The Texas Republicans go after the Dems with fines. Good move.
The AP reports that Democrats are threatening legal action if Senate Republicans don't rescind the sanctions they've been imposing on the 11 since last week, when they preliminarily adopted a resolution that denied absent Democrats and their staffers such things as parking spots at the Capitol, cell phone use, purchasing privileges and floor passes.
Those sanctions come if the Democrats do not pay fines, imposed on them by their Republican colleagues, for missing daily floor sessions. The fines started at $1,000 a day and quickly moved to a maximum $5,000 a day per senator.
In a letter from New Mexico, the Democrats wrote that the punitive measures "seek to punish us, our staffs, and, most important, our constituents, because we dare to stand firm by our convictions and by our duty in the best interest of our constituents."
Republicans did not seem overly concerned about the Democrats' threat of legal action.
"We welcome a judicial determination of their claims," said Dave Beckwith, a spokesman for Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.
One Republican senator tried to draw the Democrats home with a promise to remove all the sanctions ? if they came back for a quorum.
"I will personally move that we dispense with all penalties, restore all privileges, both sides do away with litigation and resume the work we were elected to do," state Sen. Todd Staples told the AP.
cbsnews.com |
