#TXLEGE: With Jim Murphy, house GOP makes its bed; now they lie (Die?!?) in it

"As a dog returns to his own vomit,
So a fool repeats his folly."
Proverbs 26:11

SMDH:

State Rep. Jim Murphy of Houston, who was considered the favored candidate of embattled House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, was elected vice chair of the House Republican Caucus on Friday night.

Wow.

The full DMN piece discusses Murphy's election in the context of Bonnen's scandals.  That's certainly an important angle.  Read the whole thing here.

Unfortunately for the GOP, there's a whole separate dumpster fire:

HOUSTON - It appears that state Rep. Jim Murphy likes taxpayer-funded hats. Channel 2 Investigates identified him wearing a couple of them. One is for the 133rd District on Houston's west side, and the other remains unclear.

Employment contracts between Murphy and the Westchase District, a governmental agency and political subdivision of the state, show Murphy banking a fixed monthly fee of over $26,000 a month. That is a whopping $312,000 a year. The contract also lists him as a "consultant" even though the website for the Westchase District clearly says he's the general manager.

....

State law says, "No member of the Legislature may hold any other office or position of profit, except as a notary public."

In other words, a legislator cannot hold another taxpayer-funded job.

[Note: Learn more about Jim Murphy's ethics issues here, here, and here.]

In other words, the house GOP is trying to ride out one scandal by bringing in a guy enmeshed in a separate scandal.

Bottom Line: It doesn't take a genius to see how this blows up in their face....