Heroic Senators Triumph Over Satan Worshiping Lt. Gov.
(see how I beat Jank and Reeder to the punch!)
The battle for redistricting Texas finally made NPR’s Morning Edition. Texas State Senators ducked out of the capitol building yesterday after Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst threatened to change the rules. The senators have been refusing to allow the redistricting map to be brought up for a vote, so Dewhurst was going to dispense with the rule that requires a two-thirds agreement before a measure can be brought up for debate (and subsequently a vote.) Here’s a couple of my favorite quotes.
“I am saddened by the fact that we will not be able to put hundreds of millions of dollars into a number of priorities,” said [Texas Gov. Rick ]Perry
“I’m asking our Senate Democrats to come back and work with us. But I’ve got to share with you I’m disappointed, very disappointed,” Dewhurst told reporters. “By leaving, our Senate Democrats are putting their party affiliation over what they were elected to do.”
What is so appalling is that Perry and Dewhurst can say these things with a straight face.
Instead of bringing up this particular money issue for debate during the regular 140-day session or in the successive 30-day special session, Republicans held it out of reach as a bribe/threat to the Democrats. (Pass the redistricting bill and you get to play Robin Hood. Stall us and we’ll make you look bad.) Perry thinks that the liberals of Texas are not aware that his guys are solely responsible for holding back this money (and he’s perfectly aware that the conservatives don’t want to spend another dime on the non-wealthy and so, don’t care.) So, instead he wants us to believe that there is a magical reason he called a new 30-day special session and this money issue has to wait in line behind the redistricting bill. (I won’t even get into how expensive these special sessions are for the state of Texas and how Texas’s budget is bone-dry like every other state.)
Dewhurst wants us to believe that party affiliation is only being flaunted by the Democrats. Of course, everyone knows that US House Majority Leader Tom Delay is responsible for pushing this redistricting bill and the Republicans have to toe the line or risk losing GOP funding in the next election. If this wasn’t a family show I would have to ask how Dewhurst and Perry can even talk clearly with Delay’s…no, no — it’s a family show.
How many times can the Republicans be rejected before they go back to their masters and admit that this is a losing battle? How bad can both sides make the state of Texas look before this blows over? (Do we have to wait until we get rated below Louisiana on the bad politics scale?)
To tell the truth, though, I get so upset about this because the Republicans keep acting so high and mighty but I think both sides are being ignorant. There is little doubt in the mind of the sane politically-aware people in this state that this redistricting bill will end up just like the last one. Just 2 short years ago Perry couldn’t get his redistricting map passed and it finally got designed and got approved by the courts. Minorities all over the state whose communities are being sliced and diced by the current redistricting bill will sue and the courts will once again draw the map for the bickering politicians. The antics of our government only work to enflame and polarize the people of the state. (Oddly, though, 90% of the people attending the redistricting meetings across the state are against it. Why don’t the Republican-supporting voters stand up?) The Democratic Party has little to fear in this battle because the change in districts will not ultimately affect the number of Dems vs Reps in a major fashion. The people most concerned are the individual Democratic politicians who will lose their local districts (while new Democratic politicians will pop up in new places.) This is why you don’t hear this debate hitting a national level in a major way. The Democrats at that level know it’s a waste of energy and that the GOP is spinning their wheels.
23 Responses to “Heroic Senators Triumph Over Satan Worshiping Lt. Gov.”
Comment from Rick
Time July 30, 2003 at 10:02 am
You only beat me to the punch because I couldn’t get logged on yesterday! I still can’t, so it works out that you posted this… and I can comment on it.
I can agree that members of both parties are being partisan. Makes sense. “The Great Satan”/Majority Leader in D.C. is doing his job – trying to hold on to (or increase) a majority! Same thing the Dem’s in TX are doing… trying to hold on to their inexplicable (see JANK’s lucid comments above) majority in the number of reps sent to the U.S. legislature from TX. By the way, it is a pretty big swing – forecasters predict that GOP candidates would go from 15 seats to 21.
Finally, with regard to this being ‘about Democracy, not Democrats’ and the ‘heroic’ nature of our Dems’ decision to run away like French soldiers – picture this: 10 years from now there is a Democratic majority in TX. They want to bring up a bill to spend a Billion Dollars on developing a 100% electric vehicle capable of going 75 MPH and never needing refueling… but the GOP minority heads to New Orleans (they have better taste in refuge) for a 45 day bender… Heroic?
Comment from etrigan
Time July 30, 2003 at 10:53 am
You picked a bad example. The scientific community is pretty much in agreement that 100% electric vehicles will never be viable. Firstly they will never go more than 100 miles on one charge. Secondly the damage of large batteries in land-fills would become as damaging as exhaust is now. Hybrids are a good idea because it’s a balance of air pollution and land pollution. Which reminds me of a Tom Toles cartoon with W standing at a gas pump:
Car Driver: Got my hydorgen fuel cell car, Mr. President. Fill ‘er up!
