
As various media outlets and blogs have noted, local talker and new state senator Dan Patrick lost his first Senate battle today.

Patrick ran on a pledge of eliminating the so-called “blocker bill” tradition in the Senate, which effectively sets a supermajority requirement to move legislation.
Today, the talk radio host lectured his colleagues on his notion of the requirements of democratic government, after which they promptly outvoted him 30-1 on the matter.
The Blocker Bill tradition continues to strike me (and apparently Evan at Perry vs World) as a conservative tradition, so it’s probably best in the long run for conservative governance that Patrick lost.
Patrick, incidentally, has gotten interesting coverage recently in the Economist and Texas Monthly.