When major Texas Republican officeholders in recent memory were accused of wrongdoing – criminal or otherwise – it has generally been a unifying event for the GOP. The rallying cry was always that the “liberal Austin establishment is coming after them!” That was true for Tom DeLay, Rick Perry, Wallace Hall, and Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose legal issues could still prove problematic for the majority party come next November if the fraud case against him ever moves forward in Houston.

No similar unified front has come together for Speaker Bonnen.

// Because it's not the Austin establishment this time - it's a mess entirely of the dim, hot-headed speaker's making