What... in the bluest of blue hells... is going on in Texas...

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Headache in a Suitcase

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With the other morally corrupt bootlicking rubes.
AUSTIN, Texas - Rebellious Democrats who fled the state Capitol spent a second day in Oklahoma on Tuesday and criticized U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for pushing the GOP drive in Texas to redraw the state's congressional districts.

"We have a message for Tom DeLay: Don't mess with Texas," House Democratic Legislative Caucus leader Jim Dunnam said at a news conference in Ardmore, Okla. "We did not choose the path that led us to Ardmore, Oklahoma. Tom DeLay chose that path."

Fifty-eight Democrats sneaked out of Austin on Sunday after spending several days discussing ways to derail the GOP redistricting plan. Although three Democrats returned to the Capitol Tuesday, more than 50 remained in Oklahoma, denying Republicans a quorum needed to conduct business for a second day.

Delay, also a Texas Republican, has been the driving force behind the redistricting effort. The Democrats said his involvement in redistricting, which they dubbed a power grab, as the key reason for their walkout.

The GOP redistricting plan could add five to seven GOP House seats to the 15 it already has. The state has 32 congressional districts.

In Washington, DeLay said the Democrats were disloyal for fleeing Texas. "I have never turned tail and run," DeLay said. "Even when I'm losing, I stand and fight for what I believe. It's so Texas contrary."

In Oklahoma, the defiant Democrats said they would stay away until Republicans agreed to drop the redistricting plan.

"Congressman DeLay is wrong to upset a process that should be dealt with every 10 years, not every time someone chooses to manipulate the process," said Rep. Richard Raymond, a member of the Texas House Redistricting Committee.

States must redraw their congressional districts every 10 years to reflect population shifts found in the U.S. Census. Texas lawmakers failed to agree on a new plan following the 2000 Census, and a court-ordered map was put into place in late 2001.

Republicans say it doesn't match state voting trends and want to redo the plan.

The three returning Democrats were welcomed back into the House chamber with hugs and supportive words from their Republican colleagues. One Democrat, Rep. Helen Giddings, fought back tears as she stated her desire to stop the redistricting plan.

Republicans had constructed signs and gimmicks ridiculing their colleagues. They plastered the Democrats' faces on milk cartons, and Susan Weddington, chairwoman of the Republican Party of Texas, borrowing from the "most wanted Iraqi" cards, announced she had playing cards featuring the missing legislators.

House rules allow state troopers to arrest lawmakers and bring them back to the Capitol. On Monday, Craddick had ordered troopers to find the missing lawmakers, arrest them and bring them back to Austin. Several agents arrived at the Democrats' hotel in Ardmore on Monday night but they did not have jurisdiction outside of Texas and did not have a warrant issued by Oklahoma authorities.

Instead, the troopers asked the legislators to board their aircraft and return home, but the lawmakers refused.

The capped months of tension between Democrats and the Republicans, who took control of the House in January. The GOP already controlled the Senate.

The Democrats said they were taking a stand for fair treatment of the minority party.

The Texas House cannot convene without at least 100 of the 150 members present. The body has 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats. Four Democrats had stayed behind and the whereabouts of four others were not known.

The missing Democratic lawmakers spent Monday in a hotel conference room, where large sheets of paper taped to the walls were used as makeshift chalkboards and long tables were filled with laptop computers, stacks of papers and notebooks.

They said they discussed school financing, homeowners insurance and other issues.

Craddick said Perry assured him he would call a special session after the regular session if it's needed.

The walkout came 24 years to the month since a group of 12 Texas state senators defied then-Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby by refusing to show up at the Capitol.

Some of the "Killer Bees," as the 12 Democrats came to be known, hid out in a west Austin garage apartment while troopers, Texas Rangers and legislative sergeants-at-arms unsuccessfully combed the state for them.
 
Oh come on. Don't act so surprised. It's politics. This is how the Democrats will effectively stop Tom DeLay's attempt to gerrymander Texas into being more Republican district-wise.

This is what politics is all about--one side crying "moral outrage" and another side vilifying the other. I wouldn't put much stock into it.

Melon
 
This is the worst of patrician politics from Tom Delay.

They have a panel of judges to redistrict. Most likely as a result of a compromise when the Dems had control of the state for many years. This was done after the 2000 census for the 2002 election.

Well, Tom Delay is not satisfied and gerrymandered his on districts, where 5-7 of the white Dems would lose to Reps.

This would leave the Dems represented by only or mostly minorities.

Got to love the Rep no 2 man playing race politics in a plausible deniable way.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
agree with delay or not, this might be the most immature reaction by a group of politicians i've ever seen... emphasis on the might

It's really a brilliant tactic. They defeat DeLay. Don't tell the Republicans wouldn't have done it, if it would have benefitted them. They are just great at crying "moral outrage" when they burned ethics books in the 1980s.

