Who is the Craddick Killer?

Craddick: How do you keep a speaker in suspense?

Has a Republican consensus challenger to Speaker Tom Craddick been selected? According to Quorum Report, on Monday 11 House Republicans met and declared that they have selected a consensus candidate from amongst their ranks. The name will be announced on Jan. 2.

What gives this some real weight is that six of the group are the Republicans that had already declared that they were going to run for speaker (For those of you keeping count, that's Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin; Jim Keffer, R-Eastland; Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton; Byron Cook, R-Corsicana; Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock; and Tommy Merritt, R-Longview.) If they've sorted out the argument amongst themselves, it pretty much ruins the idea that any of them were stalking horses for Craddick.

They were joined by five more GOPers: Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands; Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth; Brian McCall, R-Plano; Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie; and Joe Straus, R-San Antonio (who has been rumored as a moderate consensus himself.) There's no huge surprises there, but Geren has said that there will be other people on that backer list.

Now if Democratic Caucus Chair Jim Dunnam, D-Waco can deliver his dedicated 64 ABCDs ("Anyone but Craddick" Dems) then the current speaker may be looking for a new job.