Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore
There are worse things about Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick than his taste in shirts.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has long wielded his power in the Texas Capital like a cudgel, using procedural maneuvers to grant himself ever more control of the state Senate and sidelining those who don’t step in line with a far-right agenda steeped in homophobia, immigrant bashing and white nationalism.
So empowered, Patrick has tried to force through some of the most extreme right-wing legislation in the history of the state. Sometimes he's met with success, as with Texas’ cruel six-week abortion ban, others he's been shot down in the more moderate House, as with his bill that would have barred transgender people from public restrooms.
Repugnant to say the least, but Patrick’s conduct during the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on public corruption charges shows that there’s truly no bottom.
First, Patrick declared that he was suitable to preside over the process even though he’d accepted $3 million in campaign contributions from one of Paxton’s biggest backers. Nope, nothing sleazy about that at all, he assured those paying attention.
While Patrick was able to put on his best behavior for the duration of the trial, performing in the role of impartial judge at least as successfully as TV comedian Steve Harvey, he didn’t take long to let us know that it was rigged from day one.
“The speaker and his team rammed through the first impeachment of a statewide official in Texas in over 100 years while paying no attention to the precedent that the House set in every other impeachment before,” Patrick claimed in a fiery speech after his Senate voted against bouncing his buddy Paxton out on his ass.
Patrick went on to mock the House’s impeachment managers, then declared that he’d seek a constitutional amendment to prevent such a trial from happening again. Voters could rest assured that he’d also demand a “full audit” of how much money the House had burned through trying to hold the AG accountable.
Since then, Patrick has been locked in a shit-slinging war of words with House Speaker Dade Phelan over the impeachment — one that spilled over into the Texas Legislature’s marathon special sessions. In addition to calling Phelan “revolting, repulsive and repugnant,” Patrick has demanded that the speaker resign in shame.
While Patrick may have sewn up his absolute control over the Texas Senate, his conduct around the impeachment trial shows he’s no public servant. Indeed, it shows he doesn’t even have the political clout to see his agenda make it through the House. Minus those things, it should be abundantly clear that, all along, that Patrick has been nothing but a loudmouth, a bully and an embarrassment. Oh, yeah, and Assclown of the Year.
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