Texas State Attorney General Paxton Impeached

[ATeam]

I know I said I'd stay off EO for 3 months in the interests of focusing more on my work. But this news is so remarkable that I felt compelled to comment.

This afternoon, the Texas state House of Representatives, controlled by a strong majority of Republicans, impeached Texas State AG Paxton, a Republican. The vote was 121-23.

That in itself is remarkable. Paxton is only the third sitting official to be impeached in Texas's 200-year history.

But even more remarkable is Article II of the Articles of Impeachment. In part, it says,

"The House of Representatives of the State of Texas, does hereby impeach Ken Paxton, Attorney General of the State of Texas, for:
"Abusing his official power, to wit: ...

• Using his official position to promote his own personal political interests, by using his office to file lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election."

Republican AG Paxton used the powers and status of his office to file lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election. That was a pro-Trump move. Now, in 2023, he stands impeached for that wrongful act (and many others).

Had they wished to do so, the Republican majority and House leadership could have easily kept this impeachment vote from happening, and they could have easily kept the above-referenced, pro-Trump item out of Article II. But they didn't. They energetically brought Paxton's impeachment about, and they intentionally included Article II.

Finally, I see that if Paxton is convicted on even one of the 20 items for which he was impeached, he will be banned for life from holding public office in Texas again. Texas has the death penalty. It seems they have a political death penalty too.

OK. Thanks for listening. Back to work and my EO time-out.

 

[LDB]

With democrats like Dade Phelan in charge of the Texas House it is no surprise. The only surprise is there are 23 willing to stand up against Phelan and the rest of the democrats.

 

[danthewolf00]

You will never see Democrats do this to one of their own.....period.

 

[ATeam]

With democrats like Dade Phelan in charge of the Texas House it is no surprise. The only surprise is there are 23 willing to stand up against Phelan and the rest of the democrats.

Texas state House Speaker Phelan is a Republican, elected by Republican legislators to the Speaker seat. (Source)

 

[LDB]

Texas state House Speaker Phelan is a Republican, elected by Republican legislators to the Speaker seat. (Source)

Dade Phelan is exactly as republican as I am democrat. He falsely wears the name but that's just another democrat lie.

 

[danthewolf00]

Dade Phelan is exactly as republican as I am democrat. He falsely wears the name but that's just another democrat lie.

Much like mitt Romney.

 

[LDB]

Dade Phelan, Mitt Romney and many others are the political equivalent of transgender. They can't win as what they are so they adopt and wear a moniker that allows them the unfair advantage that allows them to deceive and win.

 

[muttly]

I haven't been following what is going on in Texas. The whole thing looks strange though. A rushed impeachment vote on the weekend before memorial day. Just weird.

 

[ATeam]

I guess whether or not Phelan is a Republican depends on your definition of Republican. To me, when state law says you are a Republican if you choose Republican as your party affiliation when you register to vote, you are a Republican. Further evidence that you are a Republican is provided when you say you are a Republican, align with other Republicans, and participate in Republican events like meetings, caucuses, conventions, etc. If you run for public office and register as a Republican candidate, that too is evidence that you are a Republican.

If you wish to narrow the definition of Republican to include 100% agreement with how you think a "true" Republican should act and vote, you are free to do that. But the narrower you define the term, the fewer "true" Republicans you will find.

 

[LDB]

That's a wonderful fairy tale but it isn't real life. Yes, people falsely claim many things verbally. Their actions speak much more clearly and honestly. Phelan is at best a 3 on the 0-10 scale with 0 being absolute leftist and 10 being absolute conservative. In theory, democrat would be 0-5 and republican would be 5-10. But it's really all about liberal and conservative and Phelan is a 3 or less.

When a male can't win as a swimmer or whatever they suddenly realize they identify as female, compete against females, and suddenly they can win rather than be ranked 437th.

When a blank party member realizes their party can never win a particular district they suddenly realize they identify as the other party, register as the other party, speak as a member of the other party, claim to be part of the other party, participate in meetings, caucuses, conventions etc. of the other party and lo and behold they're suddenly the other party. The fairy tale comes true. And they win the seat. Then they go about business as usual of doing as much of their real agenda as possible.

That's Dade Phelan.

 

[ATeam]

That's a wonderful fairy tale but it isn't real life. Yes, people falsely claim many things verbally. Their actions speak much more clearly and honestly. Phelan is at best a 3 on the 0-10 scale with 0 being absolute leftist and 10 being absolute conservative. In theory, democrat would be 0-5 and republican would be 5-10. But it's really all about liberal and conservative and Phelan is a 3 or less.

When a male can't win as a swimmer or whatever they suddenly realize they identify as female, compete against females, and suddenly they can win rather than be ranked 437th.

