Posted on 09/19/2003 4:42:19 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Young: The Three Redistricteers
By John Young, Opinion page editor
Recently on a Dallas radio talk show, Gov. Rick Perry acknowledged the turmoil over the three special sessions he has called to redraw congressional lines. Sure, it's been divisive and costly. But once it happens, he said, Texans will forget all about it.
It's interesting that Perry has spent the last three months trying to bring about something he wants voters to forget.
Look into his eyes. You are getting sleepy.
You'd think a leader would want to do things that people would remember as good for the commonwealth.
But of course, what Perry is interested in is solely what's good for his political party. And so he's counting on you to forget.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst came into the 78th Legislature as someone who was bending over backward to build consensus and hold onto the bipartisanship exhibited by forebears like Bob Bullock and Bill Hobby.
Now Dewhurst looks to go down as the lieutenant governor who opted for partisanship over cooperation, who sent law enforcement personnel to a storm-battered coast hoping to arrest a Democrat in case the senator came back into the state to see if his house was damaged.
No such luck, your excellency. In this case, the damage has been exclusively to your chamber.
With almost regal deference, Dewhurst told the state's editorial writers at the start of the regular session that he had sought out all of the senators and agreed to maintain the traditional rule of requiring two-thirds support get a bill on the floor. The informal vote was unanimous.
----So much for bipartisanship----
I wrote at the time that the most important vote of the 78th Legislature had happened even before it convened — sustaining the two-thirds rule. I saluted Dewhurst for his gesture.
After a first special session failed to get the two-thirds support in the Senate to bring redistricting to the floor, Dewhurst shed the rule like yesterday's cuff links. Citing actions by previous lieutenant governors offered scant cover. The other instances did not shut down the Senate like Dewhurst did when he went back on his word.
At least House Speaker Tom Craddick has been consistent. He was intent on sticking it to the Democrats from the get-go. At play was his close alliance with U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the architect of this effort, and Craddick's intention for his home of Midland to have its own congressional district.
However, no one appears more power-drunk than Perry, the man who two years ago could have ordered lawmakers to address congressional redistricting when a new census required it. Instead, Perry sat mute as it was punted to the courts. What leadership.
For Perry to say it is lawmakers' "duty" now is raw and rank hypocrisy. It only became their "duty" when the 2002 election put Republicans in the position to make hay. If there's any duty involved, it is to DeLay, who missed votes in Washington to run the remap quest, and to President Bush, for whom Karl Rove was on the phone.
How's this for irony? Bush rose to power in part based on his reputation as a bipartisan consensus builder. Obviously he has not cautioned Perry about the dangers of political blood lust.
Perry has said, for instance, that he wants the Senate two-thirds rule abandoned. This is an amazing turn, since that rule has been in place to keep the majority from running roughshod over the minority. Since Republicans were in the minority for generations, someone who was in it, like Perry, ought to appreciate it.
Perry thinks Texans will forget all about this bitter, costly and divisive battle. Maybe. But historians will remember. Perry will go down as the governor who decided partisanship, a vice in most citizens' eyes, was his idea of godliness.
In that pantheon, he and his two partners in vice will live forever.
John Young's column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. E-mail: jyoung@wacotrib.com.
This column clearly shows the commitment of the "mainstream" TX press to the TX Democrat party. Young sees redistricting as a "vice."
If that's not partisanship, I don't know what is.
He is correct. Even with it ongoing, most Texans don't give a hoot about it. I would guess that maybe 1% of the adult population could give a correct synopsis of the situation.
He should put as much effort in upgrading his paper. The Waco paper is the most mediocre paper I have ever read. Here's how bad it is: After a year in Waco, I switched to the Houston Chronicle.
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