Tom Craddick’s arrogance
In an AP story in the Austin American-Statesman former Speaker Tom Craddick had the files from his computers wiped clean during his last day in office as speaker. The Legislature Council felt this was an acceptable practice and took no actions to preserve any records. However this act is heating up the blogosphere and may be investigated by the new Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg who took over for former DA and watchdog Ronnie Earle.
“Everything that Speaker Craddick had on his computers as far as data and records, he was allowed to take with him into his (state representative’s) office,” Anne Billingsley, spokeswoman for the Legislature Council, said. “As far as the computers go, they took all the computers for the speaker’s office, and they got wiped.” Paul Burka of Texas Monthly writes that loyalty to Craddick by Council members could have played a part in the act, possibly to protect Craddick from investigation.
Government watchdogs are crying foul and are demanding the lege investigate the act to see if it violated any policies or laws. We’ll see where this goes. It does speak to the arrogance of a speaker who ran the House like a dictator and considered himself above the common practices of open and transparent government. Thank goodness we have a new speaker.
