'I applaud Chairman Cook'
Yes, those were House Speaker Tom Craddick's words.
And yes, they were about House Civil Practices Committee Chairman Byron Cook, R-Corsicana.
But no, the speaker wasn't applauding Mr. Cook's speech last night excoriating Mr. Craddick for "abuse of power" and asking him to resign. In a surreal moment, the speaker simply ignored Mr. Cook's scalding words and called up the next bill.
The quote is from a Craddick press release issued nearly 3 hours earlier, praising Mr. Cook for his help in passing a bill to stop what the speaker said are "frivolous lawsuits" against Texas' port-dredging companies. The bill, now headed to Gov. Rick Perry's desk, is one of this session's big priorities for the tort-reform group, Texans for Lawsuit Reform.
Craddick spokesman Chris Cutrone said the verbal bouquet for Mr. Cook was completely unrelated to the speaker's effort to survive a possible revolt this session.
"We thought it was a great bill for Texas' ports," Mr. Cutrone said.