text: Greg Abbott joins Dan Patrick in citicism of Texas House Speaker Joe Straus
  Abbott joins Patrick in criticism of Straus' leadership
  The speaker, who is seeking a record sixth term, met privately with House Republicans to hear their concerns.
  Abbott joins Patrick in criticism of Straus' leadership The speaker, who is seeking a record sixth term, met privately with House Republicans to hear their concerns. Check out this story on ElPasoTimes.com: https://callertim.es/2wbtu6s
  John C Moritz Austin Bureau USA TODAY NETWORK, Corpus Christi Published 3:12 p.m. MT Aug. 16, 2017 | Updated 3:46 p.m. MT Aug. 16, 2017
  Gov. Greg Abbott and some House Republicans say perhaps it's time for a new speaker of the Texas House.
  AUSTIN – One day after the Texas House shut down the special session without completing action on the full agenda, Gov. Greg Abbott blamed Speaker Joe Straus for "dilly-dallying" on such initiatives as lowering property taxes and on the bathroom bill.
  "The speaker made very clear that he opposed this (bathroom) bill and he would never allow a vote to be taken on it," the governor told Houston radio station KTRH in an interview Wednesday morning. "He told me that in the regular session. And he told me during the regular session that if this came up during the special session, he would not allow a vote on it."
  In singling out Straus for thwarting his agenda, Abbott effectively joined forces with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, whose verbal sparring with the speaker was one of the most enduring backstories of both the regular session of the Legislature and the 30-day special session that ended one day early late Tuesday.
  Straus called an end to the House's work shortly before 7 p.m. without responding to a request from Patrick's Senate that that the two chambers work out a compromise on the bill to address growth in local property tax rates. That left the Senate in the position of either accepting the House version of the plan, or ditching the effort completely.
  The Senate chose to ditch it.
  And at a news conference after the Senate followed the House's lead and ended its work for the session, Patrick berated Straus, saying he "walked off the job" with work still undone and one more day to do it. And then Patrick got personal.
  "Thank goodness Travis didn't have the speaker at the Alamo," Patrick told reporters, referring to Col. William Barrett Travis, the leader of the Texas forces during the doomed battle against the Mexican army in 1836. "He might have been the first one over the wall."
  Straus countered that the House "worked diligently in the special session, passing legislation that was in the best interest of all Texans."
  "Thank goodness (Col. William Barrett) Travis didn't have the speaker at the Alamo. He might have been the first one over the wall."
  The one-two punches from Abbott and Patrick against their fellow Republican were followed by a closed-door meeting Straus attended Wednesday morning with the full House GOP caucus.
  The meeting was forced after the speaker's harshest critics in the lower chamber gathered the necessary signatures calling for a discussion on how House speakers should be chosen going forward. Straus has signaled that he'll seek a record sixth term as speaker.
  For decades, the Texas House has chosen its speaker by a vote of all 150 members, regardless of party affiliation. That means candidates for speaker are free to woo Democrats and Republicans alike in the quest for the 76 votes needed to be elevated as the chamber's presiding officer and agenda-setter.
  Straus was elected unanimously to his fifth two-year term when lawmakers convened in January. But he rose to power in 2009 by forging a coalition from both parties. This session, Straus had 36 committee chairmanships to award and 12 of them went to Democrats.
  Members of the ultra-conservative Texas House Freedom Caucus have chafed during both sessions over Straus' refusal to push the bathroom bill to the floor for a vote and for not embracing a bill that would have targeted Planned Parenthood because of the organization's association with abortion providers.
  After the closed-door meeting, Freedom Caucus leader Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, said there was no decision on his organization's push for having Republicans unite around a single candidate for speaker and shutting the outnumbered Democrats out of the process.
  "Nothing was decided," Schaefer told reporters.
  Schaefer said he expected further discussion next month when the House Republicans meet for a private retreat at a resort east of Austin.
  Related: Texas House conservatives amp up their effort to topple speaker
  Most GOP House members coming out of the meeting offered only generalities about what was said inside. Straus, who represents a suburban district in San Antonio, appeared relaxed as he made his way from the meeting room to an elevator already crowded with aides and supporters.
  "We had a very good conversation," he said as reporters enveloped him as he walked the few steps. "I enjoyed it. I think all of us did. Very constructive. Very positive. Very unifying in a lot of ways."
  He sidestepped questions about Abbott's criticism on the radio earlier that morning, but did address it indirectly in a written statement about an hour later.
  "I want to thank Governor Abbott for working with the House on his very ambitious agenda in the special session," the statement said. "We considered every idea carefully."