's going to be a lot of hearings that we'll see in the first few days as they come back with a quorum." That will include more discussion on the bail reform bill which was thought to be a slam dunk, but instead was put on hold over the weekend.
With just two weeks left in the special session, Friend notes "We will see lawmakers try to ram this through as fast as they can, but it is going to take some time."
Photo: SULLIVAN, JON (uploader)