Posted on 11/09/2004 11:27:23 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
What with having their presidential candidate beaten by a decisive margin, and having lost seats in both the U.S. House and the Senate, Campaign 2004 was not a heck of a lot of fun for Democrats.
Don't get the wrong idea. The party is in no imminent danger of implosion. After all, a few shifts in a few states - Ohio, especially - could have installed John Kerry in the White House. And the Democrats' power base is very much intact. While virtually all of what you might call mid-America is firmly in the Red Zone, the Northeast, New England, the upper Midwest and the Pacific coast remain resolutely Blue.
Still . . . Democrats and their supporters are going to have to work pretty hard to put a happy face on this year's results. And Texas Democrats in particular see a grim political landscape: Where once cigar-puffing Democratic grandees dominated Austin, there is now smoldering rubble.
That's no accident. With relentless, unwavering determination, Texas Republicans did a job on Democrats - particularly those who held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The profoundly cynical, but effective, redistricting plan hand-crafted by U.S. House Majority leader Tom DeLay and executed by the GOP leadership in Austin steamrolled its way through three special legislative sessions. The package shamelessly gerrymandered district boundaries to the end of ousting incumbent Democratic congressmen. The new boundaries zigged, zagged and wiggled into the most bizarre, indefensible configurations, but the GOP leadership showed not even a sign of embarrassment.
In the end, the GOP plan succeeded. On Tuesday, four of the five Democratic congressmen targeted by the Republican redistricting map - Charles Stenholm, Martin Frost, Max Sandlin and Nick Lampson, with a combined total of 68 years in the House - were booted out by voters who cared not a whit for their seniority and their collected wisdom. The only survivor was Democratic U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, whose GOP opponent, Arlene Wohlgemuth, was so right-wing that even hard-right voters couldn't bring themselves to elect her.
It's a famous victory for Tom DeLay. For the districts that lost all that accumulated seniority, however, some pain awaits. And just as importantly, the Republicans' crude bulldozing of incumbent Democrats will make it that much harder for Texas lawmakers to summon up the mutual trust to fashion an urgently needed consensus on this state's needs.
Finally!
They made their bed...let 'em sleep in it.
Oh, and call the waaaaaabulance. ;-)
Thanks
I didn't know a <3% margin qualified as "resolutely blue" in NH, PA, MI, WI, MN, and OR.
But I thought Republicans were dumb, dumb and dumber...
The article indicates that 4 out of 5 dems were booted. Does that make it a net wash elsewhere nation-wide (TX had 4 pick-ups, the rest of the country was flat)?
The Texas Demonrats deserved far worse than they got.
You hit it on the head. What is truly alarming for the Dems is that the Red states got redder and the blue states lightened up quite a bit. But for Kerry being from neighboring MA, Bush carries NH easily. As for Wisconsin, lets just see how things work out. The two states that should alarm the Republicans are CO and MN. They both experienced Dem gains in the statehouses.
Amen, friend!
It's good to send some of those Texas Dims out of office, so they have to get out and earn a real living.
Yeah! Life is GOOD!!! Thank God.
Texas Democrats? Didn't they move somewhere out of state?
Tom DeLay is a true American hero and supporter of truth and justice and democracy. Texas voters are overwhelmingly reasonable Republicans, not light-fearing dems who patrol the sewers of the nation, and, therefore, should control the Congressional delegation. So, this author is correct!
Does anyone know the email addresses of the 2 Texas senators, Cornyn & Hutchison?
When Dems redistrict, it's a brilliant political move.
I hate the freaking media.
Thanks Tom Delay!
Before: 15R 17D
Now: 21R 11D
Thanks. So, does that mean we were down 2 in the rest of the land?
Unfortunately, not true. Llyod Doggett was targeted also. He used to be my rep, but he couldn't win in his district the way it was redrawn so he ran in one of the new ones that goes from Austin to the Mexico border and won.
I'm loving it too.
EVERYONE of my representatives, be it local, state and national are Republicans.
I live in Cedar Park Texas, which is Bush Country. We get to enjoy some of the things in the People's Republic of Austin, like the scenery, but don't have to live there.
In Cedar Park, we have no local affiliation of the ACLU or NAACP. Not bragging, just the facts.
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