June 9, 2023      4:00 PM

HK: Impeachment rules will determine whether the Texas Senate even considers the facts behind the allegations against Paxton

The Capitol community seems obsessed as to whether any of the three compromised senators will have to recuse. Wrong question. The relevant question is whether they will be permitted on the floor during the actual vote

Let’s be blunt.

The Capitol community is waiting for the Texas Senate impeachment trial rules to determine whether and how much Dan Patrick is going to put his thumb on the scales of justice, i.e., whether Ken Paxton is worth the expenditure of political capital.

Yesterday’s news conference with star attorneys Tony Buzbee and Dan Cogdell was made for TV with much righteous indignation about process and bold claims that the allegations were baseless. But except for the sideshow of a kitchen counter, there was no explanation as to why the allegations were unfounded.

A supermajority of Texas House Republicans disagree with Paxton’s top flight attorneys.

The bottom line is whether the Lt. Governor will let arguments about a potentially flawed process leading up to the impeachment camouflage the dramatically more serious discussion of ethical and criminal allegations such as turning over unredacted FBI files to the target of an investigation or collaborating to issue phony grand jury subpoenas.

The Republican Senators will follow Patrick’s lead and despite protestations that there are no internal communications among the juror/senators, conversations must be going on inside the Senate and particularly the GOP Caucus on how to position and respond.

So far, the only outbreak of senatorial independence this year has been Robert Nichols steadfastly voting against vouchers, unflinchingly appraising the damage it would do to his rural school districts.

Of course, there may be some Patrick acolyte waiting in the wings to challenge Nichols in his next election. So far, though, Nichols has retained his chairmanship and is one of the few unbowed GOP heavy lifters left in a leadership role in the Senate.

With that as a predicate, the rules for the trial will tell all.

By Harvey Kronberg

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