52 Democrats Walk Out of Senate -- Speaker orders Arrest

This story if getting very wierd. They really can't find them. Where could 52 politicians hide??? Maybe they left the state.
I wouldn't know a Lousiana state rep is he or she was standing on my big toe.


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1906463

Plan took cunning, secrecy and overnight bags
Associated Press

AUSTIN - They planned to meet surreptitiously, at a designated site, not knowing where they were going or how they would get there.

Broken up into several cells, only the team leaders of these 53 rebel Democrats were to know the details of their planned excursion. They were told to pack enough clothes and necessities to last four days. Most anticipated fleeing the state.

The only communication was supposed to be among members of their small groups.

On Sunday night, aware that they could face arrest, some boarded a bus and took off, leaving a contentious battle over congressional redistricting behind.

"I don't know where we're going. I don't know how we're going to get there," one Democratic lawmaker told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as he packed before the 6 p.m. Sunday rendezvous. Other legislators contacted by the AP that evening would not confirm the plan.

Worried that state authorities could track them down and bring them back to the Capitol before they could disappear, they were determined that the Republican House leadership would not discover their covert plans.

So, they shrouded their plot in secrecy. Only a carefully chosen few were apprised of their itinerary. In an attempt to create a diversion, misleading plots were purposely planted with Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick, a legislator said.

One source told the AP that they were discussing giving up their cell phones to prevent a mole from divulging their location and to avoid being traced. By this afternoon, at least three lawmakers still had their cell phones.

They left in their path a swath of doomed legislation, angry Republicans and a series of letters explaining their actions.

Not even some staff members of these lawmakers knew about their plans, until the letters were found this morning.

Tamara Bell, chief of staff for Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco, was caught unaware of the plan when called by The Associated Press Sunday evening. Dunnam, leader of the House Democratic Caucus, appeared to be commander of the group.

But today, just before the House was scheduled to convene at 10 a.m., it was Bell who made the official announcement based on a statement left by Dunnam that enough members had fled to bust a House quorum, which is necessary to do business.

"I spoke to him by cell phone. I don't know where they are, I don't know anything except the statement I was given," Bell said.

With just four days remaining until the House deadline to hear bills, redistricting won't be the only piece of legislation that will be stymied by their furtive getaway.

The necessary quorum to avoid passage of legislation to redraw Texas' congressional districts was broken. The remaining lawmakers were locked in the House chamber and a call was put out for Department of Public Safety officials to find the missing Democrats and bring them back to the Capitol.

But the group appeared ready to face that risk. One legislator who did not want to be identified said his only worry was an opponent using an arrest against him in a campaign.

"But, it's the right thing to do," he said.

 

Just saw this on my site, posted by a Democrat who got the email that went out from Texas Dems. One thing here that seems to put the lie to the idea that it's okay to pull a redistricting sucker punch because 'everybody does it' is that it is officially done every ten years (and, yes, largely influenced by the party in power), but now at a time of various crises in the state, Tom Delay is (as usual) butting in to do it off schedule, just because he knows he can. Bravo to the Dems who walked for showing some balls. Here's the letter:

Dear Fellow Democrat:

As you may know, today all but three Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives courageously chose to walk-out rather than allow Tom DeLay and Tom Craddick to force congressional redistricting onto the House agenda.

Below is a statement that was released by the House Democrats this afternoon. We can all be very proud of our Democratic House members who stood up for us today.

Proud to be a Democrat,
Molly Beth Malcolm

Statement - 5-12-03 For Immediate Release

Why We Are Here - Working To Defend Texas

We did not choose our path, Tom Delay did. We are ready to stand on the House floor and work day and night to deal with real issues facing Texas families. At a time when we are told there is no time to deal with school finance, and when we must still resolve issues like the state budget crisis and insurance reform, the fact that an outrageous partisan power grab sits atop the House calendar is unconscionable.

Our House rules, including those regarding a quorum, were adopted precisely to protect the people from what is before the House today - the tyranny of a majority. By our actions today, we are fulfilling our responsibilities to our constituents and upholding the oaths we took to serve the people of Texas.

The redistricting plan scheduled today before the Texas House of Representatives is the ultimate in political greed - it is undemocratic, unjust and unprecedented. It's a power grab by Tom DeLay, pure and simple. The current congressional plan has been ruled by our United States Supreme Court to be constitutional and in compliance with the Voting Rights Act. Elections have been held, and we should respect the will of Texas voters.

Our Republican Attorney General ruled that this map can stand for the decade, and that we are not mandated to do redraw congressional districts this session. Many Republicans privately oppose it. Texas newspapers have editorialized against it. We do redistricting every ten years, not whenever those in power demand it.

Our Republican Attorney General ruled that we are not obligated to do this. Many Republicans privately oppose taking up redistricting. Texas newspapers editorialized against it. We do redistricting every ten years, not whenever those in power demand it.

This misbegotten plan is a monument to Tom DeLay's ego, appetite for power and disregard for our constitutional rights. He drew the map. He insists on passing it. No one benefits more than Tom DeLay. He believes he should choose who represents Texas in Congress, not Texas voters.

