More on the AWOL Texas Senators

Previously, I talked about how a quorum in the Texas Senate may be at hand in the near future through the actions of Senator John Whitmire. This Statesman article seems to draw that conclusion as well.

The Democrat who abandoned a boycott of the Texas Senate promised Friday to show up to fight congressional redistricting if Gov. Rick Perry calls a third special session.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who had made contradictory statements about whether he would show up and allow the topic to come up for debate, said, "I will be present." Twenty-one of the 31 senators must be present to conduct business.

I do applaud him, though I doubt I agree much with his politics. He's approaching this from the proper perspective: in our system, the right way to fight legislation you don't like is by confronting it openly in the legislature. If your efforts fail, then there is always litigation or the next time the legislature meets. Simply running away, which is what the Democrats have done, demonstrates contempt for the process they were elected to work through to serve the people.

At a news conference on the Senate floor, Whitmire criticized the Republicans' redistricting attempts as "a wasteful power grab," but he said Democrats are making a mistake attacking President Bush on the issue.

The 10 boycotting Democrats are scheduling appearances in Chicago, Los Angeles, Florida and other sites as part of a national Democratic campaign claiming that Republicans are trying to reverse elections through the California recall, the Texas redistricting flap and the 2000 presidential electoral controversy in Florida.

There better not be one fucking penny of Texas taxpayer money going towards these appearances! The Democrats certainly have the right to make their case (which I consider to be mostly bogus; it certainly hasn't been proven to me that there is a concerted effort to "reverse elections" across the country), but I will be furious if they are doing it at our expense.

From the beginning of the boycott, Whitmire said he had doubts about leaving the state. He said he thought it was a bad public relations move and the Democrats would have done better to leave the Capitol but stay in Austin, daring the Republican leadership to arrest them.

In my mind, this is just as bad as leaving the state. It would have provoked a much more entertaining standoff, but the fundamentals wouldn't have changed. The senators would be refusing to do their jobs out of the fear they wouldn't be able to block redistricting. It's still pathetic. However, I'm always down for watching politicians get handcuffed. :)

Whitmire said boycotting longer, however, would be futile as long as Perry is determined to call a series of special sessions and Republicans are willing to consider moving the primary election dates.

"I'm a great Democrat, but I can count," said Whitmire, referring the Republicans' large majorities in both chambers of the Legislature.

He said the Democrats must fight redistricting in the Legislature, despite the GOP's advantage, then appeal any resulting map to the courts.

Exactly. Get a straight up-or-down vote on the issue, that way Texans will be able to see how their representative feels on the plan. Then work from there if necessary. I don't see this as being very difficult to comprehend.

Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, is one of the 10 Democrats still boycotting. After watching Whitmire's news conference on the Internet, Barrientos said, "He looked like he was grasping for a rationale for what he's doing. Frankly, it's kind of sad to me."

Copyright 2001-2003 Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. All rights reserved.

Grasping?! If you can't see and understand the essential points he and I (and others) stand for, then you are either willfully blind or stupid.

Of course, I'm also sick of the GOP for pushing this issue. This insistence has reportedly cost the state $3.4 million from these special sessions.

Lots of people are pissed at this whole charade, in and outside the government.

Polls indicate the players in the bitter Texas battle over congressional redistricting may pay a heavy price in the next election, but the biggest loser may be the state itself.

[...]

"It is my very real fear that the Senate will not have the same collegial atmosphere that it has over my career and I don't know how long it will be before it is restored, if ever," said Sen. Bill Ratliff, a veteran Republican lawmaker from East Texas.

[...]

If Perry calls a third session and Whitmire shows up that doesn't solve all the problems. There is still disagreement among Republicans over how to draw new congressional lines in West Texas and holdout Democrats face fines they say they will not pay.

Public opinion is also negative for Perry and the Legislature after months of wrangling that some residents view as embarrassing for Texas.

For the first time since Perry became governor in 2000, more people disapprove of his job performance than approve. Some 44 percent of respondents give him high marks and 48 percent rate his performance as fair or poor in The Texas Poll conducted by the Scripps Data Center.

About 68 percent of the 1,000 Texans surveyed Aug. 7-21 also said they disapproved of the job the Legislature has done this year, according to the poll. The respondents were not asked to rate the legislators by party but the public's displeasure seems apparent.

"There is enough tar there to cover everybody," said Bruce Buchanan, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

One of the things talked about at the libertarian party meeting I attended was how this may give third parties (hopefully those interested in limited government!) a big boost in the next sets of elections.

