Fresh Eyes on How To Sign A Bill
Sorry this is a little belated, but I couldn't let the opportunity to post on the Governor's first bill signing pass me by.
The Castle (a.k.a. shoot everyone you want) bill seemed the perfect start for Mr. Perry -- who's been accused of being a little TOO moderate this session (can you say HPV vaccine?). Lest no one forget that he IS the governor of Texas. And we love our guns.
When I first walked in, there were 7 (count 'em, 7) pens on the guv's desk. All were laid out at perfect diagonal angles, spaced about 2.6 inches apart. But someone must've realized there weren't 7 co-sponsors there for the signing. As if by magic, those 7 pens turned into 5 -- still perfectly diagonal, still perfectly spaced. If anyone knows who this geometric wizard is, let me know. I'd like them to organize my closet.
And all this hubbub over a single signature! One that, I might add, took the governor almost a minute to get through. He'd start to sign, then give that pen away. He'd keep signing, and give another pen away. And so on and so forth until his incredibly lengthy signature was complete (I think he signed "Rick Perry" with about 30 characters).
A couple of other thoughts:
1) I'd like to see this much attention given to the first bill veto of the session. Imagine this: journalists crowded around in anticipation, staffers waiting in suspense, the bill's sponsors getting ready to throw pens at the governor, instead of accepting them as gifts. Boos and hisses all around. A few punches in place of congratulatory handshakes.
2) For gentlemen in positions of such great authority, The Guv and Lt Guv have pretty non-authoritative signatures. Perry's looks like a school teacher's signature -- every letter perfectly crafted, as if on a chalk board (a side effect of having to write one letter at a time to give out all those pens?). Dewhurst's is very bubbly and cute -- the kind of signature you'd see in the back of your 7th grade yearbook, or scrawled inside your locker. Neither of the signatures have much gusto. I better check Craddick's next.