Posted on 09/05/2003 8:46:31 PM PDT by Dog Gone
Sen. John Whitmire, snubbed by Republicans and scorned by Democrats, returned Friday to the Capitol and said he left Albuquerque and the Texas 11 because he feared the Senate was about to dilute minority clout by abolishing one of the Senate's most important rules.
Mr. Whitmire, after becoming the first Democrat to break ranks with the quorum-busting holdout of senators in New Mexico, has been blasted by colleagues as a quitter and a turncoat.
He said he's back because Republican Gov. Rick Perry and some senators have been using the stalemate to press for the abolition of a rule in use since the 1950s that says two-thirds of the senators must agree to debate a bill before it can be heard.
He and others have credited that with forcing compromise and providing muscle to minority points of view, which for decades included the Republican agenda.
In a separate interview, Mr. Perry acknowledged that he favors ending the rule, saying it has outlived its usefulness.
"The idea that the two-thirds tradition is somehow what makes people get along is nonsense. What makes people get along is whether they want to get along," Mr. Perry said.
He said major legislation, such as revamping the tax system to fund public schools, can't get passed with that rule in place.
"If the lieutenant governor and the Senate want to be agents of change in this state, the 21-vote tradition is an impediment to that," Mr. Perry said.
Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's decision to scrub the two-thirds rule to push through a GOP congressional redistricting plan led the 11 Democrats to fly to New Mexico to prevent a quorum in the 31-member Senate.
Mr. Dewhurst said Friday he has spoken to the Democratic senators about abolishing the rule.
"I made it very clear that if they continued to stay out or they came back and weren't willing to work constructively in a bipartisan fashion, that the two-thirds tradition would be in jeopardy and they may have won a skirmish or two but lost a big war," he said.
Mr. Dewhurst said he would be the arbiter of what was constructive work. "I want them back. It's over," he said.
After holding out for the 30-day special session – the second one called by Mr. Perry for redistricting – Mr. Whitmire said he came back to deal with Republicans and salvage Senate traditions.
He said allowing 16 people – a simple majority – to control an issue would allow for extremism in legislation and end the deliberative nature of the Senate, which has 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats.
"It would be horrible for the state of Texas, it would disenfranchise each and every one of the Texas 11 and the people they represent," Mr. Whitmire said.
He said that if Mr. Perry called a third session to push redistricting, he would attend, giving the Senate its 21-member quorum.
"We all know that redistricting will ultimately be resolved in the courts. We've got to start the process to get into the courts," he said.
He also said he disagreed with the current Democratic strategy to begin a national campaign against the GOP redistricting effort.
Mr. Dewhurst also said taking the campaign around the country was counterproductive.
"I want them to stop being used by the Democratic National Party as pawns in their war against President George W. Bush," he said.
Senators who remain in Albuquerque disputed that as they followed Mr. Whitmire's news conference on the Internet.
"I found it rather painful to watch," said Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos of Austin.
"He certainly has some kind of delusions of being the great leader that brings everything together," he said. "The 10 of us remaining, we speak for ourselves."
Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said it was top Republicans in Washington, not Democrats in Austin, who entangled the Legislature in national politics.
"This is Washington, D.C., politics brought to Texas by Texans – Karl Rove, Tom DeLay and certainly with the knowledge of President Bush," she said, referring to Mr. Bush's top political adviser and the U.S. House majority leader.
This weekend, Sens. Barrientos, Mario Gallegos of Houston, Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen and Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso planned to attend a South Florida rally organized by the Internet group MoveOn.org.
MoveOn has raised $1 million to advertise its view that Republicans are trying to overturn the election of Democrats through redistricting and recall efforts.
If the senators are forced back, House Democrats have not ruled out another boycott, said Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine.
During his news conference, Mr. Whitmire was forced to speak from the Senate chamber because GOP senators have imposed penalties against the AWOL Democrats, including barring their use of Senate meeting rooms and levying $57,000 in fines.
"Whoever came up with that idea was not thinking or was thinking wrong," Mr. Whitmire said of the fines. "I've always looked at it as play money."
