Voter ID bill idled in respect to ill senator

By JOHN MORITZ - Star-Telegram staff writer

AUSTIN -- The Texas Senate, still smarting from a two-day partisan dust-up over legislation that would require voters to present identification at the voting booth, chose not to bring the measure to the floor Friday out of respect for an ailing member who opposes it.

Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and the bill's sponsor, Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, said they continue to support the legislation but suggested that it would have been bad form to pursue it on a day when Democratic Sen. Mario Gallegos was hospitalized.

Gallegos, who underwent liver transplant surgery early this year, was forced to undergo a surgical procedure related to the transplant at a hospital near his Houston home.

"The senators who I talked to didn't want to proceed out of respect for Senator Gallegos," Dewhurst told reporters. The bill might come up later in the session, he added

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