Good morning!

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, November 19, 2019
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• It seems selecting the Speaker of the Texas House is a suicide pact. Not only are Republican House members stuck with a speaker who lied to them about abusing his office and targeting members... but they are also stuck with a Democrat committee chair Dennis Bonnen appointed who has admitted to ferrying cocaine around the state in envelopes emblazoned with his own name, title, and office address.
      
• Brandon Waltens has the facts on this too-crazy-to-make-up evolving story of crime and corruption in the Austin sewer. 
       
• And yet Gov. Greg Abbott is refusing to even acknowledge pleas from Texas’ Republican base to call a special session in which a new – and presumably more ethical – House speaker and leadership team can be selected.
      
• Tellingly, neither the disgraced Republican Bonnen nor his cocaine-snorting Democrat chairman Poncho Nevarez have the ethical moorings to resign their offices for the good of Texas.
        
• The top social issue result of the 2019 legislative session was a watered down “religious liberty” measure proponents styled the “Save Chick-Fil-A” bill following a discriminatory action by the city of San Antonio. But National Review reported yesterday the Georgia-based fast-food chain is now capitulating to the LGBTQ+ lobby and ending its giving to several Christian charities. Texas Scorecard has reaction to the move from around the Lone Star State 
     
• “Now being served at @ChickfilA: Boneless chicken and spineless leadership. Sorry, you were tired of ‘taking it on the chin’ while your sales were increasing because we stood with you.” – Tweet by Former State Rep. Jason Isaac (R-Dripping Springs)
     
• In a new commentary Rachel Bovard explains that no matter what the U.S. Supreme Court decides, the Obama-imposed Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program remains an insufficient solution to a deep and fundamental problem that cannot be solved with stop-gap solutions.
   
• For the third time in 2019, the Amarillo Independent School District is preparing for another vacancy on its school board, again replacing a trustee who was elected in 2017. Thomas Warren has the details.

• In an email to supporters late Sunday evening, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick explained his previous statement saying it would be inappropriate for him to call for a special session to pass conservative priorities killed by House Speaker Dennis Bonnen. While now acknowledging his call for a special session in 2017, Patrick said the circumstances were different... because in 2017 it was in his power to “withhold the budget or a ‘must pass’ bill, in order to force a special session.”
       
• “Why did I do that? Because former Speaker Joe Straus was killing important conservative legislation during the regular session that I and other conservatives wanted to pass.” – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (11/17/2019)
      
• Both Straus and Bonnen were killing conservative legislation important to the grassroots. So forcing a special session due to Straus’ duplicity was acceptable, yet asking for one because of Bonnen’s is not?
     
• “Only Abbott can call a Special, but politicians respond to whomever applies the most pressure. We must be that pressure on our State Reps, our State Senators, the Lt Gov, and Gov Abbott.” –Julie McCarty, CEO of the True Texas Project