Melon
 
The current plan was devised by a panel of three Republican-appointed federal judges and has been approved by the Republican-dominated U.S. Supreme Court, and ruled on by the Republican Texas Attorney General. It should have been held till 2010.

I don't see it as immature, it's quite brilliant. If they don't vote within 72 hours, ? I don't know the exact time frame, the bill dies. The only way for the bill to be brought back to a vote is through the Supreme Court. It's just a way for them to fight the system. I'm sickened by these power grab moves. I'm glad they did something about it.

An interesting side note. A poll was taken( I don't believe in polls but everyone else here likes them) and some 72% of Texas citizens didn't want the redistricting.
 
It's not really so black and white. I think the plan on the table may be a little extreme, but some redistricting is in order. In the Texas legislature, Republicans outnumber Democrats something like 55-45. However, Texas Republicans in the US House are outnumbered 17-15 because of the redistricting from 2 years ago. Now, how is that representative of the people of Texas? By the way, the redistricting did come about as the result fo a 3 judge panel, but I don't remember anything about all 3 being Republicans- I'd like to know where you heard that. I'm not saying it's not true, just never heard it.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
so rather than hold a debate on the topic and then vote on it... they run off and hide in oklahoma... yeah, great tactic.

Umm...it's because if it went on party lines...and tell me with a straight face that it wouldn't have happened...they would have lost.

It was a great tactic. They tricked the GOP at their own game.

Melon
 
melon said:


Umm...it's because if it went on party lines...and tell me with a straight face that it wouldn't have happened...they would have lost.

It was a great tactic. They tricked the GOP at their own game.

Melon

ummm...the Dems did not trick the repubs at their own game..the Repubs have never run off to another state to avoid voting on an issue...
 
Oh come on. Where was this kind of ethics cries when Jesse Helms single-handedly blocked former Mass. Gov. William Weld from becoming an ambassador during the Clinton era? Weld was even a Republican, for God's sake. Or how they consistently block sexual orientation from being added to anti-discrimination protection?

The difference is that Republicans abuse their power in-committee. As a minority party, sometimes you have to play by different rules. Everyone knows this. I wish everyone would stop pretending that life is fair and governed by fairness. It isn't. You have to constantly play by the loopholes in laws, and guess what? That's precisely what the Democrats did.

To all Republicans out there, get over yourselves!

Melon
 
Actually, a better example would be all the federal judge vacancies that the Republican Congress purposely left in the Clinton era, because they hoped they could stack the courts with Republican judges in the next presidency here. And when Democrats hold up *two* judges, they are evil people.

Hypocrisy is great, isn't it? "Moral outrage!" LOL.

Melon
 
nbcrusader said:
Look both ways before you cross that street

Oh I don't think that Democrats are immune. Of course, the Democratic Party also doesn't unofficially refer to itself as "God's Own Party" (yes, I know that isn't what GOP stands for). The problem seems to be that the Republican Party only looks one way when they cross their streets...and then cast a few stones along the way.

Melon
 
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you got to love Texas

Senate Republicans broke quorum in 1993 session


AUSTIN - After weeks of Republican claims that they never had broken a quorum, the Associated Press is reporting today that 11 Republican Senators broke a quorum in 1993 to, ironically enough, stop a redistricting bill.
"It seems to me that Rick Perry, David Dewhurst, Tom Craddick and other Republican leaders have some explaining to do," said Molly Beth Malcolm, Texas Democratic Party Chairwoman. "They need to tell the people of Texas why they are attacking the Democratic Senators for something their own Senators did ten years ago."
In 1993, Senator Rodney Ellis was attempting to pass a judicial redistricting bill. Republican Senators opposed it, and wanted to change to an appointed system. As a result, 11 Republican Senators hid out in a Capitol office for a day, denying the Senate a quorum to block the bill's passage (see AP story below).
"Perry, Dewhurst, Craddick and the other Republicans love to preach about precedents," Malcolm said. "Well, I think they just set a new precedent -- for hypocrisy.
"More importantly, the Republican walkout of 1993 further underlines the validity and legality of the Democratic walkout of 2003," Malcolm said. "The Senate Democrats are following the rules and the Constitution.
Malcolm also pointed out one other thing that Perry et al could learn from the Republican walkout. In 1993, the Senate Democrats - who then had a solid majority - respected the strong views of the GOP Senators and ended the redistricting effort. "The leaders of 2003 should take a lesson from the leaders of 1993," Malcolm said. "For the good of Texas, they should end this special session and congressional redistricting -- now."
 
