In case you’ve been wondering what’s been going on with our friends down in the Lone Star state, the Texas 11 are still in New Mexico and the Republicans back in Austin are driven slightly crazier with rage on a daily basis.
The situation got slightly worse late last week, when the GOP approved new punishments for their colleagues. In addition to the harsh fines the Republicans believe they can force the 11 Democrats to pay, the GOP also passed a measure to take away the Dems’ parking spaces, cell phones, floor passes for the senators’ staffers, and the total elimination of their purchasing privileges.
In fact, as of right now, the Republican lawmakers have had orange cones placed in front of the parking spaces that had been reserved for the state senators. (This strikes me as counterintuitive. Wouldn’t the GOP want the Texas 11 to use the parking spaces and return to the Legislature? Just a thought.)
Dems responded by threatening a series of lawsuits, which would challenge what they called illegal “punitive sanctions.”
That’s not the worst of it. The 11 Dems left the state to deny a quorum so as to prevent Tom DeLay’s ridiculous redistricting scheme from passing. They played by the rules, but whenever the Republicans lost, the Republicans decided to change the rules to suit their purposes.
Though the Dems have said they’ll stay away “as long as it takes,” that may eventually become a practical impossibility.
Late last week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who has already called two special sessions of the Legislature for the express purpose of passing DeLay’s scheme, seemed willing to concede the fact that the second session may end without a resolution. Perry said, however, that he’s prepared to call continuous special sessions indefinitely.
In other words, each special session lasts 30 days. The Texas 11 hoped they could stay in New Mexico until the session ended and then return victorious. Unfortunately, Perry has the ability to call special sessions, back to back, for as long as he wants.
The 11 Senate Dems cannot simply stay in New Mexico forever. Eventually, they’ll have to come home and when they do, the GOP will break every rule, abandon every tradition, ignore every procedure, and pass DeLay’s fraudulent redistricting scheme.
So what can the Dems do? Well, the same Dems in the Texas House who fled to Oklahoma in May think they can help. As Dave Barry would say, no, I’m not making this up.
Yesterday, rumors started working their way through Austin that the Texas 11 may, indeed, have to return home. If they come back, the Senate will have a quorum. With this in mind, it appears that the original 51 House Dems (aka, the Killer Ds) may switch with their counterparts in the Senate, leave Texas again, and deny the House a quorum.
It’s really quite clever. House and Senate Dems can take turns leaving the state over and over again.
I dare anyone to tell me that this mess isn’t at least as crazy as the California governor’s race.
One final thought from Tom DeLay, who appeared on Fox News Channel over the weekend. Naturally, he’s the driving force behind the entire controversy. It’s his redistricting plan, crafted to add to his GOP majority in the House. Naturally, he’s not particularly happy that the Dems are spoiling his fun.
Remarkably, DeLay actually accused the Dems in the legislature of violating the U.S. Constitution by blocking his scheme.
“We’re supposed to, by Constitution, apportion or redistrict every 10 years,” DeLay said on Fox News Sunday. “We in Texas have prided ourselves on honor, duty and responsibility. Unfortunately, the Democrats in the state Legislature don’t understand honor because they’re violating their oath of office to support the United States Constitution.”
DeLay has reached a level of nausea-inducing rhetoric that I hadn’t thought possible. For him to lecture anyone on the virtues of honor and duty is despicable.