GWB: Can’t. We don’t actually have the technology yet.
GWB: Or the distribution system.
GWB: Or the hydrogen.
GWB: And by the time people realize all that, I’ll be long out of office.
CD: What you got in that big tank, then?
[ pan to side of tank that says “Lauging Gas” ]
GWB: Heh heh. I’m getting 50 laughs per gallon.
btw, A better comparison would be the Dems trying to redistrict Texas to add more seats after (grandmotherly goddess of all Texas politicians) Ann Richards was elected. Which I would not have approved either.
Comment from Rick
Time July 30, 2003 at 12:12 pm
I started to use education $ or drug rehab program $ as an example, but decided to use something close to your heart. Thanks for pointing out that my lighthearted jab is technically not feasible… but my point remains the same. And redistricting will be handled one way or another – as required by law, after the most recent census. Dems just want to delay it long enough to screw up the ’04 elections if they can. Why aren’t they here doing their job? Sore losers. Fraidy cats. They are out of state because they KNOW that they will lose. This sets a bad precedent – every time someone is facing a majority in our legistative body, they just have to pack a bag and head out of state. One way or another, this will come back to the Democrats. Stupid Republicans will duplicate in the future or (preferably) moderate Dems will vote these cowards out of office.
Comment from etrigan
Time July 30, 2003 at 12:36 pm
I will repeat myself (sort of): How stupid is it to face rejection twice — once illegitimately when the House Dems ran, second time with a legitimate stalemate in the Senate — and decide if you can’t get something done by the rules then just change the rules? Same difference. Next time it’s a Dem majority, but not enough to bring up debate/vote the Dems will use the precedent that Dewhurst set and simply change the rules.
Also, Texas was redistricted after the last census. Perry’s just pissed because the courts had to take it away from him and his Big Daddy DeLay won’t put up with that kind of failure.
Comment from jank
Time July 30, 2003 at 2:20 pm
The upside is that it looks like absentee legislators is a novel way to return gridlock to the legislative process despite one party control of executive and legislative branches. The boom in the ’90s was due not so much to either great leadership from the White House, or from the Republicans taking Congress for the first time in 40 years, but because gridlock took away the need to deal with asinine new legislation.
IMO, we’d have started a strong recovery about a year ago, even with 9/11 if we hadn’t gotten about 72K pages of new legislation and executive branch statutes from Washington since Junior was elected.
Comment from Rick
Time July 30, 2003 at 4:33 pm
I am announcing my candidacy for Senator Barrientos’ seat. You heard it here first.
Jank – what does too much legislation have to do with the economic recovery? Especially if some of it is tax cuts & other economic stimulae?
Comment from etrigan
Time July 30, 2003 at 4:43 pm
ahem. Tax cuts <> Economic Stimulus
(were you being sarcastic?)
Unfortunately, the people who got most of the tax cuts are the people who can afford to store $$$ in a mattress during bad economic times, so they do and they have. However, tax cuts for lower and middle class wage earners get spent almost immediately on goods and services. That’s economic stimulus.
Then, again, I got a tiny little tax cut and it’s going to pay off my credit debt.
Comment from jank
Time July 30, 2003 at 5:01 pm
Rick- Sorry, I meant regulation, not legislation. Heritage Foundation piece here. Net effect is that money that could be spent driving expansion is tied up in ensuring compliance. Call it a tax by another name; smells exactly as sweet.
John- Paying off your credit card is economic stimulus – Visa can loan that money out to someone else now… My meager tax cut – Straight to Taco Cabana and Pabst.
Comment from cynsmith
Time July 30, 2003 at 11:13 pm
I have a hard time believing that ensuring compliance with government regulation is what is holding the economy back right now. Unless you think that the economic “growth” fueled by companies like Enron and WorldCom is what the government should be fostering. If those companies had been more worried about compliance with tax and securities regulations, and if the government had been actually enforcing all of its regulations (enforcement divisions, especially at the EPA DOJ, and IRS have been decimated under Bush) we could have avoided some of the damage from those frauds, and maybe would be further along with the allmighty economic expansion.
Comment from jank
Time July 31, 2003 at 9:46 am
Cyn- it’s not the biggest thing holding back the economy, but it does play a factor. I agree, some regulation is necessary, but the biggest compliance costs come with rapidly changing requirements, or with new mandates.
No amount of new regulation is going to stop people from trying to skirt the laws, and adding additional rules only increases the loopholes available and the temptation to skirt compliance. Much like cutting marginal tax rates actually increased tax revenues under Reagan by reducing the incentive to cheat, simplifying regulatory codes would have the effect of providing more honest reporting and increased compliance.
