Interesting alternative "plan" by errant Dem to halt TX redistricting

[BurtWorm]

:eyes:

If anyone detects it in this story, please share it with me.


http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/15/national/15CND-TEXA.html?hp


Texas Democratic Senator Attends Special Session
By KIRK SEMPLE


tate Senator John Whitmire of Texas, ignoring pressure from Democratic colleagues, attended a special legislative session in Austin today, giving Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, the quorum he needed to try to push through a disputed Republican redistricting plan.

Senator Whitmire had promised to attend today, though fellow Democrats had held out hope for a last-minute change of heart. But a top aide, Laura Wendler, said earlier in the day that the senator planned to "take his fight to the Senate floor" to try to stop the redistricting plan, rather than by continuing the Democratic strategy of preventing a vote by denying the Republican leadership a quorum.

Earlier this month, Senator Whitmire broke ranks with 10 other Democratic state senators who went to New Mexico on July 28 to foil the Republican plan to redraw the Congressional districts of Texas. Though he said he was opposed to the redistricting plan, the senator, whose 30 years in the State House and Senate make him the dean of the Texas Legislature, said the fugitive strategy was proving futile.

His return to the Senate floor brought to 21 the number of senators who were present for the session, assuring Governor Perry of the quorum needed for business to be conducted in the 31-member Senate. Republicans hold 19 seats and Democrats 12, though one of those Democrats often votes with the Republicans and had not left the state with Senator Whitmire and his other Democratic colleagues.

<snip>

[Richardo]

1. Pretty sure it's called "capitulation"

"Speaker DeLay" now THERE's a chilling thought.

[BurtWorm]

2. I knew there was at least one name for it.

;)

[regnaD kciN]

3. And here's another one...

TREASON.

:grr:

If this stands, it won't just disenfranchise Texans. It will cement Repug control of the U.S. House for decades. What this means is that, even if we oust Whistle-ass and put a Dean or a Clark in his place, he won't be able to do much to overturn the BFEE's work. Any attempts at serious reform will be easily shot down by the House Republicans, leading the media to present the new president as "ineffective" and "weak." Eventually, that future Democratic president will be restricted to is what Clinton was stuck with after 1994 -- only being able to achieve anything by heavily "compromising" with the hard-line Republican leadership on everything, and keeping to a centrist path at best. All the while, of course, the Republicans will be decrying that centrist, compromise path as "extreme liberal," and so on, and the notion of what are acceptable political positions will once again be curtailed in a rightward direction.