Gov. Rick Perry will not be letting legislators spend the rest of their hot Texas summer at home now that the major conquest of Texas vaginas has been completed. Why not? It turns out that in all the chaos over trying to pass a bill to shut down most of the abortion clinics in the state, the legislature never bothered to get around to the highway funding bill that was the ostensible reason for the first special session. Because dealing with things like infrastructure is actually their jobs, now the legislators will have to return for a third special session to get that done, having spent the past two embroiled in a fight over an anti-abortion measure that 80 percent of Texans felt no special sessions should be used to pass.
State legislators in Texas are paid only $7,200 a year, a number to keep in mind as you read the Texas Tribune’s coverage of how they were told about the third special session that had to be called because of the Republican obsession with bringing sex-having ladies in line:
Standing before mostly empty chairs in the 150-member Texas House, House Speaker Joe Straus adjourned the second special session and announced that Perry would be calling them all back for a third special session later in the day.
After gaveling in the House at 2:36 p.m., Straus briefly thanked members for their time and hard work during the second special session before acknowledging Perry would probably call a third special session 30 minutes after both chambers had officially adjourned the second special session.
“See you in 30 minutes,” he quipped, telling the few dozen House members in the Capitol to stick around for the opening of the third session.
Sometimes you get the feeling Texas Republicans want you to think of them like every boss you’ve ever hated.
The hope in Texas is that this time the Republicans will actually do what they said they’re going to do with these special sessions and pass a bunch of bills that are necessary to running the state, rather than trying to find new, innovative ways to make life harder for women experiencing unwanted pregnancies. It would be nice if they could just get around to filling potholes without suddenly, say, putting a bill to have every vagina in the state registered for monitoring first. There’s only so many times Sen. Wendy Davis can whip out those pink sneakers, after all.
