Terry Keel in the Hizzy
Speaker Craddick just officially appointed Terry Keel, officially, to be the official House Parliamentarian - to the tune of $145,000 a year.
That's what Denise Davis was making when she resigned last month - although it's about $20,000-plus more a year than she was when she started in 2003.
At any rate, this isn't too surprising, since Mr. Keel assumed the position upon Denise's dramatic late-session resignation over the whole Absolute Power thing.
His assistant parliamentarian will be the smart, perky Kate Huddleston - who we first met working in his media office in 2003.
That means Craddick didn't hire Ron Wilson, who acted as Mr. Keel's asst parliamentarian at the end of the session --- and, thus, had to put up with accusations on the floor that he was unethical and hadn't paid fines to the commission, etc.
But don't read too much into that. Wilson's an entertainment lawyer in Houston. Who do you think he'd rather represent? Craddick or ZZ Top?