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years.
By a quirk in the Texas rules in the legislature, a super majority of 2/3 is needed to obtain a quorum to do business. TheTexas Democrats did what they had to do, they left town.
Overnight over 50 Democrats boarded a chartered bus and went to Oklahoma and a few Democrats went to New Mexico, thus denying a quorum to conduct legislative business and the clock was ticking away with only four days left to consider the DeLay heist or it would die from a lack of time in this legislative session.
The Texas governor, Rick Perry, went ballistic and called the Democrats unpatriotic among other things. He even went so far as to send out the Texas Rangers (no, not the baseball team, the posse type) to apprehend the sinners and bring them back to Austin. Police shadowed the Democrats' family members back home. Threats were made. The right wing radio network lit up with vitriolic diatribes against these cowards.
The Rangers tracked the busload of Democrats to a motel in Oklahoma where they surrounded the place. The only problem was Texas Rangers had no authority to make arrests outside Texas. The Texas governor appealed to the governors of New Mexico and Oklahoma to extradite these wayward legislators back to the Lone Star state. However, the Democratic governors and attorneys general in these two states did little but make fun of Texas.
The Democrats in self exile repeatedly said they would return to Austin if the governor, House Speaker and Tom DeLay would give assurances the redistricting bill would not be brought up. They refused the offer. So important to DeLay and the GOP they ignore court approved redistricting in an effort to pad their majority in Congress, they let pressing budget issues go unresolved in Austin as well as addressing the problems of Medicaid for children and seniors, prescription drug plans and a host of social issues needed by the citizens of Texas.
In the end Texas Democrats went back to Texas, hours after the deadline for redistricting to die. These bold Texas legislators accomplished the thwarting of immediate surrender of congressional seats lawfully redrawn and focused attention on Texas politics and the raw and arrogant display of power by the GOP. President Bush, when asked for a comment on the Texas situation, claimed he knew nothing about it and hadn't kept up on his home state happenings or heard the news.
That lie is as good as the next, I suppose.
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