Texplainer: What is Chubbing?  Hey, Texplainer: I've heard
several references to something called "chubbing" in the Texas
Legislature. What is it? An attack on overweight lawmakers?
With a Republican majority in the House and Senate, Democrats
have to rely on something other than their voting strength in a
fight. The filibuster is the classic example, but that's allowed
only in the Senate.   The long-winded House counterpart is known
as "chubbing." To chub a bill, representatives extend their
conversations on legislation that's closer to the front of the
line, wasting time and slowly closing the window of opportunity
to vote on the bill they don't like. The term "chubbing" first
appeared in Texas newspapers in the 1950s, according to the
Legislative Reference Library, and the Oxford Dictionary of
American Political Slang cites the term as uniquely Texan in
origin, but provides no insight on its etymology (On his blog,
state Rep. Aaron Peña, R-Edinburg, offers a somewhat convoluted
but fascinating theory on