No one can be disloyal to The Party. The leaders of the Texas Republican Party spent the first day of their state convention insulting and undermining the GOP Speaker of the state house, Dade Phelan, the Texas Tribune reports.
What did Phelan do that would prompt Party Chair Matt Rinaldi, Lt. Guv Dan Patrick, and corrupt Attorney General Ken Paxton all call for new House leadership immediately during their Day One addresses? Phelan had the temerity to support Paxton’s impeachment on 20 counts of various abuse of office and corruption charges. The impeachment articles passed the state house but were killed in the senate when the GOP stood behind Paxton. (Those were different than the federal securities fraud charges Paxton settled in March without accepting any guilt; as part of the settlement, Texas’s sitting Attorney General will have to do 100 hours of community service, which unfortunately won’t likely require him to wear a vest on the side of a highway.)
“Last year, House Speaker Dade Phelan handed political power in the Texas House to Democrats,” Rinaldi said during his speech. “He went to war with the Texas GOP, lieutenant governor, and Texas Senate and without process or evidence, impeached the best Republican attorney general in the nation.”