Amid legislative discord, Abbott predicts success
If Gov. Greg Abbott has the slightest self-doubt, it is not evident.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus, each solidly in charge of their respective houses and representing different wings of the state’s governing party, are loudly at odds with one another on matters as basic as the budget and as provocative as the transgender bathroom bill. Pundits are tossing brickbats at the governor for being absent without leadership. Lawmakers gripe privately that he is better at accumulating political capital than spending it.
But Abbott, sitting in his Capitol office beneath painter Lajos Markos’ grim painting “Siege of the Alamo,” is the picture of calm and confidence, viewing the current crankiness under the pink dome as something of a seasonal disorder, like cedar fever, that in the coming weeks will break to reveal compromise and by Abbott’s view, another successful legislative session.
“We are precisely where we were this moment in time two years ago,” Abbott said in an interview last week with the American-Statesman. “This is more than an echo; it almost rhymes or is spot on to where we were last session.”
Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/statesman-exclusive-amid-legislative-discord-abbott-predicts-success/J3ETb1NZxb75HpwWw5PSXL/
