Does TX GOP Lack Will To Act On Threat To Arrest AWOL Democrats?

DALLAS, TX — The bloom is off the rose, as they say. It's no longer news that Democrats in the Texas House fled the state in revolt against Gov. Greg Abbott's bills to crack down on voter fraud that isn't there.

One Lone Star Democrat, Rep. Jessica González, even left the country to get married in Portugal.

What's a frustrated governor laid up with COVID-19 and his conservative cronies to do? It's like a scene from an old Bugs Bunny cartoon where Yosemite Sam can't quite get his quarry to stand still long enough to be shot.

"Quit squirmin' while I'm tryin' to pulverize ya!" he'd scream.

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Well, we're almost at the two-week mark since the Texas House approved the arrests of the errant Democrats who won't come home for their pulverizing. And, to date, there's been no visible action toward arresting the offending legislators.

So the whole dog-and-pony show of House Speaker Dade Phelan signing 52 warrants seems to be little more than bluster at this point. The chamber still doesn't have a quorum and cannot proceed on the governor's agenda until it does.

The Texas Tribune reports that, according to Chris Turner, the leader of the House Democratic Caucus from Grand Prairie, the only thing he's aware of is "that the House sergeant-at-arms has paid a visit to some members’ homes.”

For the moment, says House Republican Caucus Chair Jim Murphy of Houston, the arrest warrants are being deployed "more like a jury summons," meaning that any actual penalties could be forthcoming, once the Democrats stand still long enough to be pulverized.

In a comically conciliatory statement, Murphy ended on a note of oddball diplomacy: "We don't need all of them to come back," he said. "Just more."

Until then, the siege without a castle continues. House Democrats insist that the Republicans need to return to the negotiating table and act in good faith to create a bill that opponents won't call "Jim Crow 2.0."

And the Republicans? They just want you to come back, and stand still this time.

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