Lavigne in Austin just called me with something close to a concession speech. He won\’t say it\’s definitely not gonna get through, but he would be surprised. They\’ve made it about halfway through the calendar in about eight hours. We have until midnight by house rule to get this done.
Lavigne says he has seen them disable the clock before so they could go past the deadline, but that seems unlikely … because what we have been seeing go on right now is something called \”chubbing\” — where people on the same side of an issue ask each other questions simply as a delay tactic. Apparently there is some very contentious bill on page 19 or 20 … and many of the members would rather not get to that. If they do, then it will have a long debate.
\”We\’re getting blinded out,\” Lavigne says.
This reminds me of watching the UIGEA go down … with the clock ticking it looked like they might not get to that. But there, the man with the gavel (Sen. Bill Frist) had every reason to make sure they did. Not the case here with Speaker Craddick.
Meanwhile, in the Florida Legislature, they flew through the gambling and poker bills — correcting some betting limit problems passed in the last session — even though it upsets some of the conservative bedrocks of that state.