Re the GOP deck: I'm sure the absence of African-Americans on any spade is no coincidence, but can you blame them?

Also, I don't mean to pick a fight or continue the one from over at Bryant's blog, but if all House rules were similarly given so little respect (because they don't provide for punitive measures -- other than arrest and forceable return to the House) can you imagine how little would ever get done in the state legislature?

The dems have said the rules are specifcally designed to allow for quorum busting as a legitimate means of tanking a bill, but that's clearly wrong (See House rule 5, section 8). In fact, quorums are intended to prevent a bill from getting slipped through by a minority representation when it happens that many legislators are absent for whatever reasons.

Whether the bill is fair or not is a debatable point, but ultimately irrelevant. If it's unconstitutional that's for the judicial, not legislative branch to decide. And I concede that republicans have employed the same rule-breaking methods to block bills they didn't like and lacked the numbers (decided by the voters, mind you) to vote it down fairly.

There are reasons for legislative rules and breaking them doesn't serve democratic principles. But it worked, and as you've said any ramifications that may come of it will be brought by the voters of Texas.

.:Posted by Haws ( total) on May 16, 2003 5:23 PM:.

About the Deck: No, I like it. I think they showed a fine sense of the political theater that was playing out. And I think they managed not to look stupid while doing it. I've found that the deck is popular with both liberals and conservatives, and if I were Jessica Farrar, I'd have my campaign poster right there.

.:Posted by Michael Croft ( total) on May 16, 2003 8:47 PM:.

Lawrence: There have been 4 quorum breaking walkouts in the Texas Lege that I am aware of since 1911, or approximately one per generation. I don't think this is credibly describable as lacking in respect. Indeed, the dems did not walk out over any of the other bills, but the Republicans pushed a partisan redistricting bill through with inadequate public input and with a vote on a "new" map that Tom DeLay had kept secret in Washington at 1AM on the Friday before the Monday vote.

This whole session has been an exercise in the Republicans telling the Democrats "you are irrelevant". The Republicans got their way on everything, that's the breaks of not winning the house. When this unnecessary, costly, and unprecedented redistricting bill came up, they decided that they weren't that unnecessary after all.

As I've said elsewhere, Craddick is about the only one left with a dog in this hunt, and he doesn't want to be the speaker who couldn't get things done. Tom DeLay didn't get what he wanted. Jeff Dunnam comes off looking pretty good, because he pulled this exercise in cat herding off, and Patricia Madrid got in a good quip that people have noticed, but I'm not expecting much more unless someone manages to pin a smoking gun on one of the Speaker Toms or the Governor decides that redistricting needs a special session. Both of those are longshots.

It's a damn long time until we go to the polls and I expect that the state of the economy and the approval ratings of President Bush will have more to do with the outcome than a 4 day walkout by Democratic Legislators 18 months before the election.

.:Posted by Michael Croft ( total) on May 16, 2003 9:06 PM:.

From what I've read lately, discontent among TX democrats has been brewing for some time and finally exploded on this issue. As I've said previously, my only point is that quorum busting is undemocratic no matter which party does it or whatever the demerits of the proposed bill. However, I feel compelled to add that ALL redistricting bills are partisan! Those lines, as they are presently drawn, weren't made by politically-neutral angels. Gerrymandering, for all its pluses and minus, has been a tool of the majority since the beginning of our democracy.

.:Posted by Haws ( total) on May 16, 2003 10:55 PM:.