I haven’t lit up a lot of pixels on the Texas congressional redistricting charade because at some level I believe the old saw that people get the government they deserve. In Texas that includes such marvels of human evolution as U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who apparently inhaled too many pesticides during his previous career as an exterminator, and George Bush’s successor as governor, Rick Perry.
To briefly reprise what’s been happening, the GOP, after three special sessions of the Legislature, finally managed to break the unity of a group of 11 Democratic senators who kept running off to places like Ardmore, Okla., and Albuquerque, N.M., to deny the Texas Senate the quorum it needed to conduct business. The business in this case was pushing through a GOP gerrymander that would replace the current Democratic gerrymander by redrawing congressional districts in a way that would guarantee Republicans another half-dozen seats in the U.S. House. With the Democrats back in the state Senate chamber they were able to proceed, and they did.
But now the Republicans are bickering so bitterly among themselves that there’s some question whether they’ll be able to come up with a plan that will get enough support to pass. Even the godfather of this thing, DeLay, couldn’t broker a peace.
Ultimately, the GOP no doubt will hammer something out. The stakes are too high to do otherwise. As David Beckwith, spokesman for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst put it, "There's a lot of ways to skin this cat."
Meanwhile, they’re almost as much fun to watch as the Seattle City Council.
Back to top