This is the most vicious I've ever heard Perry speak in his term.
Not only have the Rats lost, but they're about to get massacred.
In a separate interview, Mr. Perry acknowledged that he favors ending the rule, saying it has outlived its usefulness.
"The idea that the two-thirds tradition is somehow what makes people get along is nonsense. What makes people get along is whether they want to get along," Mr. Perry said.
He said major legislation, such as revamping the tax system to fund public schools, can't get passed with that rule in place.
"If the lieutenant governor and the Senate want to be agents of change in this state, the 21-vote tradition is an impediment to that," Mr. Perry said.
Perry just went nuclear.
Senator says drawing Bush into redistricting fight is a mistake
Houston Democrat says attacks on president would make it hard to work with Senate Republicans
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, September 5, 2003
Sen. John Whitmire on Friday said his Democratic colleagues are making a mistake by trying to draw President Bush into the fight over drawing the state's congressional boundaries.
At a news conference on the Senate floor, the Houston Democrat said his colleagues had asked him to join them on a national tour before he left New Mexico earlier this week. He said he turned them down.
"That's not what I was elected to do," he said "It's a mistake. We should put Texas first."
As far as attacking the president, he said: "George Bush is probably the most popular Texan today."
Whitmire said those attacks would make it more difficult for the Senate Democrats to work with their Republican colleagues when they return.
Whitmire was one of 11 Senate Democrats who fled the state July 28 to break the Senate's quorum and kill congressional redistricting. He announced earlier this week he would return home — and help restore a quorum for any potential special legislative session — while his 10 Democratic colleagues stayed in Albuquerque.
Despite their public rhetoric from New Mexico and Washington, Whitmire suggested Friday that some of his colleagues were sympathetic toward his decision. He suggested their criticism was being encouraged by political consultants and lawyers.
After he made his decision to return to Texas, four of the so-called Texas 11 visited in his room individually, hugged him, thanked him and promised to toast him that night in the bar, he said.
Whitmire also urged Gov. Rick Perry not to call another special session on redistricting but vowed he would show up for any session on the topic.
"I intend to fight redistricting on the Senate floor," he said. "I will be present."
But Perry's statement carries enormous weight. Dewhurst is now on a leash. Successful redistricting or die; the message has been delivered.
I'm a little surprised to see Perry's comments in the press, although I suspect they were common knowledge at the Capitol a day or two ago. Even I suspected what the threat was that got Dewhurst back.
Good sign that it's my bedtime....
Analysis: Texas remap feud may harm stateBy Phil Magers
Published 9/5/2003 3:20 PM
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DALLAS, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Polls indicate the players in the bitter Texas battle over congressional redistricting may pay a heavy price in the next election, but the biggest loser may be the state itself.
When he was governor, George W. Bush used to brag about his accomplishments in Austin working side by side with Democratic legislative leaders in an era of bipartisanship. Following months of stalemate, bitterness has developed among legislators that may take years to heal.
"It is my very real fear that the Senate will not have the same collegial atmosphere that it has over my career and I don't know how long it will be before it is restored, if ever," said Sen. Bill Ratliff, a veteran Republican lawmaker from East Texas.
Ratliff, a former lieutenant governor, has been an outspoken critic of some of his own party's redistricting plans and tactics. Although he has three years to serve in the Senate he says his future is a "month-to-month" decision right now.
Ratliff's counterpart on the Democratic side is Sen. John Whitmire, the most senior member of the Senate, who broke with his colleagues in Albuquerque this week and returned home to Houston, giving Republicans the vote they need to pass redistricting.
Whitmire and 10 other Democratic senators fled to New Mexico on July 28 after Republican Gov. Rick Perry called a second special session to enact new district lines. Their absence prevented passage of a GOP plan during that 30-day session, but Perry has vowed to call a third "in the not to distant future."
Whitmire quietly flew home during the Labor Day weekend and found his constituents opposed to redistricting but against a continued holdout. He returned to the Senate floor Friday for a news conference to declare that he would be there if a third session is called.
