Man is never so low as when he crawls on his belly like a compassionate conservative -- and never so high as when he's AWOL on a coke binge during times of war.

On the Texas Gulf Coast, pest control people are our heroes. There's enough work here they live well. Former pest business owner Tom DeLay, we call him BugMan, is no hero. Not only is his redistricting scheme being debated in Austin on an election day in many parts of the state, he accuses minority organizations who are speaking out against the scheme en masse "more Democrat than they are minority."

Edited from moveon.org mail list:

As you may already know, Tom DeLay is planning on using a loophole to re-redistrict Texas. It's a pure partisan power grab that would convert between five and seven of Texas' Democratic districts to Republican ones, and would likely put pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-choice Rep. Lloyd Doggett out of a job entirely. It could become the new plan within a week.

Until last night, DeLay's plan was a secret. Now he wants to ram it through the Texas House of Representatives with as little debate as possible. Hearings on the plan have been scheduled to collide with the elections this Saturday -- effectively making it impossible for many of the interested parties to get to Austin.

DeLay claims that his plan helps minorities. But most of Texas' minority rights organizations, including LULAC, the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, the NAACP, African American community leaders in Fort Worth and other respected minority groups have come out against it. DeLay's astounding response is that if minority state representatives or state senators vote against the bill, ". . . they are more Democrat than they are minority." (Dallas Morning News, 4/25/03)

Every major Texas newspaper that has written on the subject has come out against the redistricting plan. In the words of one particularly strong editorial, DeLay's re-redistricting plan is "raw, shameless politics and shows little regard for the residents who'll be affected or the taxpayers who'll foot the bill for the inevitable legal challenges. . . . It also blatantly invites rejection by the U.S. Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act by diluting minority voting strength. . . . If the state hasn't enough money to pay for basic services for thousands of children, elderly and disabled residents, it certainly can't afford another round of needless legal bills." (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 4/19/03)

Mineta has ordered review of FAA's role in helping DeLay track the plane of a Democrat who joined a walkout from the Texas Legislature.

DeLay admitted he provided Texas Speaker with information state police used to enlist homeland security agency in search for Democratic legislators.

Fight over flight of Democratic legislators intensified as the Texas Department of Public Safety admitted it had destroyed documents collected last week as state troopers searched for missing lawmakers.

Revelation comes as federal authorities are investigating how a division of the federal Homeland Security Department was dragged into the hunt for the missing Democrats at the request of the state police agency.

It's hard to embarrass Texas. The price of gasoline has gotten so high that women who want to run over their husbands have to car-pool now. But it is kind of embarrassing to have a government that decides to cover a $10 billion deficit by taking services away from the poorest, weakest, frailest, oldest and youngest Texans.

While under heavy criticism for the way troopers were conducting their hunt for House Democrats on the lam, the Texas Department of Public Safety ordered all records related to the search destroyed. The state police today defended its actions as being required under federal privacy laws. Tom Ridge has refused to release tapes of the telephone call from DPS.

You gotta be kidding: The cynicism underlying an effort to redraw Texas congressional districts is exceeded only by the gall of the national Republican leaders who are insisting that it be pursued. At a time when state lawmakers have neither the time nor the financial resources for a redistricting fight, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and other members of the GOP Texas delegation are promoting their own interests, potential consequences be hanged. [Published April 19, 2003, Page 14]

Mighty was the wrath of the Republicans who were left holding session without a quorum. Bills died by the dozens as Democratic lawmakers who were wanted by the law bollixed up the legislative works. Gov. Goodhair Perry, who keeps saying he wants more civility and bipartisanship, denounced the AWOL solons as "cowardly," childish" and "irresponsible." It was a bad day for bipartisanship. Everyone mourned the death of legislative civility while colorfully cursing the other side.

"We refuse to participate in an inherently unfair process that slams the door of opportunity in the face of Texas voters." Republicans bear a large share of the responsibility for legislative standstill.

Republicans used Homeland Security to track legislators who left Texas to block passage of GOP redistricting bill. This is the Homeland Security. The agency we were told would never be used for domestic political purposes.

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