There oughta be a "Speaker Summit" where all of the candidates for the House's top job could get together on how to conduct their warfare. That's the brainchild of Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, one of those candidates.

"I don’t expect the Summit to result in a unified choice for Speaker." he said in a press release. "But I do hope we can at least agree to a set of ground rules that each candidate will adhere too, a fair process for voting, and an agreement between the candidates that whoever wins, that person will put Texas above politics and will not punish those who entered the contest."

He says he'll call others in the race this week to see if they're interested.