Coup De Craddick?

The Chronicle reports that McCall and Pitts are in talks to combine their votes for Speaker, ensuring they do what my friend Perry says they have to do which is "if you are going to strike the king, you must kill him."

I've mused about this scenario all along, here and all over the place. My thought was that they would do it in kind of a last minute coup. Combining forces would keep the Republicans who want to jump off the Craddick ship happy, because, as far as we know, the majority of Democrats are pledged to McCall and the Republicans wouldn't want the new Speaker to be determined by mostly Democrats.

Another scenario is that Jim Keffer, the Republican Ways and Means Chair, might get into the race during this last week. He could solidify all of the anti-Craddick votes around him. One thing is for sure, there is certainly a lot of dissatisfaction around Craddick and if he returns as Speaker, there is going to be a lot of drama around committee assignments and legislation. Did I say drama? I meant "getting rid of enemies."

My fellow blogger Aaron Pena continues to be coy about what he thinks will happen. He reports that legislators are alternately amused and angry at the press reports, which apparently are often wrong, about this internal legislative business of picking the next Speaker. Activists believe this to be the most important state wide office not elected by the general public. So, blogs away! Speaking of which, Kuffner has more this morning including some info about another possible contender, Phil King. I wrote about him here and it was not pretty. Also, Eye on Williamson brings up some good points about the latest developments. A good read.