Comment from Rick
Time July 31, 2003 at 10:59 am
http://www.statesman.com/legislature/content/coxnet/texas/legislature/0703/0731senators.html
Turns out we should all feel sorry for the apostles… err… defecting senators. Whatever. Cry me a river. OR – just get your asses home and fight it out.
Comment from etrigan
Time July 31, 2003 at 12:17 pm
I think that’s hypocritical when you change the rules.
“We couldn’t get a home run with the current rules, so we’re going to change the rules so that you can only pitch underhand at less than 60 mph!”
see this for timely reference.
Comment from jank
Time July 31, 2003 at 1:29 pm
I think it’s hypocritical when you cry when the other team runs one of your plays.
Comment from etrigan
Time July 31, 2003 at 2:30 pm
I have to plead ignorance. When did the Dems abandon the 4/5ths rule?
Please, cite specific instances with links.
Bonus points for events in the last 15 years.
Comment from Rick
Time July 31, 2003 at 2:33 pm
Overview:
http://www.statesman.com/legislature/content/coxnet/texas/legislature/0703/0731redist.html
Note “Democratic predecessors did in each of the past three decades.” F- the bonus points, I’m busy.
Comment from etrigan
Time July 31, 2003 at 3:00 pm
Grade: F –
(how ironic!)
Answer was non-specific and had no applicable links.
(And this type of generic possibly out-of-context reference may work on Ditto-heads, but it won’t fly here.)
Comment from etrigan
Time August 1, 2003 at 7:47 am
Heh. Despite my original protest, I like this article.
One measure would allow the state to make $800 million in payments to school districts a month earlier — August rather than September. School districts say the delayed payments aren’t a problem.
Other measures would give the governor and legislative leaders freedom to spend more than $470 million in newly available money, although the state budget might already give them that power.
Comment from etrigan
Time August 1, 2003 at 11:17 am
Oh! One more jab: your tax dollars are paying the Republican Senators to do nothing this month. The Dems are declining their special session paychecks and paying their own way.
Comment from jank
Time August 1, 2003 at 11:19 am
Last I checked you didn’t earn a paycheck for not showing up to work.
Comment from etrigan
Time August 5, 2003 at 8:54 pm
The Aggie paper actually published an OpEd chastising Perry for this mess.
Comment from Jank
Time August 5, 2003 at 11:07 pm
If the Aggies are against it, then it’s got to be wrong.
Comment from etrigan
Time August 6, 2003 at 7:33 am
heh. You may not realize that (generally speaking) Longhorns are not as anti-Aggie as (generally speaking) Aggies are anti-Longhorn. (This is spoken from the POV of an outsider who married a Longhorn who grew up in B/CS.) It is interesting that The Battalion would publish a piece that chastises an alum, and even more interesting that the comments at the bottom aren’t all condemning.
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Comment from jank
Time July 29, 2003 at 11:07 pm
First, it’s toe the line, not tow the line. Comes from the old tradition of starting boxing matches with both parties having a toe on the same line.
Second, it blows my mind to hear Democrats whining about how any redistricting is ‘unfair’, etc. It’s not like they didn’t jump at the chance to redraw the lines to their advantage every time a new census came out when they had the majorities in state legislatures. It’s only when they’re on the shady side of the gerrymander that they suddenly find religion.
I’ll admit that I am not as fluent in Texas politics as I was back in my College Republican days (favorite quote: “I like Bush” … oops, this is a family blog, and that was Bush the Elder) when there was Ann Richards to mock. But, in a state with a Republican majority in both state legislative bodies, and a entirely Republican slate of statewide officials, I think that there’s something fishy in a delegation to the US Congress that’s a sizeable Democrat majority.
To be fair, this is really the first somewhat reasoned piece about redistricting that I’ve read. Most of the rest stopped with DeLay sodomizing the Texas GOP. Which is why I haven’t been too interested, frankly.
On the state budget issues: The biggest reason that state budgets are in the crappers is that state spending rapidly outstripped both population growth and inflation. Rich Lowry (admittedly a biased source, but these are numbers that can be independently verified) runs down the numbers at townhall.com. Granted, Republican lead legislatures are as much as fault as Democrat states. But, had spending kept pace with actual need (which is generally a function of population, and should go in inverse cycle to economic growth) the rainy day funds would have been even bigger than they were. Current state budget crises were avoidable. “Trusting politicians with money is like giving car keys and liquor to teenagers” – PJ O’Rourke.
Lastly, according to The Daily Texan, the special session costs a whopping $1.7 million. In a state budget of $117 Billion, the cost of the special session isn’t even a rounding error.