Yesterday, we were led to believe that the failure to suspend the 60-day rule meant a whole lot of nothing for the House in the immediate future. (The fact that this impression is substantively wrong in many respects is beside the point.) Today we hear that a compromise is on the horizon, and that it should be hammered out today. As reported by Laylan Copelin, “House Resolution 189 would allow local bills to move forward. [Rep. Warren] Chisum and the resolution opponents are negotiating the meaning of local.”
That’s the key sentence to this whole thing: Team Craddick is negotiating with the Democrats. They’re doing this because they have to. As Rep. Mike Villarreal put it in his interview with Vince, the Dems had leverage here, they used it, and now they’re bargaining from a position of strength. As long as the Dems have to use tactics like these to be able to have a say in what’s happening, they will. Give them a seat at the table, and they won’t because they won’t have to. It’s as simple as that.