Midland Rep. Tom Craddick swept to a third two-year turn as speaker of the Texas House on Tuesday after his remaining challenger lost a test vote and conceded, ending a weeks-long stretch of political theater pitting Democrats and a clutch of Republicans against Craddick and his lieutenants.

As part of the usual organization of the House, the chamber passes a series of usually routine motions to set the temporary rules for the House and rules for the Speaker’s election. Tom Craddick’s allies won a procedural vote on whether or not to disclose members’ votes for speaker 80-68.

Speaker Tom Craddick's re-election was aided by the "power of the status quo," one lobbyist said. The speaker's detractors blamed pressure and intimidation.

President George W. Bush's speech on Iraq [last night] will attempt to convince the nation -- especially Republican members of Congress -- that he is not merely bringing an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq but also changing policy. It is a tough sell. Republicans in Congress are mainly interested in an orderly withdrawal well before the '08 elections.

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I have never made a secret about what motivates me politically: the need to improve the lives of poor children in Texas. As an emergency room doctor, I saw too many children pass through our doors whose lives had gone horribly wrong. All too often, they were kids without hope; kids who had fallen through the cracks despite generous public and private efforts.

More than 80 percent of Texas high school graduates are unprepared either for a job or college and educators need to be held accountable, says a new education group that advocates meaningful teacher evaluations and more incentive-based pay for effective teachers.

The leaders of seven organizations are today calling on the legislature to return the certified surplus to the taxpayers. Earlier this week Comptroller Combs certified a $14.3 billion surplus funds collected beyond the cost of government. The leaders of seven organizations have sent a letter to all members of the Texas Legislature calling on them to return those funds to the state's taxpayers.

The Senate, convening for its regular 2007 session, Tuesday killed a long-shot bid by a new Republican member to scrap a decades-old rule that requires a two-thirds vote of the chamber to take up legislation.

That's the message members of Congress are sending to the American people with a proposed lobbying reform bill under consideration right now. In a symbolic gesture reacting to the Abramoff scandals, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the lobbying reform legislation the first bill on the calendar. But S. 1 contains a provision that appears aimed directly at the American people.