Saturday, after the last vote in the Ken Paxton impeachment trial, Lite Guv Danny Goeb said he wants the Texas Constitution amended on impeachment-related issues.
Fine.
Let's start with one THAT I have been pushing for, for years. Let's get rid of the every-other-year meeting of our banana-republic style Lege. The House, if it did "rush," did so because it had to. It couldn't do anything until 2025 if it didn't get something on the floor before the end of this year's regular session.
Second, you want to follow the feds on not having a state official suspended without pay during impeachment? Fine. Let's also amend to follow the feds and have our state's Supreme Court chief justice, not you, as presiding officer. Would at least lessen the possibility of corruption in "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."
Third and related, let's amend the semi-authoritarian powers of the Lite Guv in general.
Beyond constitutional amendments, let's rewrite Texas state law to give the Texas Ethics Commission some teeth, you know, so that a lieutenant governor can't take $3 million dollars from a PAC favoring the guy whose impeachment trial he's about to preside over.
That said, while I called this a "show trial in reverse" Saturday (as in, Texas Rethugican Senatecritters would pretend to look at evidence, just like in Maoist or Stalinist show trials, with an advance presumption, in this case, of course, innocence, not guilt) nonetheless, it wasn't entirely so.
But, per friend Chris Tomlinson, maybe the whispering before the trial about intimidating senators worked? Kal Seliger, who knows Goeb's wrath, thinks so.
THAT then said, though, one-third of the Democratic caucus voted to acquit on multiple charges. And, speaking of, Royce West said he saw some GOP votes shift during deliberations. Once it became clear no charge would hit 21, a number of borderline Rethugs ran for the exits. That link also notes that only two Democrats voted to convict on every charge.
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