Criminal Law Blog
May 28, 2007
Score: Richard Nixon 1, Tom Craddick 0.
The Speaker of the Texas House, Tom Craddick, wouldn’t recognize any Representative who wanted to bring to the House a motion to vacate the position of the Speaker. When asked for an appeal of this decision, Mr. Craddick replied “there is no appeal.”
Why would he do this? Because he had counted noses and figured out for himself that if such a motion were brought to a vote, he would lose his position as Speaker. The wheeling and dealing, promises to do better, and cajoling were done and he knew he couldn’t keep his position.
Richard Nixon knew that the democratically-controlled U.S. House of Representatives had come to the conclusion that he must be impeached, and he knew that there were enough votes to convict him and put him out of office.
Mr. Nixon at least had the good grace to leave on his own when he knew that his departure was inevitable. Mr. Craddick didn’t even have that.
Mr. Craddick’s handling of this matter was disgraceful. Simply disgraceful.