SIX days after upending Texas politics by suddenly announcing his retirement, Joe Straus sounds like a man at peace. “I feel confident it was the right decision,” says Mr Straus, who has served as House Speaker since 2009, longer than any other Republican. “I didn’t want to be one of those people who held on to an office just because he could…There are new players and they deserve to have their voice heard.” Not everyone believes his reasons for leaving are so high-minded. Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University, believes that Mr Straus “grew weary and tired of saving the Republican Party from itself, and not only not getting thanked for it, but getting blasted and attacked for it.”
During Mr Straus’s dozen years in office, Texas Republicans have marched further right. Mr Straus, by contrast, is a moderate. Though he worked for Ronald Reagan, Mr Straus drives a hybrid car and his wife served on the board of Planned Parenthood, which provides birth-control...Continue reading
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