#TXLEGE: At this point, the GOP deserves to Lose the Texas house

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan."
Proverbs 29:2

Never, ever, ever underestimate the cowardice, or the stupidity, of the Republican caucus in the Texas house:

Just in — Statement from House Republican Caucus on Bonnen-Burrows-MQS: pic.twitter.com/ifxTJqxNhD

— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) October 18, 2019

That one has to go to the Twitter feed of a Texas Tribune reporter to find that statement, while the GOP caucus hasn't posted it to their own, tells you everything you need to know.

We'd call it denial, but we don't want to insult Egyptian rivers.

In other words:



Yet here we are.

It's 2006 on steroids.

We don't have anything new to say about this specific scandal.  There's nothing we can say that we didn't say three months ago.  And two months ago.  And ten days ago.

Yet here we are.

It's no longer just about Dennis Bonnen.  Or one act of political funny business.  This specific scandal is the completely predictable result of the toxic culture in the Texas capitol that has prevailed for a long time.

The GOP, meanwhile, has been running the place for a quarter century.

This is the same Republican majority that:

• Five years ago, was running college admissions scandals before it was cool.
• With all due respect to Aunt Becky, she ain't got nothin' on Jim Pitts.

• Two years ago, put a man who had been in a sexual relationship with a lobbyist for over a decade in charge of writing its sexual harassment policy.

• Just elected as vice chair a guy who was taking $56,000 a month from an entity under the jurisdiction of the committee he chaired.

The pattern is obvious...to anyone not under the influence of afore mentioned Egyptian rivers.

It can't be defended, and it shouldn't.

The New York Times, meanwhile, gets in on the act:

AUSTIN, Texas — With President Trump arriving in red-state Texas for a campaign rally in Dallas on Thursday, the Republican Party in the state faces a host of troubles.

The Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives is engulfed in scandal. Six of the state’s 23 Republican members of the United States House of Representatives say they will not run for re-election, opening new opportunities for Democrats. And one of the state’s three top Republican leaders believes that the president has become a political liability among a crucial bloc of voters.

“With all due respect to Trump — who I love, by the way — he’s killing us in urban-suburban districts,” Dennis Bonnen, the speaker of the state House and the central figure in the legislative scandal, said in a 64-minute tape recording released on Tuesday.

The recording of a sometimes salty conversation Mr. Bonnen had with a conservative activist at the State Capitol in June includes a description of what critics have called a quid-pro-quo offer that is now under investigation by the Texas Rangers.

Mr. Bonnen says the tape, which was recorded without his knowledge, proves that nothing he said in the conversation broke any laws.

Even so, the political landscape in Texas will now feature both an embattled state leader struggling to hold on to the speakership and an embattled president confronting an impeachment inquiry — a prospect that unquestionably raises the stakes for Republicans in a state their party has dominated for more than two decades.

Consequently, “corruption and abuse of power become not just a national issue but potentially a state-level issue for Republicans as well,” said Jim Henson, a pollster and political analyst based in Austin.

Obviously, a certain type of moron will reply "HashtagFAKENEWS" to the New York Times.  That's fine.  They'll get what they deserve.

To the reality based community, however, its' a warning.

You don't have to agree with every statement in that Times article to understand they've got the basic dynamic right.

The frickin' New York Times understands reality better than the majority party in the Texas legislature.

Think about that.

Yet here we are.

Bottom Line: The Democrats might not deserve to win.  It might remain the case that they suck even more.  It probably does.  But it shouldn't surprise anyone if "might" fails to defeat currently observable reality.