Across the Lone Star State it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and while the vast majority of Texans can be found enjoying the season and cups of good cheer everyone knows an Ebenezer Scrooge.
But while “A Christmas Carol” features only one bitter old miser—the Texas House has at least two.
Like many houses in Texas, the Texas House of Representatives also features a Christmas tree. Since arriving in the chamber shortly after Thanksgiving, lawmakers have begun adorning the tree with ornaments designed by their constituents.
According to the Texas House website each lawmaker is invited to select a constituent “to imagine and create a visual representation of what makes their Texas House District special.”
Such an endeavor usually allows legislators to spread Christmas cheer in an elementary school class or children’s hospital in their district, but this year two lawmakers are using it as an opportunity to promote something very different.
State Reps. Wayne Smith (R–Baytown) and Doug Miller (R–New Braunfels) have both chosen Christmas ornaments that celebrate neither the birth of the savior nor the coming of Santa Claus. There’s no special flower, animal, or landmark from the districts they represent.
Instead, the two Scrooges – who both lost to conservative challengers in runoff elections earlier this year – have chosen to promote the thing most uncharacteristic of their respective districts – themselves.
Smith’s ornament is comprised of gold flowers that could seem rather innocuous until the caption accompanying it is read. Smith notes that the ornament is a “tribute” to himself, “thanking him for his 14 years of commitment and service to District 128.”
What isn’t mentioned is that voters rejected Smith’s failed re-election campaign and opted for Briscoe Cain this year. After being unchallenged previously, Smith lost to Cain not once, not twice, but thrice.
Meanwhile, Miller’s ornament is even more shameless – featuring little more than the smiling faces of the defeated lawmaker and his wife.
Sadly, such a move doesn’t come as a surprise. Both Smith and Miller consistently turned their back on taxpayers to promote themselves during their time in office, and in their desperation to cling to power both narcissists launched such vitriol at their opponents that their own supporters called them out.
One can only hope that sometime in the next few weeks Smith and Miller discover the true meaning of Christmas and don’t wake up to find coal in their stockings.
As for the taxpayers, their Christmas gift will be a big upgrade in representation at the Capitol when State Reps-elect Briscoe Cain and Kyle Biedermann are sworn-in in January.