At least one member of the Texas 11 is expected at each stop on the tour sponsored by MoveOn.org, an online advocacy group for Democratic causes that has raised $1 million for the Texas 11. The "Defending Democracy Tour" will visit Philadelphia, Miami, New York City, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The remaining members of the Texas 11 received more national exposure Thursday when three of the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination visited during a stop in Albuquerque for a national televised debate. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri paid their respects.

Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International

MoveOn.org, eh? I wasn't aware of that.

Then there's the issue of the two-thirds rule suspension lawsuit.

The Texas Legislature entered the Labor Day holiday with little relief from the partisan re-redistricting rhetoric, and indeed, with hardly any holiday at all. The second special session ended without result Aug. 26; the following day Laredo federal District Judge George Kazen heard initial pleadings in the Senate Democrats' lawsuit against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst et al. for abandoning the Senate's two-thirds rule and allowing Republican senators to impose fines and sanctions on the minority Democrats. The suit alleges both actions violate the federal Voting Rights Act. Kazen referred the matter, as well as the Democrats' request for a temporary restraining order to allow them to return home without fear of arrest, to a three-judge panel appointed shortly thereafter by U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King. The panel, expected to rule in the next couple of weeks, includes Democratic appointee Kazen and GOP appointees Lee Rosenthal and Patrick Higgenbotham. (Higgenbotham served on the three-judge panel that drew the current Texas congressional district map in 2001.)

Copyright © 1995-2003 Austin Chronicle Corp. All rights reserved.

Democratic Senator Returns To Texas

A court hearing in Laredo gave the Democrats some hope, but didn't produce an immediate avenue for their return.

Federal Judge George Kazen said last week that he doesn't think Republican efforts to draw new congressional districts in Texas violate Democrats' rights, as the Democrats argued in a lawsuit. But he also thinks a lawsuit filed by the quorum-busting senators raises enough questions to ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to appoint two other judges to join him in a panel that could issue a ruling within a few weeks.

Copyright 2003 by Click2Houston.com.

One more thing to note:

Austin Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos spoke to the Chronicle Friday by phone en route to Albuquerque from Denver, where he and Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso had joined a fundraiser sponsored by already re-redistricted Colorado Democrats. Barrientos said that he and his fellow Dem absentees might have to spend several more weeks in exile -- perhaps at least another month -- before the siege is ended. "The closer we get to October 6," he noted, "the more difficult it is for them to get DOJ review in a timely fashion."

Mr. Barrientos is referring to the requirement under the Voting Rights Act that all redistricting plans must get federal approval to decide if they discriminate illegally. Apparently the window for such plans to be submitted before they can be reviewed closes near the beginning of October. Whitmire's defection screws this up by allowing a vote sooner, assuming Governor Perry calls a third special session in time.

And one more bit on Barrientos.

Barrientos said the Democrats have been heartened by an upwelling of national support, and that the next steps may be up to the federal courts, what the House might do in the event of another session call, and "public pressure that might come down on the governor." "We are not acting in a partisan cause, nor a racial cause," said Barrientos. "We are acting in defense of democracy and of fairness."

Copyright © 1995-2003 Austin Chronicle Corp. All rights reserved.

"We are not acting in a partisan cause."

Bullshit.

UPDATE(9/7/2003 3:50pm)
Of note:

Whitmire originally planned to hold his news conference in the Lieutenant Governor's Press Conference Room. But a resolution passed by Senate Republicans last month barred him from using that room until he paid $57,000 in fines for breaking the Senate's quorum.

"It's a sad day when a senator can't use the press room," Whitmire said.

Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

Similarly:

September 4, 2003 6:03 PM

WHITMIRE DENIED USE OF SENATE PRESS ROOM

Press conference scheduled for 11 a.m. tomorrow

Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston) is holding a press conference at the Capitol tomorrow at 11 a.m. but he cannot say yet which room he will use.

Whitmire, Dean of the Senate, assumed he could use the Senate Press Room and his Capitol staff told reporters earlier today that that was where the press conference would be held.

Not so fast, said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst spokesman Mark Miner. "No reservations for conference rooms, press conference rooms will be allowed," said Miner, quoting the motion passed by Senate Republicans that penalized the Senate Democrats for busting a quorum during the second special session.

Republicans said the sanctions would be lifted when the Democrats had paid the penalties imposed for the walkout.

According to Whitmire spokeswoman Blanca Laborde, the Senate's longest serving member has not paid his $57,000 fine.

© Copyright September 4, 2003 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved

The ugliness is palapble, but I do support sanctions against politicians acting like this.

Via Off the Kuff and Burnt Orange Report.

UPDATE(9/9/2003 10:45pm)
More here.

UPDATE(10/12/2003 9:34pm)
Big News: a plan has been finalized and passed by both the House and the Senate.

Posted by Drizzten at September 06, 2003 12:08 PM