TX Lt. Governor Dewhurst blames loss on: “an unruly mob using Occupy Wall Street tactics"
Good luck with that, asshole. One of the best things that Wendy Davis did was show these repukes for what they are: Nasty bullies. David and Goliath battles never depict the goliaths well and this one surely didn't.
Hours after claiming that they successfully passed some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the country, Republican lawmakers reversed course and said a disputed late-night vote on the bill did not follow legislative procedures, rendering the vote moot and giving Democrats a bitterly fought if short-lived victory.
The state Senate voted on the abortion bill at the end of a 10-hour-plus filibuster by a Fort Worth Democrat. But the vote came right at a midnight deadline amid widespread confusion and the noise of a chanting crowd of the bill’s opponents in an upstairs gallery. The legislative session expired at midnight, and Senate Democrats said the vote took place at 12:02 a.m. or 12:03 a.m., while Republicans disputed those claims, saying the vote was legitimate.
But at 3 a.m., Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the presiding officer of the Senate and a Republican supporter of the bill, told lawmakers and reporters that although the bill passed on a 19 to 10 vote, the bill could not be signed in the presence of the Senate and was therefore dead, blaming “an unruly mob using Occupy Wall Street tactics” as the primary cause.
“With all the ruckus and noise going on,” Mr. Dewhurst said, he could not complete administrative duties to make the vote official and sign the bill. Senate Democrats and women’s right’s advocates said the real reason the vote could not be made official was a time stamp on official documents that showed the bill passed after midnight.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/us/politics/texas-abortion-bill-appears-to-win-final-approval.html?_r=0
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