"I intend to fight redistricting on the Senate floor," he said. "I will be present."
If Perry calls a third session and Whitmire shows up that doesn't solve all the problems. There is still disagreement among Republicans over how to draw new congressional lines in West Texas and holdout Democrats face fines they say they will not pay.
Public opinion is also negative for Perry and the Legislature after months of wrangling that some residents view as embarrassing for Texas.
For the first time since Perry became governor in 2000, more people disapprove of his job performance than approve. Some 44 percent of respondents give him high marks and 48 percent rate his performance as fair or poor in The Texas Poll conducted by the Scripps Data Center.
About 68 percent of the 1,000 Texans surveyed Aug. 7-21 also said they disapproved of the job the Legislature has done this year, according to the poll. The respondents were not asked to rate the legislators by party but the public's displeasure seems apparent.
"There is enough tar there to cover everybody," said Bruce Buchanan, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Perry may also be facing opposition from within his own party. Republican Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn is reportedly considering a gubernatorial bid in 2006 when Perry's term ends. There is also speculation that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, might consider a run for governor.
Although tactically the Texas 11 may have lost the legislative fight when Whitmire defected, they are not giving up and dutifully marching back to Austin to make their last stand on the floor of the Senate. They joined a national campaign Thursday.
Three of the Texas 11 traveled to Washington to launch a national tour aimed at linking Bush political adviser Karl Rove and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, to the Texas fight for more Republican congressional seats.
"This power grab, pure and simple, is about trying to stack the deck, trying to get another bite at the apple so that Republicans can get an additional five, nine, maybe 10 seats in the U.S. Congress and they are willing to trample on the Voting Rights Act to do it," state Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston said in Washington.
Republicans currently have a 229-205 advantage in the U.S. House with one independent. Democrats currently have a 17-15 advantage in the Texas delegation and the GOP says that fails to represent their new strength in the Lone Star State.
The Democrats contend the GOP plan would dilute minority-voting strength in some districts. They also charge Republicans violated minority voting rights law when they suspended a rule requiring a two-thirds vote to consider legislation in the Senate. A three-judge federal panel will hear their lawsuit on that issue next week.
Although Democrats have tried to draw Bush into the fight, asking him to call off Rove, the White House has refused to get involved. Spokesman Scott McClellan has said repeatedly that redistricting is a state issue and they will not get involved.
David Beckwith, a spokesman for Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, said Thursday after the Democrat's news conference: "I think Karl Rove's got plenty of other things to worry about than this situation."
Beckwith said the Texas 11 have blocked democracy by holding out in New Mexico and denying a quorum in the Senate. "It's a scandal that Texas supports President Bush by 65 percent or more and our congressional delegation does not," he said.
At least one member of the Texas 11 is expected at each stop on the tour sponsored by MoveOn.org, an online advocacy group for Democratic causes that has raised $1 million for the Texas 11. The "Defending Democracy Tour" will visit Philadelphia, Miami, New York City, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The remaining members of the Texas 11 received more national exposure Thursday when three of the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination visited during a stop in Albuquerque for a national televised debate. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri paid their respects.
Although the Democrats have lost a tactical advantage with the defection of Whitmire, they are not pulling out the white flag because their theme of "Defending Democracy" will be carried on into next year's election, says Buchanan.
"It makes Texas and its squabble kind of symbolic of the larger effort, and it's a bitter struggle, to capture the hearts and minds of the American people, which is what the presidential election will be about," he said.
Even if the Republican-controlled Legislature does pass a redistricting plan, it must be cleared by the Justice Department because of possible minority voting rights questions. Then there are the inevitable lawsuits by Democrats.
"The mere fact that the battle might be over doesn't mean that they want to withdraw from the war," said Buchanan.
This is completely off the thread topic, but I'd love to see where they promised that. My recollection is that there was a story or two about how they could, or whether they would.
That is certainly their hope and the focus of the stupid ad campaign they just launched.
But the Rats are quickly becoming a farce.
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