AUSTIN, Texas - Before the House voted Speaker Tom Craddick out of his powerful job, state officials wiped his computers clean and deleted scores of electronic files, raising concerns that important public records may have been destroyed.
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The computers were removed from the speaker's office to be wiped clean at 5 p.m. on Jan. 12, said Anne Billingsley, spokeswoman for the Texas Legislative Council. Rep. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, was sworn in as speaker at noon the following day.
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"Everything that Speaker Craddick had on his computers as far as data and records, he was allowed to take with him into his (state representative's) office," Billingsley said. "As far as the computers go, they took all the computers for the speaker's office and they got wiped."
Forget the fact that Craddick is a card carrying arrogant crook in my book. He was part of the state government. He does not get to decide , unilaterally what belongs to him, and what belongs to the people of Texas as a record of how their government was conducted.
