The Year of the Moderate Republican? In Texas?

Over the year, the GOP in Texas has had the reputation of being a very hard Right party. But maybe that perception wasn't totally true. Alan Stewart Carl reports that a moderate Republican is likely to become Speaker of the House in the Texas Legislature:

Straus will almost certainly be elected Speaker later this month because he was able to assemble a coalition of Democrats and Republicans to support his candidacy. Most expect him to be a more inclusive and far less combative leader of the House, which Republicans control by a 76-74 vote margin.

Carl is pleased that Straus' predecessor is being shown the door:

I’m pleased to see (Tom)Craddick ousted. The man put partisanship and petty politics over the interests of the state. Straus, while relatively inexperienced, has a record of thinking for himself and not towing the party line just because that’s the easy thing to do.

I doubt that this is a trend, but maybe if Straus can pull it off, he might help the national party learn that to be a competative party, it needs to be able to welcome more than those on the hard right.