It’s Dan Patrick’s mean tweets vs. Greg Abbott’s vetoes. Is this how Texas cuts taxes? | Opinion

Nobody fights like Texas Republicans, and this round is an outright brawl.

Just in the last week, Republican-on-Republican attacks escalated to an extreme level of hostility, even for Texas:

▪ Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick resorted to mean tweets to publicly bully Gov. Greg Abbott to give up his own plan for cutting taxes by $20 billion overall and instead side with Patrick’s plan which doles money solely to homeowners.

▪ Abbott, unmoved by tweets, responded by vetoing a series of Senate bills, many of them by the author of Patrick’s tax plan.

▪ The chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, Irving lawyer Matt Rinaldi, called for unseating House Speaker Dade Phelan, arguably the most powerful state official.

▪ The Tarrant and Parker County Republican precinct chairs overwhelmingly passed resolutions against House Republicans’ impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton, a known rapscallion but popular with the party’s church-MAGA clique. (Sound familiar?)

▪ State Rep. Justin Holland, R-Rockwall, responded on Twitter that the state party executive board is a “defunct organization” and that county parties are “AWOL. It’s a mess. The good news is that they are all irrelevant.”

None of this is new.

It’s just grown nasty.

Patrick threw the first punch two months ago when he slammed Phelan as “California Dade” for not going along with his pet tax plan.

Patrick is a former conservative radio talk show host. He’s also the leader of the Donald Trump ground force in Texas.

So insults come naturally.

He has repeatedly belittled and demeaned Abbott — but always passively — since both took office in 2015. At their first inaugural gala, Patrick danced around Abbott on stage, upstaged him, played to the cameras and loomed over Abbott to show his dominance.

In a new tweet Saturday afternoon, Patrick accused Abbott of “lies” and “hiding behind the mask.”

Abbott, to his credit, has yet to punch Patrick.

That may be closer after last week.

In a series of Twitter posts on the official state account, Patrick accused Abbott of “threatening to destroy” the Legislature’s work by vetoing bills until Patrick passes Abbott’s tax plan.

In particular, Abbott vetoed bills by the author of the Senate tax plan bill for Patrick, Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston.

“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Patrick said in Dallas Thursday. “This is crazy.”

Many of Abbott’s vetoes came with the simple comment that the bill can be passed again “only after property tax relief is passed.”

Texas governors hold very little power. But they hold a veto pen.

On Wednesday, Abbott hinted at more vetoes to come by the Sunday deadline.

“All of these bills that have yet to be signed face the possibility, if not the probability, that they’re going to be vetoed,” he said.

Abbott has Patrick tied in knots right now, and that rope might be tightening.

Once everybody settles the debate over taxes, there’s this matter of the Paxton impeachment trial in August with Patrick scheduled to preside.

Paxton owes Patrick $125,000, we learned last week.

So how can Patrick preside as judge over his impeachment trial?

Normally, this would all be really good news for Texas Democrats going into an election year.

If anybody could name one.

Try it yourself. Ask your neighbors to name some Democrats from Texas.

They’ll probably name former gubernatorial challenger Beto O’Rourke, who doesn’t appear to be running in 2024.

After Beto — who?

Texans have to go back 30 years to the late Gov. Ann Richards to think of another well-known Democrat.

So, no matter how much Texas Republicans bash each other, they probably won’t lose any elections in a 2024 presidential year.

Texas remains a two-party state.

But they both think they’re the real Republican Party.