Plastic Christmas Tree Shakes Texas Politics
DALLAS (Reuters) - The speaker of the Texas House of Representatives is under fire and having his Lone Star State pride questioned, all because he decorated the House floor with a giant made-in-China plastic Christmas tree. The state's tree growers are up in arms and crying 'Bah Humbug' over the 15-foot polyvinyl chloride tree that Speaker Tom Craddick, a Republican from the west Texas town of Midland, had installed on the House floor. They have supplied the State House with free trees and are ready to bring in a Texas-grown tree to replace the plastic model. "I think people can deduce for themselves about what it means to have a plastic Christmas tree from China in the Texas State House," said Lanny Dreesen, a spokesman for the Texas Christmas Tree Growers Association. The Christmas tree in question is a top-of-the-line plastic model that came with 3,500 lights and a retail price of $3,400. It looks like an Oregon fir and was donated to Nadine Craddick, the speaker's wife, by a store in Austin. "It is a beautiful tree. It is well decorated and it is really hard to tell the difference," said Bob Richter, spokesman for the House speaker.My Sardonic Thoughts
- This sounds just like what's been going on in Oregon
- Are Texas trees maybe just too big? (everything's bigger in Texas)
- "it is really hard to tell the difference" - then how did anyone know? Must not be that hard to tell.