When a blank party member realizes their party can never win a particular district they suddenly realize they identify as the other party, register as the other party, speak as a member of the other party, claim to be part of the other party, participate in meetings, caucuses, conventions etc. of the other party and lo and behold they're suddenly the other party. The fairy tale comes true. And they win the seat. Then they go about business as usual of doing as much of their real agenda as possible.

That's Dade Phelan.

You know Phelan better than I do as I do not live in Texas and I never heard of him until he showed up in the impeachment news. If he is a leftist Democrat masquerading as a Republican as you suggest, two things come to mind.

First, are there no leftist Republicans in your definition of Republican? What is a Republican exactly? Other than a person's registration, declarations and participation in party events, what makes a Republican a Republican?

Second, if Phelan is indeed a Democrat as you suggest, either his Republican House colleagues are really stupid and easily duped, or Phelan is supremely skilled at enrolling others in a lie. Or maybe it's a bit of both. The man is the Speaker of the House, elected to that role by Republicans. That's quite a feat for a Democrat, don't you think? How did he pull that off?

 

[muttly]

He looks weird too.

 

[danthewolf00]

You know Phelan better than I do as I do not live in Texas and I never heard of him until he showed up in the impeachment news. If he is a leftist Democrat masquerading as a Republican as you suggest, two things come to mind.

First, are there no leftist Republicans in your definition of Republican? What is a Republican exactly? Other than a person's registration, declarations and participation in party events, what makes a Republican a Republican?

Second, if Phelan is indeed a Democrat as you suggest, either his Republican House colleagues are really stupid and easily duped, or Phelan is supremely skilled at enrolling others in a lie. Or maybe it's a bit of both. The man is the Speaker of the House, elected to that role by Republicans. That's quite a feat for a Democrat, don't you think? How did he pull that off?

Then what is mitt Romney? He vote 90% of the time with Democrats.

 

[LDB]

Phelan is elected not by republicans but by the house in its entirety. I don't care so much about democrat/republican labels, it's left/right liberal/conservative, wrong/right. Or left/liberal/wrong vs right/conservative/right. Phelan is on the left fringe of the "right" or he's in the right mass of the wrong. And what Phelan is good at is shuffling money, $200k to one of the "republicans" in north DFW who voted to impeach in spite of overwhelming calls from constituents telling him to vote no. And this whole super fast impeachment is because Phelan was drunk on the job and Paxton called him out for it. So he engineered this in retribution.

 

[ATeam]

Phelan is elected not by republicans but by the house in its entirety. I don't care so much about democrat/republican labels, it's left/right liberal/conservative, wrong/right. Or left/liberal/wrong vs right/conservative/right. Phelan is on the left fringe of the "right" or he's in the right mass of the wrong. And what Phelan is good at is shuffling money, $200k to one of the "republicans" in north DFW who voted to impeach in spite of overwhelming calls from constituents telling him to vote no. And this whole super fast impeachment is because Phelan was drunk on the job and Paxton called him out for it. So he engineered this in retribution.

Your comments about party label, left, and right are helpful and clarifying. Thank you for that.

According to the Texas Tribune, 145 Republicans voted for Phelan as House Speaker. No Democrats did not vote. They boycotted the election to protest the Republican-controlled legislature's gerrymandering of districts and other efforts to suppress the vote. Phelan was elected Speaker with a vote of 145-3. The three votes against Phelan were cast in favor of Arlington Republican Tony Tinderholt.

 

[LDB]

Yes, I can't keep up with the democrats and their leaving the state to avoid voting and other juvenile shenanigans. You're right, they abandoned their duty in this as well.

 

[muttly]

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan’s Popularity Plummets Following Lackluster Session - Texas Scorecard

Only 24 percent of GOP voters say they would vote for Phelan over a conservative challenger.

t.co

 

[danthewolf00]

There was a post on my news feed about why Republican run states are generating more jobs than Democrat run states.....hmmm maybe it has to do with the high taxes and super violent high crime.

 

[LDB]

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan’s Popularity Plummets Following Lackluster Session - Texas Scorecard

Only 24 percent of GOP voters say they would vote for Phelan over a conservative challenger.

t.co

So only one in four GOP voters is dumber than dirt.

 

[coalminer]

Phelan is elected not by republicans but by the house in its entirety. I don't care so much about democrat/republican labels, it's left/right liberal/conservative, wrong/right. Or left/liberal/wrong vs right/conservative/right. Phelan is on the left fringe of the "right" or he's in the right mass of the wrong. And what Phelan is good at is shuffling money, $200k to one of the "republicans" in north DFW who voted to impeach in spite of overwhelming calls from constituents telling him to vote no. And this whole super fast impeachment is because Phelan was drunk on the job and Paxton called him out for it. So he engineered this in retribution.

Typical conservative arrogance, I AM right and everyone else IS wrong.