Statesman Fluff Piece On Rep. Gattis

Yesterday the Austin American Statesman did a feel good piece on Rep. Dan Gattis, Williamson County lawmaker makes name for himself. In these parts he is many times forgotten because Rep. Mike Krusee takes the limelight so often with all the toll roads he is building.As we find out in this piece Rep. Gattis is on the fast track to power in the GOP:

"Real power," Gattis said later, recalling Haggerty's words, "is strength under control."

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His principled fiscal conservatism draws on the values and the faith of a family rooted for generations in Williamson County.

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The world of government is split in two like the fantasy action world of the movie "The Matrix," Gattis said. Life on the surface is serene.

"It's down below, beneath the surface, where things can scare you to death," he said. "It's down in the depths here in the House where you learn how to get the money to go from here to there. I think learning how it works has value, no matter what else you want to do."

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"He's steady and true to the people who sent him here, but he's a good thinker, not one who gets locked into one position or another," Swinford, R-Dumas, said. "I'm old enough to be his daddy, and I'd be proud if he were my son. He has a bright, bright future here."

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This reservoir of farming, child raising, Bible studying, and Scottish and Irish and German forebears influenced his decision to go to Texas A&M University, a school defined by its discipline and tradition.

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When asked about school, Gattis never utters the word "career."

"What I was doing was learning to be a gentleman, which ain't easy," he said.

Has Rep. Gattis been fitted for his halo yet? If you read this Rep. Gattis seems like the perfect legislator. So why has he still done nothing to correct the mistake that was made last session? Here is my post from March about this, Why Has Representative Gattis Failed, So Far, To Fix His Mistake? and here is the Star-Telegram article on this, Public could learn which doctors defraud Medicaid:

Nelson's bill would allow public access to details of fraud investigations once they are completed. That information was available until Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, wrote an amendment to the bill that consolidated state health and human services agencies.

Gattis told the Star-Telegram in November 2003 that he didn't intend to block access to details about completed investigations and that he believed state bureaucrats were misinterpreting the law. If the confusion wasn't straightened out, Gattis said, the problem would be fixed.

However, he does not appear to have introduced any legislation to open the records, based on a search of pending bills. Gattis did not return several phone calls from the Star-Telegram this week.

Wouldn't a "gentleman" fix a mistake he has already owned up to? I believe the bill that will remedy the problem, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is SB 130 and you'll notice Sen. Nelson has no gentlemen helping her to get it passed. I guess this problem just got lost in the Matrix below the surface that Rep. Gattis told us about?