10 Texans with clout in D.C.
SMU Political Science Professor Cal Jillson talks about Texas clout in Washington, D.C.
By Richard S. Dunham
Hearst Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — From the day Col. Edward House moved from Austin in 1913 to serve as President Woodrow Wilson's right-hand man, Texas has had inordinate power here.
The state's list of political powerhouses has spanned the political spectrum and all three branches of government.
“There are periods in American history when Texas literally ran Washington,” said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University.
Among those who did the running then were House Speakers John Nance Garner, Sam Rayburn and Jim Wright, Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, House Majority Leaders Dick Armey and Tom DeLay, Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark, President Johnson and both Presidents Bush.
That was then. This is now: No president. No vice president. No House speaker. No majority leader. Just one second-tier congressional committee chairman. A single member of the Obama Cabinet and no member of the senior White House staff. Zero Supreme Court justices.
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