Dan Patrick Pulls Kel Seliger Chairmanship After Seliger Suggested Patrick Aide Kiss His 'Back End'

State Sen. Kel Seliger has been stripped of his post as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, in an escalation of a feud with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the upper chamber.

Announced Tuesday afternoon, the demotion caps a weekend spat between Seliger, an Amarillo Republican first elected to the Senate in 2004, and Patrick, who have found themselves at odds with one another after Seliger voted against two of the lieutenant governor’s priorities in 2017.

Patrick said the demotion came after Seliger failed to apologize for a “lewd comment” “that has shocked everyone” — a remark made on a West Texas radio program suggesting that a senior Patrick aide kiss his "back end."

The tiff started on Friday, when Patrick released committee assignments for the legislative session, stripping Seliger of his longtime post as chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee and taking him off the committee entirely. Instead, Seliger was appointed chair of a newly-created agriculture committee, which split off from a larger, existing committee. Patrick said only that committee assignments were “based on a number of factors.” Seliger called the snub “a very clear warning” that Republicans better toe the line, teeing up the battle.

Read more: http://www.kut.org/post/dan-patrick-pulls-kel-seliger-chairmanship-after-seliger-suggested-patrick-aide-kiss-his-back

Posted since it's always enjoyable to see Republicans fighting each other.