Pete Laney Day
Pete Laney is a West Texas cotton farmer. He drives old, beat-up cars that you couldn't give to a 16-year-old pedestrian. He is as straight as the furrows he plows. To say he was a man of few words is to use way to many. He. Hardly. Ever. Said. Anything. But for 10 years, he was Texas House Speaker, which as you now know, was a title and not a description.
He pushed through massive ethics reforms. (I know, I know. Just try and imagine what it was like before.) He championed public education. And although Republicans weren't always fond of him, neither were a lot of Democrats. Although a Dem, he was one of the most bipartisan leaders the state has ever seen.
Who says so? Well, during the Wednesday salute to Laney by the progressive Center for Public Policy Priorities, none other than George W. Bush. The President and First Lady jumped at the chance to sit before a camera and record a tribute to Laney and his wife, Nelda. The president said the former speaker led in an "unprecedented bipartisan" way.
And Laney was the guy Bush pushed into introducing him to the nation after he was, ultimately, declared president-elect. Laney, speaking to the world. You can only imagine what a challenge that was.
Also speaking was former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk. Great speech. Very funny. And touching. More on that later.
The luncheon drew hundreds of lobbyists, also known as former lawmakers. But there were also former speakers, a former governor, lieutenant governor, judges, executives, civil leaders, current members, Democrats and Republicans.
When Laney was forced to speak at the end, he spent almost all of it thanking his family for letting him serve in the House for 34 years, thanking his constitutents, thanking staff for making him look good, thanking members for their service. He did squeeze out a good line, while thanking former Speaker Gib Lewis, who liked to run with lobbyists probably more than he should have.
He thanked Gib for entrusting him as chairman of State Affairs and giving him some of the broadest, baddest, most interesting, most sweeping, hotbed of issues you ever saw.
And some of those bills, much favored by Gib, got killed by Laney, anyway.
"He got flustered with me quite a bit," Laney recalled with a laugh. "I told him I was killing those bills for his benefit."
He left the group with two thoughts about state issues: "Everybody talks about economic development, but education is the best economic development you can have."
And, "There's no right and left; just right and wrong."