Following last night’s remarkable events in the Texas Senate chamber—an eleven hour actual filibuster followed by public disruption right down to the last second–Rick Perry has called for another special session. This one may have but a single piece of legislation on the table—the highly restrictive abortion bill the Republicans were unable to pass yesterday.
As I recently discussed, restrictive abortion laws translate into deaths of more women and teenage girls. It is not opinion, it is long established fact. In the U.S., restrictive abortion laws are also illegal—the Supreme Court has ruled them unconstitutional. The Texas law, besides restricting abortions to before 20 weeks, will effectively shut down most of the abortion facilities in the state.
If it passes, women and teen girls in Texas will die—because of the law.
What can Texas Democrats do about it? A filibuster is out of the question. Special sessions can be as long as 30 days!
But a Democratic walkout could work–that is, they can engage in a quorum block. The Texas Senate has 32 members, the Lt. Governor plus 31 Senators. The two-thirds quorum requirement means that the absence of 11 members shuts down voting. Currently the Texas senate is composed of 12 Democratic and 19 Republican Senators. This means that a group of 11 Senators is sufficient to shut down voting.
They might even flee the state like they did in 2003 during a highly unusual “mid-decade” redistricting move by Republicans. Eleven Democratic Senators fled Texas during a third special session:
…the minute it became clear the GOP was going to force the issue in the Senate by voting on a rule change, he said, the 11 executed their escape plan and broke the quorum. They grabbed bags already packed in their offices and boarded SUVs that took them to the airport, where two jets were waiting to fly them to Albuquerque.
The Democrats checked into a Marriott hotel in Albuquerque. The senators didn’t hide. They decided to call themselves the Texas Eleven, and even developed a logo – a silhouette of Texas inside the symbol for New Mexico under the words, “Never, Never, Never Quit.”
Eventually, one Democratic member, Senator John Whitmire, relented and returned solo to the chamber. The quorum block failed.
Sen. Whitmire is still in the Texas Senate (in fact, he is the longest serving member). So, Democrats would need a solid block of the other 11 Senators to pull off a shut down.
But Democrats were successful in blocking a quorum in 1979 that prevented a change in the Texas primary that would have benefited a Republican candidate. The story is told by former Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby (R):
The whole thing was a fiasco. In protest, twelve “Killer Bee” senators flew the Capitol to break a quorum. The “Worker Bees,” who stayed behind, spent each session haranguing the absentees, since we didn’t have the quorum necessary to transact any business. And we were in the very last weeks of the session with lots of legislation in the pipeline.
Before long, the Worker Bees put a call on the Senate. This action required all absentees to return. The Worker Bees sent the Texas Rangers to net the Killer Bees wherever they had flown. The fact was, for several days the Killer Bees had been hived up in Dora McDonald’s small garage apartment. Dora McDonald, Sen. Carl Parker’s chief of staff, lived only blocks from the Capitol. Her guests passed the time playing cards, arguing, and listening to each other snore. The Worker Bees continued to harangue them from the Senate floor.
One senator, Gene Jones, left the hive — he wanted to see his granddaughter. The Rangers heard that Jones was home in Houston. Photo in hand, they knocked on his door. A man who looked a lot like the picture opened the door. The Ranger asked him if he was Jones. He said yes. They arrested him and took him to Austin. He was Jones all right, but not Gene Jones. They had arrested Gene’s brother, Clayton. When the knock came at the door the senator had jumped over the back fence and stayed lost for another day.
The other possibility is for the House Democrats to flee the state. In fact, 52 Texas House Democrats fled the state earlier in 2003 during the regular session, as well. Of the 150 member House, a 2/3rds quorum is required, so that if 51 members are absent, the House shuts down. Currently there are 55 Democratic members and 95 Republicans. So…this isn’t out of the question.
Ultimately, it would be great if the Senate and House joined forces and every Democratic legislator left the state. They would likely endure fines and ridicule, but they would be saving lives of women and teen girls.
That kind-a makes it worthwhile.
“Worker Bees” and “Killer Bees”? Really? That reminds me of “Do Bee” and “Don’t Bee” from Romper Room (For those too young to remember Romper Room, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtI1t_3wWLM ).
