Posted on 05/14/2003 4:42:07 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
ARDMORE, Okla. -- Texas Democrats holed up in an Oklahoma hotel were awakened early today to pounding on their doors -- but it wasn't the long arm of the law.
Just before 4 a.m., employees alerted hotel guests about a tornado warning and ushered the sleepy lawmakers -- many wearing T-shirts and shorts -- into a dingy basement.
They waited less than an hour in the room cluttered with boxes, chairs, mattresses and carpet rolls. The storm brought some hail but no twister, and no one was hurt.
"At first I thought, `How in the world did (U.S. Attorney General John) Ashcroft come up with a reason to get the FBI banging on our door?'" Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco said with a laugh.
Texas troopers had been ordered to round up the missing House Democrats, who secretly fled the state Sunday night to protest a congressional redistricting bill. The absence of 55 lawmakers -- including 51 in Oklahoma -- halted the House of Representatives because there weren't enough people for a quorum.
But Texas authorities had no power to serve the civil warrants outside the state, and federal officials never got involved. But the search for the lawmakers was called off Tuesday night after it was determined all were out of state.
The defiant group says it won't return until Friday, the day after the deadline for preliminary votes on House bills. The redistricting bill would die, although it could still get to the floor with a favorable vote by two-thirds of the House -- which is unlikely.
"You get to a point where you draw a line in the sand and make a stand on principle," said Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine.
The Democrats remained at the Holiday Inn in Ardmore, about 30 miles north of the Texas border.
Their day began about 11 a.m. Wednesday with a Bible reading and prayer in the conference room. Then they met privately, breaking several times throughout the day to chat on cell phones, talk to reporters or snack at Denny's.
Lawmakers have said that each representative will pay for his or her own room, travel and other expenses.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Austin were able to meet in committees to consider Senate bills today after having passed time earlier in the week going to the Bob Bullock State History Museum, touring the House chamber to look at the historic portraits and throwing wads of paper at each other.
In Austin today, a handful of members of various conservative groups rallied at the Capitol. A brown plastic garbage pail-turned-tombstone read: "R.I.P. The people's agenda."
"What these members have done represents politics at its worst. This walkout is an absolutely shameful display of partisanship that ought not be tolerated by the public," said David Rushing, state chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas.
The group planned an evening rally to support the lawmakers working in Austin. Group members also released a "Top 10 Differences Between Fugitive Texas Democrats and Saddam Hussein" list.
"Saddam ran an oil-for-food program. Texas Fugitive Dems are running a blackmail-for-quorum program," was number three.
But Democrats have their share of support in Austin. One man was hawking "Killer Ds" T-shirts for $15 apiece, saying part of the proceeds would go to the state Democratic Party.
While Republicans have dubbed the missing lawmakers "Chicken Ds," others are calling them "Killer Ds."
The names are a take on the "Killer Bees," 12 Democratic state senators who defied then-Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby in 1979 by refusing to show up at the Capitol. They hid out in an Austin garage apartment while troopers and others unsuccessfully combed the state for them.
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