‘Her Lips and My Back End' Comment Costs Texas State Senator His Committee Chairmanship

AUSTIN - Sen. Kel Seliger, an Amarillo Republican, was stripped of his Senate chairmanship on Tuesday after his latest feud with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, in which the senator accused Patrick of political retribution and Patrick accused Seliger of making a "lewd comment" at his staffer.Patrick, who is Senate president, struck on Tuesday -- the latest salvo in a battle initiated last week when Patrick revealed that Seliger had lost his chairmanship in the Senate Higher Education committee and his seat on the powerful Senate Education and Finance committees. He was assigned a chairmanship over the Senate Agriculture committee. In a Lubbock-based radio interview, Seliger discussed the slight and was asked to respond to Patrick's spokeswoman Sherry Sylvester who previously told the Texas Tribune, that if Seliger believes the Agriculture committee is beneath him, "he should let us know and the Lt. Governor will appoint someone else." Seliger told the radio host he found the comment to be "extremely snide and unbecoming for a member of the staff." "I didn't say anything of the sort, and that assertion is disingenuous and I have a recommendation for Miss Sylvester and her lips and my back end," he said. Patrick said in a statement that Seliger lost his chairmanship because of the lewd nature of the comment. "I met with Sen. Seliger earlier today and gave him an opportunity to apologize for a lewd comment he made on radio about a female staffer that has shocked everyone. He had 48 hours to apologize, but failed to do so. He has refused to take responsibility and outrageously, blamed the staffer and said she should be fired. To not be willing to apologize and suggest, somehow, that she had it coming is unimaginable," Patrick said. He said he would appoint a new chair person shortly. Seliger is something of a maverick Republican senator who often crosses party lines. He acknowledged in his radio interview that he has perhaps lost favor with Patrick because he voted against his priority legislation in 2017 to cap property tax rates for local governments and to include school vouchers in a school funding bill. Seliger could not immediately be reached for comment.   Continue reading...