"Reverse Recall in Texas

California Republicans recently bankrolled an effort that succeeded
in convincing voters to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. But Texas
Republicans did something very different over the weekend: In an
effort to remove up to eight Democratic members of Congress, they
recalled voters.

They supplied fresh evidence that the modern science of
gerrymandering has made Congressional and state legislative
redistricting an exercise in politicians choosing voters, rather than
the other way around. Not content with the outcome of the
redistricting that sent 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans to Congress
in the 2002 elections, the Republicans led by U.S. House GOP Leader
Tom DeLay took advantage of the majority they gained in the state
legislature in 2002 to launch a second redistricting.

This second redistricting -- a re-redistricting -- is raw power
politics at its worst. The new districts brand and corral voters in
crazy-quilt districts with big GOP majorities and de facto racial and
ethnic segregation. These chastised Texas voters are now expected to
produce an overwhelmingly Republican congressional Delegation. Lord
knows what DeLay and his friends will do to Texas if they fail to
deliver on cue in 2004.

The re-redistricting madness in Texas persisted through one regular
and three special sessions of the legislature, punctuated by two
desperate efforts by Democrats to deny quorums by fleeing the state,
and by constant infighting among Republicans. Despite the threadbare
argument of Republicans that the 2002 Congressional map was somehow
illegitimate because courts drew it (a common occurrence in cases of
divided partisan control of governorships and state legislatures,
which prevailed in Texas prior to 2002), it's been clear all along
that this was a particularly naked power grab engineered from
Washington.

Texas Democrats appear confident that the new map will be struck down
by the federal courts on grounds that it violates the requirement of
the Voting Rights Act that redistricting decisions do not dilute
minority voting strength. And they're definitely right that Texas
Republicans are returning to the GOP redistricting strategy of the
early 1990s, which involved packing minority voters into districts
that boosted the victory margins of African-American and Hispanic
incumbents, while ultimately reducing minority voter influence by
producing Republican majorities elsewhere. This strategy was a big
factor in the 1994 elections that gave Republicans control of
Congress, and led to Republican takeovers in many southern
legislative chambers as well.

Since then, the U.S. Supreme Court has begun not only to frown on
racial gerrymandering as a strategy for enforcing the Voting Rights
Act, but instead to prohibit its use as a violation of the Voting
Rights Act. The Texas map is so egregiously gerrymandered to pack and
divide minority voters that it will provide a clear test of that
question. But whether or not the Texas re-redistricting is illegal,
it is clearly an outrage

It's overriding purpose is to create enough new Republican House
districts that even a strong national Democratic trend in 2004 will
be unable to shake GOP control of the House. And its secondary
purpose is to decimate moderate Democrats in Congress, reinforcing a
partisan and ideological polarization in Washington that makes
Republican extremism less conspicuous, while eliminating
opportunities for bipartisan action to address big national
challenges.

Most of the Texas Democrats being scheduled for extinction -- most
notably Reps. Charles Stenholm, Jim Turner, Nick Lampson, and Chet
Edwards -- are classic centrist Democratic problem-solvers, who are
willing to reach across party lines to represent their constituents.
Rep. Martin Frost, another target, has been an ambassador between the
Democratic House leadership and party moderates for more than two
decades. House Republicans want above all to remove them, with new
districts that are weighted toward electing members with either their
highly ideological views or those of traditional Democratic
liberals.

It's very significant that this is happening in the president's home
state, at the behest of his Texas ally DeLay, and with the active
involvement of his hand-picked successor as Governor, Rick Perry.
Whether or not White House political guru Karl Rove has been
personally involved -- though it's almost impossible to believe he's
not involved in the consummation of his lifelong dream of making
Texas a Republican one-party state -- the president is deeply
complicit in this outrage.

George W. Bush promised over and over again in 2000 that he
would "change the tone" in Washington to emulate the bipartisanship
he claimed to have achieved in Austin. Instead, he's made the tone in
Washington even more toxic, and his agents have spread the hyper-
partisan disease back to Austin.

Bush has reversed his pledge and recalled bipartisanship in Texas --
just as Texas Republicans have recalled voters until they do their
bidding. "

GOP at it's finest.
 
I'm sure this article could have been written as a serious study on the electorate, but the author found it easier to spew out partisian dribble.

Gerrymandering has been around for forever. It knows no political party.
 
nbcrusader said:
I'm sure this article could have been written as a serious study on the electorate, but the author found it easier to spew out partisian dribble.

Gerrymandering has been around for forever. It knows no political party.

It's an email distributed by someone in the Democratic Party, my cousin is a lobbyist for the Texas Cattlemen's Association and he sends me these all the time. So yes it's biased. But how much can you spin a move like this to be positive for Republicans. I haven't seen one Republican that even comments on why this had to be done. I mean they get the power balanced their way at the same time minorites get shafted. What's the motive?
 
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