Chicken Ds Disenfranchise Texas Voters. They didn’t have the guts to take it like they gave it

AllSouthwest News Service ^ | May 16 | Don "Jet-eye" Loucks

[asneditor]

For over one hundred and thirty years, Republicans were a minority in the Texas legislature. Now, Republicans hold all statewide offices and both U.S. Senate seats. Texas votes about sixty percent Republican. However, only fifteen of the thirty-two U.S. House members are Republican.

The prospect of correcting this inequity is what sent the fifty-one Texas House members abandoning their Constitutional duties and escaping out of state to Oklahoma for a few days. By doing so, they prevented a vote on the redistricting bill and effectively killed it.

What they did was disenfranchise Texas voters.

If Texas votes sixty-percent Republican, that proportion should be reflected in the Texas delegation to the U.S. House. There are citizens in Texas who should be represented by Republicans instead of the Democrats they are unfairly stuck with. The fact that properly arranged congressional districts might shift the balance of power to the Republicans in the U.S. House, was enough to prompt the Democrat’s drastic action.

The Democrats are disseminating misinformation on the subject that bears scrutiny. One claim they make is that redistricting is only done once every ten years as mandated by the Constitution. Wrong: The Constitution mandates a census every decade and reapportionment as required. Reapportionment means setting the number of U.S. House members for each state according to the population ratio of each state to the others, with one being the minimum number required [U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 2].

The Democrats would fool us into believing that reapportionment is the same as redistricting when it most certainly is not.

Redistricting is the intra-state process where each state determines the shape of its U.S. House districts. While reapportionment occurs once every ten years, there is no such limit on redistricting. It could happen every election for that matter. It did indeed happened in Texas in 1997, a fact that Democrats seem to have conveniently forgotten.

Legislatures accomplish redistricting unless they simply ignore it as happened in Texas in 2001 and thus forced a federal court to draw the districts. Democrats controlled the Texas House at the time and evidently did not want to take responsibility for the new districts. Now that they are a minority, they do not want the Republicans to assume it.

It is clear that Texas should have the opposite party ratio in its delegation that it does now. It is also clear that the only way to prevent the Republicans from redrawing the districts is to walk out and, under the rules and customs of the house which works under a very tight schedule, kill redistricting. There was collateral damage that rubbed salt in the redistricting wounds as many, many other bills were killed as well.

It is clear that Texas Democrats play by their own rules. When there is mention of “bi-partisanship,” it means the Democrats are getting what they want.

It is clear that when it comes to congressional seats, there is no Democrat shame.

The Democrats are claiming that the Republicans of the Texas Legislature are U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s redistricting robots. If that is the case, whose robots are the Democrats?

The Chicken Ds do not understand that their action this week is not being taken well by their constituents. The voters don’t like people who appear to “cheat” to win.

After all, the Republicans stood up and took the punishment with professionalism and class for over a century. What’s wrong with the Democrats?

[asneditor]

The words democrat and cheat sure seem to go hand in hand these days.

[ffusco]

They just bought some time. In 2005 they are history.

[borisbob69]

Agreed! Now...not only will the redistricting occur, the Republican majority will increase substantially.

[longtermmemmory]

can redistricting be resurected in a special session?

[asneditor]

Yes it sure can and from what I am hearing from some of the big boys there will be a special session to address it

[asneditor]

Our dear friend Jet-Eye tells it like it is ..once again!

[Dog Gone]

My guess is that there will be a special session for redistricting this summer. Whether it will be combined with other matters which were killed as part of the collateral damage inflicted by the Ardmores, or whether it will a subsequent one, I don't know.

But I have a hard time believing that Republican leadership will consider what happened as a fair outcome based on the merits.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

Democrats use the ignorance of minorities to incite class hatred in the same way radical Islamic clerics preach hate for the West.

They can't stand the light of truth!!

Just as Al Quada and the Taliban ran for their caves in Afghanistan when confronted with a powerful adversary, the Texas Democrats ran for their "cave" in Oklahoma until they felt safe to come out.

[asneditor]

Dog, The way I understand it is that each special session can only cover one topic.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

There were some 400 other bills that went down at the same time.

Can somebody get a list?

I would like to know what baby they threw out with the bathwater.

[HatSteel]

Obviously requires a reworking of legislative rules about quorum. Such rules were intended to protect legislators in case some circumstance beyond their control (accident, disaster) prevented their being present to exercise their vote. It was never intended to be used as a tool to prevent voting from taking place.

Issue them all satellite uplinks, satellite phones, & laptops, and they have no excuse ever again for failing to cast a vote.

[longtermmemmory]

There is no way the Dems will not be prepared to run again. Will each one have to be arrested in order to be brought to quorum? They must be planning the "dead weight" photo opps. (they should have an engine lift for the clinically obese man)

There is no "stand and make the tough votes" spine in democrats.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Solution. Have the governor send a state trooper to every Rat legislators' house and have them escorted to the state capitol where the Republicans have already assembled for a special legislative session. Lock the door and prevent them from leaving.

Will the Pubs have the guts to do this?

[Dog Gone]

If that's correct, that's good. I'd schedule it as the last special session.

Presumably the 2/3 vote in the Senate to bring the matter to the floor has no application in a special session where there is only one matter to be considered.

And if the Rats fled to Ardmore during that special session, fine. They could never return as long as the session continued. I guess it might last for months.

[deport]

Issue them all satellite uplinks, satellite phones, & laptops, and they have no excuse ever again for failing to cast a vote.

---

LOL..... With communication capabilities today they can all stay in their districts and by uplinks carry on the same as in Austin or D.C. except for being one on one personal contact. That would surely allow for the local constituents to have closer contact with them while the do the business of governing... But they probably wouldn't want that.

[deport]

I'd say they can consider more than one item..... based upon my reading of the Constitution... but then plurals may not mean mulitiple....

The Texas Constitution

Article 3 - LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT

Section 40 - SPECIAL SESSIONS; SUBJECTS OF LEGISLATION; DURATION

When the Legislature shall be convened in special session, there shall be no legislation upon subjects other than those designated in the proclamation of the Governor calling such session, or presented to them by the Governor; and no such session shall be of longer duration than thirty days.

[Txslady]

From what I heard on KSEV AM Radio the other day, was that they will not bring back any of the Democrats Bills during the Special Session. :o)

[ought-six]

"Democrats use the ignorance of minorities to incite class hatred in the same way radical Islamic clerics preach hate for the West.
They can't stand the light of truth!!

Just as Al Quada and the Taliban ran for their caves in Afghanistan when confronted with a powerful adversary, the Texas Democrats ran for their "cave" in Oklahoma until they felt safe to come out."

So very true.

[CMClay]

It can but most likely won't.
The maps were poorly drawn, and any futher action on our part will bring too much heat from the press.
Even my own 'right-leaning' newspaper accused the 'pubs of playing politics and showed some of the goofier proposed districts.

[Dog Gone]

Hmmm, it looks like it could be a multiple-topic session, but my idea of it dragging on indefinitely won't work.