TEXAS HOUSE WALKOUT UPDATE
Malfunction blamed for gap on DPS tape

As part of the probe, Bailey had asked DPS to turn over Capitol security tapes for the hallway outside of House Speaker Tom Craddick's office. A DPS command post was set up May 12 in Craddick's reception room, and Bailey said he wants to know who went in and out of that room.

Bailey said the DPS provided his staff with copies of the security tapes late Friday. As the staff watched them over the weekend, the entire week was available except for the afternoon of May 12. He said the tape stopped at 12:47 p.m. and did not begin again until 6 p.m.

"It's odd that it was the day and time that we wanted," Bailey said. "It's fine all week, except for that one period."

Malfunction? Tape gap? I'm beginning to think that my recent evoking of Watergate (scroll down to the REAL POWER post below) while musing about this DPS/Republican scandal wasn't just hyperbole. It is worth noting that even though this is, as Atrios says, "a somewhat below the radar developing story," so, too, was Watergate before it broke into the headlines. I'm not holding my breath, though. The missing WMDs and conspicous lack of any Iraq/al-Qaeda link ought to have broken into the headlines by now, but haven't.

There is that pissed-off-capitalist wild card still in the deck that has yet to be played, however...

Click here.

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