No, Nicole Collier was not held captive

So says Chris Hooks at the Monthly. Nicole Collier was not held captive. First, the historical background:

House Speaker Dustin Burrows’s decision to involve the police should not have come as a total surprise. Legislative leaders have, and have always had, a broad remit to try to compel attendance, from locking the doors of the chamber to deploying state troopers. (The “Killer Bees” of 1979 evaded a statewide police manhunt by hiding; Speaker Dade Phelan locked the doors of the chamber in 2021 to prevent another quorum break.) That’s why quorum breakers leave the state—they can be arrested if they stay here. The quorum break is a form of civil disobedience, and participants know they’re inviting a law enforcement response.

In other words, even before new legislation passed after the 2021 quorum break, people like Collier should have known this was possible, even if Burrows got heavy-handed.

Fast forward to the start of the current session, and now:

The rules package enabling the rounding up of absent House members was enthusiastically approved by Democrats, including Collier, at the start of the last session, and Burrows was the overwhelming choice of Democrats at the last Speaker election. What’s more, Burrows’s attempt to enforce attendance could be seen as conciliatory, not punitive—GOP elected officials to his right have been advocating much harsher and stricter measures.

Give the rest of it a read, even if you're a totally tribalist BlueAnon.

I'll admit, it looked like compelling theater. 

But, I knew about this, at least in a general way, being part of the rules package. Presumably, Collier was one of the Dems enthusiastically approving it.

Hooks does talk about Dems losing power in the House and find out Burrows' vice-chairmanships meant nothing. (Same is true of "ranking member" on committees in DC.) But, Burrows doesn't have a supermajority, unlike Dannie Goeb, Hooks notes, so he can't do too much. It should make Dems wonder, once again, if making the deal with Burrows, rather than lumping it, was the right call in the first place.

Final word from Hooks:

The ordeal has become a faint echo of the 2013 Wendy Davis filibuster, which created another media sensation around a Democratic lawmaker who chose to lose well and lose with style.

Chris forgot to mention that:

A. Davis lost hypocritically, as well, and

B. She faded from the scene quickly enough.

Back to the original story.

This isn't teh stupidz like Texas Senate Dems walking out, but not enough to block business. It's more than a nothingburger, too. But, it's like a White Castle slider instead of a Double Whopper.