Yep, you might think that Texas legislators were actually cognizant of their responsibility to do the People's work. Of course, you'd be horribly naive and misguided, but you COULD think that.
Because their legislature meets only every other year, most Texans still believe legislator is a part-time profession, a chance to serve the public for a few months before returning to your day job. So when Governor Rick Perry recently called lawmakers back to Austin for a month-long special session, you would think it was for something important, like rescuing the struggling school funding system, or restoring state health insurance to 170,000 low-income kids who lost it last month when the budget got too tight. But this special session will be devoted entirely to sending more Republicans to Congress — legislators will be voting on redrawn congressional districts.
Nope, this one seems to be all about self-aggrandizement- specifically Tom DeLay's. DeLay sees it as his God-given right to do anything within his power to increase the political power of his party, and, by extension, himself. DeLay, along with too many other Republicans, seem to have forgotten that they were elected to represent the people of Texas. DeLay and his minions seem to have no qualms with the idea of disenfranchising a sizable number of Hispanic and other minority voters by chopping up their districts. Is this sound governance? Right, like Republicans care about that.
Perry and GOP lawmakers are still ticked off that a federal court stepped in to draw the district lines two years ago when the legislature couldn’t agree on a plan, resulting in districts that sent 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans to Washington despite GOP control of the entire state government. So even though redistricting has been a once-a-decade event for more than a century, the Republicans tried to implement new, more elephant-friendly districts last month. That’s what sent 51 Democratic state representatives scurrying across the border to Ardmore, Oklahoma, preventing a quorum for four days until the session — and the redistricting bill — expired. But Perry’s not giving up so easily. Still, while Republicans have the power to pass this bill, is the long-term cost to bipartisanship worth it?
Since Republicans have become the majority party in Texas, bipartisanship has been a good idea, but it's received little more than lip service. The Republican leadership has spent more time burning bridges than considering the benefits of building any. Perhaps it's simply easier for them to dismiss and belittle those who do not happen to march in ideological lockstep with them.
To Tip O'Neill, politics was the art of the possible. To Tom DeLay and his minions, politics is a zero-sum, kill-or-be-killed proposition. That's a shame, because it is a sorry commentary on the Republican Party's commitment to the people of Texas- the people who elected them.
