The Kinder, Gentler Craddick?

It may not have been a message from God like Pat Robertson seems to get every time he takes a nap, but Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick claims to have taken note of the fact that he’s not exactly viewed as a big ol’ stuffed teddy bear by his fellow House Members:

Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick says the unprecedented coup that nearly ended his leadership was a signal that he had lost touch with some lawmakers, and he vowed not to retaliate against fellow Republicans – some of them trusted associates – who rose up against him.

“We’re going to try to do a better job of listening to what the members are trying to tell us, and communicate both ways,” Mr. Craddick told The Dallas Morning News on Thursday. “Obviously, we thought we were doing a good job. Some didn’t, and that’s what it’s all about.”

As we wait on pins and needles for Tom Craddick’s listening tour to begin, Capitol Annex notes that, if the committee chair’s list we published the other day is, in fact, the real one, Craddick has already broken that “no retaliation” promise.

Check this out:

Now, Mr. Craddick seems a little bewildered at how he let such a close call happen. He leaned forward to emphasize how hard he worked to unseat Democratic Speaker Pete Laney after Republicans took control of the House in 2002 for the first time since Reconstruction.

He said he painstakingly talked to each primary candidate in each House race – in some areas, that was nearly a dozen people – to lobby for their support.

“I did all that the first time,” Mr. Craddick said. “I spent two years – two years – going one on one with members. Maybe I needed to do more of that rather than rely on, ‘OK, we’re going to do an event in Dallas and there will be five members there.’ ”

He said his fight to retain control, a whirlwind that lasted two weeks from when Mr. McCall announced he would challenge Mr. Craddick, turned on his move back to that kind of grassroots politicking. He met with members individually or in small groups, preferably in their districts, rather than multi-tasking at fundraisers.

“One thing I did find out – and I’d found this out the first time – is that a member or a candidate is going to be a lot more outward-going on their thoughts and feelings in their district than they are in a meeting with 10 members,” he said.

[...]

“I’m at fault and I’ve got my faults; so does everybody else,” he said. “But I’m saying if we don’t know a problem exists, it’s hard to help fix it.” [Emphasis mine]

I know people who have the privilige of releiving themselves on thousand dollar toilets are, by nature, a class of people who are somewhat out of touch with reality but come on!

Can you really be so out of touch as to think that in a group of ten House members someone is going to tell the Speaker what he or she really thinks? Furthermore, how would you not know that the culture of non-listening and iron-fistedness was alleged to have existed? Doesn’t the Speaker subscribe to a clipping service? Hasn’t he ever Googled himself?
Then, there is this:

In the next breath, though, he laughed and said he “should be in the Guinness Book of World Records” because he was twice “busted” as a chairman by House speakers after he acted against them.

“I voted my district, and there are people who say that they have this feel that I don’t understand what that is,” he said. “But I voted my district. I had choices, and I made those choices. And I don’t regret them, either.”

So, how does the Speaker explain the 2006 GOP Primaries and James Leininger using the Texas Capitol as his personal lobbying camp?

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