I guess Hobby felt he needed to give extra cues to signal to folks which side was really in the right… because it’s not clear which side was more like patriotic American rebels vs. tyrannical kings?
Meanwhile, southern Republicans are wasting no time in exploiting the rightwing SCOTUS justices’ successful effort to gut the Voting Rights Act to take new actions to prevent American citizens from voting in their own country.
http://seattletimes.com/html/p.....south.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I don’t know if this really matters. Democrats aren’t going to carry those states anyway, so we aren’t losing anything.
As for Texass GOPers’ efforts to ban abortions, including for rape victims, in their fucked up state — I have a simple solution. Women should not live in Texass. No woman should move there, and women currently living there should leave. Period. Let Texass be a womanless state. If those Texass GOP legislators insist on treating their womenfolk like cattle and sheep, then let them get their jollies from real cattle and sheep.
Another strategy occurs to me: Thousands and thousands of Lone Star State citizens storming the Texas State Capitol during the next session with a message to Rick Perry about what the consequences are when you try to mess with Texas.
The first time, it was the committed who showed-up. Seeing their success, the next time it will include their friends who think the same way, but were too meek to show-up the first time…
Vox Populi.
Dave,
Maybe, but it didn’t work all that well in Wisconsin….
@4 Darryl:
Hmm… But then again, folks from Wisconsin are more known for wearing cheese hats and being friendly–You don’t usually hear ’em slipping “Don’t mess with Wisconsin!” into every conversation they ever have…
Actually with some party building, voter registration, and GOTV demographically Texas could be a swing state today. Even if the Democrats don’t win, forcing the GOP to spend money in the state is a win.
Several formerly “red” states are on the cusp of a similar demographic shift.
Texas won’t go blue in my lifetime, but a little purple is starting to seep out of the larger cities putting some of those carefully gerrymandered districts in trouble for the Rs. If you write off the South then you write off millions of our fellow Americans of the progressive, minority and female sort. Would any good leftist or liberal turn the fates of those people over to the gentle mercies of the knuckle dragging Bubbas. Never give up. Never surrender. Onward thru the fog!
@6, @7:
Texas would be purple today if more of its Hispanic registered voters would just go the polls and vote. And it would be blue today if more of its Hispanic citizens would just register to vote (and cast ballots).
You think Hispanic registration and voting percentages are low in Yakima County? It looks like a flood of ballots compared to Texas.
For whatever reason, Texas Hispanics seem to be immune to voter registration and GOTV campaigns.
# 8: Could it be a century of more of beatings, harrassment, and intimidation by Texas Rangers?
@6 “Several formerly “red” states are on the cusp of a similar demographic shift.”
Which, is why, of course, all this crap is going on.
Over the past several elections I have looked at election result maps divided by precincts. Urban and most suburban areas closer into cities are almost always blue – even in supposedly “red” states. The more rural suburbs and rural areas are almost all red.
And the population of rural areas continues to shrink dramatically.
So you might have a long-term trend of a Republican House (due to gerrymandering), a Democratic Senate (state-wide elections), and a Democratic president. Maybe we need to start preparing for the redistricting after the 2020 census – that could turn a lot of red states blue.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry: ‘Every Life Matters’
Really?
Governor Rick Perry has overseen the executions of 261 people since he assumed office in 2000.
Texas has dropped to 49th in spending per pupil and is now more than $3,000 below the U.S. average.
Texas ranks 44th among states in overall children’s health and well-being, the Annie E. Casey Foundation reports in its annual Kids Count Data Book. Texas’ child poverty rate is higher than the national rate, with one-in-four children living in poverty; the state ranks 49th in the country in children without health insurance, with 14% of kids uninsured.
31% of Texas children have parents who “lack secure employment,” 26% of the state’s kids live in poverty, and the number of low-birthweight babies born here increased 2% from 2005 to 2009.
Texas was ranked 4 out of 51 states and the District of Columbia on 2010 final teen births rates among females aged 15-19 (with 1 representing the highest rate and 51 representing the lowest rate).
The state ranks 50th in high school graduation rate, first in percentage of people without health insurance, and second in percentage of uninsured kids.
Would you say this acting that “Every Life Matters”?