By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX –
What's next? Pistols at 20 paces?
The feud between Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick (R-Midland) continues to escalate.
Now Craddick is taking his argument to the airways.
The Speaker's office has confirmed that Craddick will be purchasing radio airtime in limited markets in the state to take his case to the people. Apparently, he thinks he is getting a bad rap for first suggesting that the legislature was wasting time and money on hopeless school reform and tax relief bills and urging that the Second Called Session end, and then for saying the Senate version of a school reform bill would never pass muster in the House.
The ad has much of the same language the Speaker used in a statement earlier this week in which he noted that the Senate-passed SB 8 had either watered down or eliminated many of the provisions of a school reform bill that the House supports. He said the bill has few meaningful reforms and promised that if the House were to pass a reform bill, it would contain "real reforms."
News of the radio ads, to be paid for out of Craddick's campaign account, prompted Dewhurst Press Secretary Mark Miner to reiterate what his boss has been saying since SB 8 was passed earlier this week - that it is a "good bill" that provides "real reform."
"Speaker Craddick's time and energy would be better spent on solving the state's educational needs than on unprecedented and misleading advertisements," said Miner.
Gentlemen, choose your weapons.