House Democrats are taking a stand for fair play for all Texans. We refuse to participate in an inherently unfair process that slams the door of opportunity in the face of Texas voters.

We won't be present today - or any day - that the House plans to consider this outrageous partisan action. We refuse to provide a quorum for Tom DeLay's attempt to grab power at the expense of the rights all Texans are guaranteed under our Texas and United States Constitutions.

We refuse to be present:

Because the Texas House has more important business than satisfying Tom DeLay: a $10 billion shortfall, a school finance crisis, a troubled economy, insurance abuse (our Governor's declared emergency, and still not passed) and a looming disaster in health care for the children, the elderly and the disabled.
Because the House Redistricting Committee violated the Voting Rights Act, and refused to respect the voice of all Texans.
Because the actual map to be considered by the House was intentionally hidden, then suddenly introduced at the last minute and voted out at a late night meeting with no opportunity for public comment.
Because DeLay's gerrymander splits cities and fractures traditional communities of interest-like the grotesque plan to crack Austin into four separate districts, with tentacles that stretch from the Capitol to Houston on the east and southward hundreds of to the miles to the Mexican border.
Texas today has more important business than bending to Tom DeLay: like a $10 billion budget shortfall, a school finance, a troubled economy, insurance abuse and a looming disaster in health care for children, the elderly and the disabled. We are ready to work to solve the problems caused by budget cuts in education and health care, not on cutting up the State of Texas to satisfy Tom DeLay's quest for power.

We do not stand alone.

"Texas should ignore DeLay's redistricting plan."
Dallas Morning News, 05/11/03

"At a time when Texas is grasping for pennies to immunize Texas children, legislators don't need to waste resources giving booster shots to political power plays."
Houston Chronicle, 02/02/03

"DeLay's raw partisan effort….is a damaging distraction that should be abandoned…The decision to make these changes is much too significant to rush through the legislature to satisfy DeLay's appetite for power."
San Antonio Express News, 05/07/03

"The map finally kicked out of Crabb's committee…is a textbook example of everything wrong with the redistricting process. It was largely done in secret.."
Waco Tribune Harold

"The map is a travesty that shatters the community of interest that is the foundation of congressional redistricting…It's a Machiavellian scheme that should be soundly defeated.
Austin American Statesman, 05/02/03

"Until DeLay gets elected to an office in Austin, he needs to keep his mind on Washington matters."
San Angelo Standard Times, 02/14/03

 

that would take away the perks and power of being in power.

Rocket River

 

meanwhile...important measures are left undone...the budget is left unattended...bills die on the vine.

 

The reason that important measures are left undone is because the Republican majority wants to focus on redistricting rather than the more important issues at hand. That is why the Democrats walked out.

 

oh..is that why? i thought it was because the dems essentially became lawbreakers and retreated to oklahoma.

again...the majority of texans voted for republicans..thus they hold the majority. when it comes time for redistricting, we all expected a republican tint to it. just as we expected a democratic tint to redistricting in years where they were in control. but the dems would rather override those votes and stall all business so they can clutch at the last vestiges of their power. it's fading fast...and will fade faster the more this story is reported. keep digging...you're not to 6' under yet. but you're getting close.

 

Max, do you actually believe the Democrats would have walked out had the Republicans not tried to shove redistricting down their collective throat?

I'll keep on digging....you just keep on bleating like the sheep you are.

 

All I know is that if any republicans had walked out during redistricting when dems were in power, there would be a collective outrage among dems calling for the heads of the republicans and talking about how the dems rights in the states were being squashed by the evil republicans walking out and how the majority was being quelled by just a few in the minority.

 

are you kidding??? your party leaders walk out...they're being rounded up by DPS...they stall all business before the legislature, despite the fact they KNEW these districts would be redrawn to reflect a republican majority..a majority they once possessed but lost...and i'm the sheep??? you realize what you're defending??

in the senate/judical appointment thread, i called out republicans who had done it in the past...you're defending this...and i'm betting you'd be screaming like crazy if the shoe were on the other foot.

 

Perry's budget- was it ever planted? I don't think it ever had a chance...the bills however are growing fat and ripe on the vine.
Why on earth did the Democrates go to Ardmore? This is all very weird.

 

Max, I can only guess from your posts after mine that you didn't read the letter from the Dems, as you continue to act like this was business as usual -- the party in power taking advantage of that power when it was time for redistricting. We all know that happens. Thing is, it wasn't time for redistricting. This from the letter:

The redistricting plan scheduled today before the Texas House of Representatives is the ultimate in political greed - it is undemocratic, unjust and unprecedented. It's a power grab by Tom DeLay, pure and simple. The current congressional plan has been ruled by our United States Supreme Court to be constitutional and in compliance with the Voting Rights Act. Elections have been held, and we should respect the will of Texas voters.

Our Republican Attorney General ruled that this map can stand for the decade, and that we are not mandated to do redraw congressional districts this session. Many Republicans privately oppose it. Texas newspapers have editorialized against it. We do redistricting every ten years, not whenever those in power demand it.

