[Chewbacca]

I love how the Republicans decided to change the usual 2/3 vote rule to try and force the redistricting issue through. Boy have they been trump...again.

What is more shameful? Running away from a fight or changing the rules of the fight because you have been unsuccessful in the past attempts?

I admire these dem's conviction, seeing as how they will be away from family and business for atleast a month and maybe longer if the repubs decide to keep changing the rules.


Story

The second Democratic evacuation of the Texas capital, accomplished earlier this week by emergency airlift, was set in motion by what Leticia R. Van de Putte calls a "momma's hunch." The night before the narrow escape, Van de Putte said she became "really nervous" about what Texas Republicans were planning. In response, she implemented a contingency plan that brought two private jet aircraft to Austin and alerted the drivers of vans that were to carry lawmakers to the airport to be ready to move at a moment's notice. By the time the Republicans made their move, Van de Putte, head of the Democratic caucus in the Texas Senate, and her colleagues were high above the West Texas plains, en route to Albuquerque in neighboring New Mexico. So began Round 2 in the Great Texas Redistricting Standoff. The flight to New Mexico was the second time this year that Democratic lawmakers have bolted from the capital to block a GOP plan to redraw the boundaries of the state's 32 congressional districts, replacing district lines that were set by a federal court in 2001. In May, more than 50 House Democrats rode buses across the border to Oklahoma, where they spent four days at a motel at the end of the legislature's regular biennial session. With the House deprived of a quorum, the redistricting plan died at the end of the session. The House members' Oklahoma motel caper attracted national attention and was seen as the latest example of the state's often colorful politics. But now the redistricting standoff has moved into an ominous new phase for the Democrats. Van de Putte and the other senators left Austin at the start of the second, 30-day special legislative session that has been called to deal with redistricting, leaving behind families, friends and their regular jobs. There is no limit to the number of special sessions that can be called by Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who has already threatened to order a third if necessary. The redistricting dispute has turned into a war of attrition in which the GOP, which controls all the levers of power in state government, clearly has the upper hand. The stakes in the standoff have national implications. Democrats hold a 17-to-15 advantage in the state's U.S. House delegation but risk losing five or more of those seats if Republicans redraw the district lines. Such a shift in power in Washington would cement the GOP's House majority for at least the rest of this decade and enhance the prospects that Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), who is seen as the driving force behind the redistricting plan, will succeed J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) as speaker. Underscoring the importance of the battle, Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political strategist, has discussed tactics with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R), the presiding officer of the state Senate. The Republicans are counting on being able to wear down their opponents. Both now and in May, the Democratic lawmakers fled to neighboring states because, if they stayed in Texas, they could be forced to return to their legislative chamber. The Senate sergeant-at-arms has been instructed by the Republican majority to return to Austin any Democratic senator who strays back across the border from New Mexico. "Thirty days is a long time to be away from your family," observed Sen. Todd Staples (R), sponsor of the Senate version of the redistricting plan. "We're citizen-legislators, and most still have to work for a living. It creates a huge burden." Indeed, Texas House Democrats concluded that the burden was too great to try to stage another walkout during the first special session, which began June 30. "Thirty days and 51 people, that's asking a lot," said Rep. Elliott Naishtat (D). But the Democrats knew they were still safe because of the rules and traditions of the Texas Senate. Under normal Senate procedures, each session begins with the introduction of a "blocker bill," a measure of no significance that is placed at the top of the agenda. The device has the effect of creating a permanent, institutionalized filibuster, requiring a two-thirds vote to suspend the rules to consider any other legislation. With 12 of the Senate's 31 seats, the Democrats were able block consideration of the GOP redistricting plan during the first special session. But Dewhurst made clear that there would be no "blocker bill" if Perry called a second special session, which meant that only the lack of a two-thirds quorum could prevent the Senate from acting. It was at this point that Van de Putte crafted her contingency plan, and the "momma's hunch" that led her to implement it proved prescient. On Monday, the Republicans abruptly adjourned the first special session one day early, and less than an hour later Perry issued his call for an immediate second session. But by then there were not enough senators in Austin to establish a quorum. "We would have been trapped inside the Capitol," Van de Putte said. Since then, the two sides have settled into a long-distance war of words and battle for public opinion. The missing Democrats are at an Albuquerque hotel, where they say they are paying their own way. They meet daily to plot strategy, but at this point the only strategy appears to be to wait for the 30-day clock to run out and perhaps persuade Democratic governors and legislatures to threaten retaliation in their states. The GOP argument for redrawing the state's congressional districts is that the current lines do not fairly reflect the state's increasingly Republican tilt. David Beckwith, a spokesman for Dewhurst, said that last year Republican House candidates won 57 percent of the vote in Texas but ended up with fewer than half of the state's House seats. "It's the legislature's responsibility to do this, and they didn't do it in 2001; a court did it," Beckwith said. "The people have a right to have their redistricting done by their elected representatives." Van de Putte and other Democrats scoff at that argument. Democrats still controlled the Texas House in 2001, and the deadlock over redistricting threw the issue into federal court. Van de Putte said Republicans used the "blocker bill" device in 2001 to prevent Senate consideration of redistricting legislation. "Republicans felt they'd get a better shake out of the courts," a GOP official conceded. The Democrats, who say the Republican plan would "disenfranchise" more than 1 million mostly African American and Hispanic voters by "packing" them into a handful of congressional districts, vow not to waver in their self-imposed exile from Texas. One Democrat, Sen. Rodney G. Ellis, has temporarily left his job as an investment banker in Houston and his wife and four children, the youngest of whom was born July 20. "It's hell," he said of the standoff, "but the cause we're fighting for is worth

[ 08-02-2003, 03:57 AM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]