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Dick Morris is an idiot who doesn't know what he is talking about.

The Democrats had gerrymandered Texas' US Rep Districts in 1991 to ensure that Democrats were elected even though the state as a whole had begun voting Republican. By the late 90's the state was voting about 57% Republican but had 60% Democrat Representatives thanks to the worst gerrymandering in the Union forced on Texas by the Democrats.

Morris' allusion that DeLay did not like the redistricting after the 2000 Census and therefore perverted the system by forcing his own redistricting is simply false.

The US Constitution requires that the state legislature redistrict every 10 years. That did not happen in Texas.

The Texas redistricting after the 2000 Census was not done by the state legislature as the law requires, it was done by a panel of 3 Federal Judges. The Fed Judges simply kept the same outlandish gerrymandering done by the Democrats in 1991, which was not going to reflect the current voting of Texas voters.

Frankly, this was a travesty of justice that could not be allowed to stand.

DeLay did work to get a Republican majority elected in the state House (the Senate was already Republican controlled). But the reality is that the trend was toward more state House Republicans, regardless of DeLay's efforts.

It was not DeLay's redistricting plan, it was the Texas legislature's.

The Democrats in Texas did not lose because DeLay did something unethical or devious, they lost because they had nothing to offer Texans except higher taxes and bloated government, which Texas voters rightly rejected.

The 1991 gerrymander had heavily favored Democrats. In 2001, Democrats in the state legislature successfully blocked the passage of any attempt at redistricting. Since Texas had two new House seats, new lines had to be drawn. So a three-judge federal court was forced to draw them. The judges made as few changes as possible from the 1991 map and urged the legislature to pass its own lines in 2003. Which is what the legislature did, with DeLay leading the charge.

So Morris is just wrong to suggest that the legislature had enacted new district lines after the 2000 Census and that DeLay and company redrew them. It never happened.

Thanks for the link. These few lines state the truth very clearly and to the point.