July 25, 2013 5:21 PM

SENATE DRAMA OVER DAVIS ABSENCE

“What goes around comes around”

In what some observers called “one of the pettiest things” they’d ever seen on the Senate floor, three conservative Senators objected on Thursday to the excused absence of Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Ft. Worth. Davis is in Washington DC for a fundraiser.

Off mic, Sen. Nelson, R-Flower Mound, could be heard on the floor grumbling that she couldn’t believe a senator would be excused for that reason. She joined with Senators Dan Patrick, R-Houston, and Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, in objecting. Nelson asked the chair whether the request to excuse Davis’s absence had been submitted in writing. Lt. Gov. Dewhurst said that it had not been submitted that way.

That brought Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, to his feet to ask a series of questions that seemed to suggest it would be precedent-setting to not excuse the absence. Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, looked pretty disgusted by the entire exchange. When Nelson, Patrick, and Campbell withdrew their objections, Waston asked if there were any other objections. Eltife, who by that point looked like he couldn’t believe this was happening, said “no” quite emphatically. Davis was excused and the Senate went on with the business of passing HB16.

Sen. John Whitmire, the Dean of the Senate, said to the Republicans “What goes around comes around.”