Our Republican Attorney General ruled that we are not obligated to do this. Many Republicans privately oppose taking up redistricting. Texas newspapers editorialized against it. We do redistricting every ten years, not whenever those in power demand it.

Further, you criticize Dems for walking when there's important business but fail to criticize DeLay for inserting a political power grab at the expense of dealing with that important business. There's plenty on that in the letter too.

 

Batman -- i'll attack delay whenever you'd like me to...i've never been a fan of his.

no..i'm not persuaded by this message from the democratic party. the very party who is encouraging its members to flee to oklahoma to avoid the jurisdiction of the dps. no...i'm not persuaded because the 10 year rule the attorney general has talked about has never been treated with any authority. it's not a mandate...merely a permissive statute. you don't have to deal with this for another decade...but the party in power generally deals with it whenever the hell they like. as jeff pointed out...this is nothing new...we've been dealing with this for a long time.

 

But why should the Republicans have to be the bigger "men"? Why shouldn't they take advantage of their taking power in the state? Had the shoe been on the other foot all these years and the Democrats just taken power, do you think the Democrats would say "Well, you guys screwed us for decades when you were in power, but we're not going to do that. We're just going to be fair.".... well, they might say that, but they likely wouldn't do that.

And that's again the problem. The Democrats were allowed to gerrymander at will for decades to prevent Republicans being elected as best they could. Now the Republicans have taken control, and nobody wants to allow the Republicans to do the same. The standard is different for Republicans than it is for Democrats.

 

I agree with this, including from my side of the aisle (and myself). It is often easy to be outraged when the other side is doing something that seems unfair, etc.

But when it's your guys doing it, it is a lot easier to rationalize.

But for me, I don't mind payback. I think the Democrats should be forced to see what it is like to be on the receiving end of all these things. It's cosmic justice. And I always find it fun to watch when the Democrats become outraged when the Republicans co-opt some tactic that the Democrats used when they were in power (or out of power), etc. And vice versa.

 

MadMax, and some of the rest of you who are normally quite reasonable in their discussions... it's a fact of Texas Legislative politics that every 10 years, during the redistricting session, very little of any substance gets done. The Legislature is consumed with partisan bickering, angt, anger... you name it.

That is why, during an unparalleled budget crisis during which the Governor saw fit to not submit a budget as his guideline (unprecedented, by the way), with the Republican AG saying it was unnecessary to have redistricting until the next census... this move by DeLay and Craddick was a ploy so ill-timed that every major newspaper in Texas editorialized against it. "Liberal" rags like the Dallas Morning News. Many Republicans who knew it was a mistake were against it (not all publically, but many are against it) because they knew the uproar and bitterness that would ensue.

We don't live in a vacuum. Actions have consequences. Craddick and Perry knew very well that this was not the time to try and ram this down the throats of the Legislature. We are in a fiscal crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people, tens of thousands of them children, are being affected by the "budget" and it's cuts being pushed through. You couldn't have asked for a more ill-timed session to attempt this ploy... to please Tom DeLay. They did it anyway. I salute those with the courage to stand up and do something about it.

 

Finally some democrats with balls. My dream would be to have the next president come out of that group.

 

So you salute them for letting the state potentially plunge further into fiscal crisis for political means. I mean, this is all about protecting Democratic congressional districts. Not exactly the sort of thing that necessarily helps the average person.

Yeah, I'm sure the redistricting is unneccesary as a matter of complying with the law, but the response of the Dems is not coming from a place of moral superiority. They simply want to attempt to save political seats for their party.

To the victor go the spoils... unless the victor is a Republican.

 

Yep. Someone who puts the number of seats held by the Party ahead of the business of the government is certainly someone we want in the Oval Office.

 

By the way, I say the State of Texas never comply with any request for extradition from Oklahoma from now on.

And, just to make the game more fair, I think we should arrest the best OU football players the second they set foot in Texas for the Red River Shootout.

Heck, if it was a bill against something they really believed in - like health care for the poor, etc. - I could more understand. Of course, they aren't willing to flee to prevent those bills from being passed (not that there necessarily is a bill against health care for the poor, but you get my gist). They're only willing to flee when it comes to saving Congressional Seats for Democrats.

Proving once again that the most important thing to a politician is getting elected and getting your party in control. Everything else - doing the business of the state, passing bills to help constituents, etc - isn't nearly as important.

Yes, the Republicans are involved in a situation that is political in nature. They're redistricting to help make it easier for more Republicans to get elected. There's nothing wrong with that. The party in control (which has been the Democrats since Reconstruction) has always done that.

But is it really heroic to run across state lines to prevent the business from being done? Does it really help the state to protect the seats of Democrats? Should the business of the state be held up indefinitely just to protect the seats of Congressional Democrats?

 

Yes, the Republicans are involved in a situation that is political in nature. They're redistricting to help make it easier for more Republicans to get elected. There's nothing wrong with that. The party in control (which has been the Democrats since Reconstruction) has always done that.

Has redistricting ever been done randomly two years after it was previously done?

Personally, I find this situation entertaining. I was personally hoping that the Rangers had made a deal with the Okie police and they would have all been arrested at their press conference in Oklahoma. The least they could do is actually go out and hide.