TX redistricting OK'd; appeal to be made to USSC

After the Texas House of Representatives succeeded in overturning redistricting due to a lack of quorum (when Democratic representatives went to Oklahoma) Governor Rick Perry called a second special session. Eleven of the twelve Democratic state senators journeyed to Albuquerque, NM to effectively break the two-thirds vote (21 of 31) required for any special mandate to pass in the state Senate. Lt. Governor David Dewhurst is now threatening to throw out the two-thirds rule.

To date, these sessions have cost the taxpayers roughly $2 million. This after record budget cuts have basically frozen hiring at all major state universities and most school districts as well, and taken away health care from thousands of children and retired persons.

By the way, redistricting is only called for once every ten years. In 2001 the Texas Supreme Court approved the current Congressional District map and decided no new redistricting plan would be needed until 2011. In a blatant display of hypocrisy, some Republican lawmakers have now taken to announcing that the Democratic Senators are taking money away from social service programs with their absence. Never mind that this is a "special session", which by the Texas Constitution can be called to address only one piece of business. This one's about redistricting.

Indeed, it seems that the GOP is grasping at straws. Perhaps they are afraid the rest of the country will become aware that Texas is not in George W. Bush's pocket. And although the state might not vote Democratic in 2004, the support for the current "president" will have grown lukewarm enough to send a message to the rest of the nation. Hence redistricting.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Thousands gathered Saturday to rally against a Republican push to redraw state congressional lines and in favor of the Democratic state senators who fled to New Mexico to scuttle the effort.

"The people of Texas said 'no' once (Republicans) started drawing the maps," said protester Ginger McGilvray. "They said 'no' with a strong voice and they didn't listen," "So here we are, standing out here ... to show that we mean it."

Despite muggy temperatures that neared 100 degrees, between 2,000 and 4,000 protesters rallied at the Capitol and cheered relatives of the 11 Democrats holed up in an Albuquerque hotel. Their absence has brought the Senate to a standstill because the 31-member chamber needs two-thirds of its members present to conduct business.

Several protesters chanted "Recall Rick," referring to Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who has called two special sessions to take up congressional redistricting. The first effort failed after House Democrats fled to Oklahoma.

Republican senators remaining in Texas voted today to fine the 11 self-exiled Democrats who are holed up in a New Mexico hotel for each day they are absent from a second special session on redistricting.

Without objection, the Republicans and one Democratic senator approved a resolution to fine the lawmakers starting at $1,000 a day, and the fine would double for each day they miss the session. The fine is not to exceed $5,000 a day.

Senators took the vote as the Democrats mark their 16th day in Albuquerque in protest over congressional redistricting.

The senators in Austin voted on the resolution after spending several hours behind closed doors in a meeting.

At a news conference in Albuquerque on Tuesday morning, Senate Democrats said they hoped their colleagues would not try to levy fines. They contend such fines are illegal because Senate rules for sanctions call for nothing more than arrest by the sergeant-at-arms. Several also said they would not pay any fines.

Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, called the proposed fine a poll tax.

"I won't pay it," he said.

Sens. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, and John Whitmire, D-Houston, said they were frustrated that after the Democrats have spent three weeks in New Mexico, Republicans still view their absence as a publicity stunt.

"They just don't get it. ... We're here out of conviction and we're not going to yield" to a redistricting that would disenfranchise the Democrats' constituents, Whitmire said.

The Texas Constitution says lawmakers "can compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as each house may provide." Senate rules do not address levying fines on senators.

Gov. Rick Perry said today he will continue to call special legislative sessions on congressional redistricting until the issue is resolved and said he believes a new redistricting map will be approved this year, the Austin American-Statesman reported on its Web site today.

"If there is work to be done, I expect the Legislature to be here conducting it," Perry told the newspaper. "There is work to be done."

When asked by the Statesman if that means continuous special sessions, Perry said: "You can surmise that."

Everyone in the state might wish that this matter could have been settled by debate within the Capitol and that the 11 Senate Democrats had never fled to Albuquerque. But everyone also must realize that those senators represent districts that are made up predominantly of Democratic voters. Those voters are Texans, too, deserving of the full representation they were given the power to elect.

The 11 in Albuquerque have every right -- indeed, a responsibility -- to represent their constituents, and they have shown dramatically that they have a powerful will to do so.

By denying the Senate a quorum, they also have the power to stop the Legislature in its tracks until the congressional redistricting issue goes away.

Go away it should. The current special session should end as scheduled on Aug. 26, and there should not be another one with redistricting on its agenda.

Perry has said it himself: There are more important issues for the Legislature to deal with. It should be clear that the Legislature won't do so until redistricting goes away.

Were Perry not transfixed on redistricting and games of political payback, we would wager that these problems would have been identified and fixed in the regular session.

And if the Legislature truly needed a special session to address such things, these matters would have been addressed promptly in Special Session No. 1.

Every time the governor and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst say "there's important work to be done" in the special session, voters should ask, "Is this work for the majority party or for Texans?"

Perry and Dewhurst know how the work for Texans can get done. They can listen to the Waco City Council, the McLennan County Commissioners and so many Central Texans urging that they pull a divisive and disabling matter off the table. Redistricting has been done. It was done in '01.

Ambitions are fueling this fight

"It doesn't matter whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game." But also, as Vince Lombardi put it: "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

Most of us respect both of those philosophies, provided neither is taken to extremes. And since Americans aren't generally extremists -- we're mostly pretty practical and commonsensical -- that's rarely a problem. We understand intuitively that there are times when winning is indeed everything; other times when what counts is not whether, but how.

So what's fascinating about the Tom DeLay-driven political redrawing of the map of Texas is how it unmasks the GOP leadership, in all of its glorious, rage-filled extremism. The latest such example: a radio ad attacking the voting record of one of the Democrats-in-exile. Which would be nothing special, but the Democrat in question is Hispanic -- and the ad features actors speaking in what the Rio Grande Valley's Monitor newspaper describes as "cartoonish, thickly Mexican-accented English."

"That's the mentality that the Republicans have of our part of the state," says Juan Maldonado, chairman of the statewide Tejano Democrats organization. "They think we're still sleeping under a cactus with a big sombrero and don't know how to speak English."

This comes on top of the GOP siccing cops and Homeland Security on Democrats, then flirting with sending bounty hunters after them, then voting to fine them thousands of dollars per day they avoid the statehouse, all the while comparing them to criminals and to Saddam Hussein. (The Texas Democrats are putting up with all of this for a salary of $600 a month, by the way.)

In fact, it's gotten so disgusting that non-extremist Republicans have spoken out in dismay. Bill Ratliff, a state senator and one of the most respected Republicans in Texas, is among them. (Tartarin's post above has all the details--PD)

No doubt the DeLay Republicans simply waved aside those citizens as sombrero-wearing losers.