TribBlog: Ready for His Closeup
The newest video touting Joe Straus for reelection as Speaker looks like the intro for one of those lifetime achievement statues they give away on the awards shows. Full Story
Ross Ramsey co-founded The Texas Tribune in 2009 and served as its executive editor until his retirement in 2022. He wrote regular columns on politics, government and public policy. Before joining the Tribune, he was editor and co-owner of Texas Weekly. He did a 28-month stint in government with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Before that, he reported for the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Times Herald, as a Dallas-based freelancer for regional and national magazines and newspapers, and for radio stations in Denton and Dallas.
The newest video touting Joe Straus for reelection as Speaker looks like the intro for one of those lifetime achievement statues they give away on the awards shows. Full Story
Add state Reps. Erwin Cain of Como and James White of Hillister to the list of members backing Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, for speaker of the House. Full Story
Ask House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, and he'll tell you: The budget he and his fellow finance types will put forward in a few weeks confirms fears that carnage is looming. "We're making huge cuts," he told a Tea Party group last week. Full Story
For this week's installment of our non-scientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we asked whether Rick Perry is running for president — and whether he should run. Full Story
Tom DeLay broke the law in order to grab power. That's unusual — most politicians steal money. Full Story
Grissom (with Tedesco of the San Antonio Express-News) on high-speed police chases on the Texas-Mexico border, Hu and Hamilton draw a roadmap through the tangle of the Speaker's Race, M. Smith on the trouble with electronic supplements to science textbooks, Ramshaw interviews patient privacy advocate Deborah Peel, Aguilar on Cuba and Texas and trade, Hamilton on the latest in biotech from Texas A&M University, Stiles on who's in the money in Congress, Hu on the controversial renewal of the state lottery contract, yours truly on Tom DeLay's victory in the face of his conviction on money-laundering charges, and E. Smith with a Thanksgiving cornucopia of TribLive videos: The best of our best from November 22 to 26, 2010. Full Story
Yes, a jury convicted the former U.S. House majority leader of money laundering. But his maps — the ones that upended the careers of Democrats and helped the GOP take over Congress — are still in place. No amount of jail time can change that. Full Story
Tom DeLay, the former U.S. House majority leader from Sugar Land, was convicted on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering this afternoon. Full Story
Remember the ABCs? Anybody But Craddick? Not you've got ABS folks, who don't like Republican House Speaker Joe Straus. Full Story
The latest salvo in the speaker race is a slick internet video that argues the House should have a more conservative speaker than Joe Straus. And it suggests the fight to come, knocking over dominoes with the pictures of "Republicans In Name Only" who could be targets in the GOP primaries two years from now: Keffer, Truitt, Geren, Solomons, Eissler, Cook... Full Story