Charlie Geren (and Fischer) Reveal Leadership Playbook

"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
Ephesians 5:11

This morning, we attended the Texas Tribune's On the Road: A Symposium Preview the 84th Texas Legislature.  The first panel, The House vs. the Senate was the most informative.  In that panel, Charlie Geren, along with Trey Martinez Fischer, outlined the playbook legacy Republicans will use against conservatives in the 84th Texas Legislature.


First, expect leadership to attempt to draw distinctions between "real business" and "red meat issues."  According to Geren, education, transportation, and water are the "real business" "we need to focus on."  While Geren allowed that "there will be some red meat," he expected Team Straus (whom Geren repeatedly referred to as "Joe") to focus on "real business first."

Trey Martinez Fischer was Geren's tag-team partner.  That, by itself, is revealing.  Fisher expressed his desire for the House to focus on "two big projects" to address "our common interests" during the bulk of the session before they "fight in May."  Fischer expects "a meltdown" (ie. typical partisan disagreement), "but how much work do you want to get done?!?"  before said "meltdown."  According to Fischer, "we can have fights, but lets have sensible fights."

Translated from bull crap into English, this means passing the leadership/lobbyist agenda in April, then taking show votes for campaign mailers.  To do so, distinguish between "real business" and "red meat issues."  The bi-partisan lobbyist establishment will get their priorities addressed, and issues conservatives care about will only see the light of day if there's time (which, of course, there won't be).

Today, Charlie Geren revealed the legacy Republican agenda for the 84th #TXLEGE.  Historically, this playbook has worked because it muddied the waters and voters (even activists) weren't paying attention.  But that's no longer the case.  We've all seen this movie before.  If current leadership survives January 13th, it will be interesting to see how much juice the old playbook has left....