Radical tactics

I'll be writing more about this in a few hours when I'm awake enough to actually process it, but this has to be one of the most astounding political moves I can recall.

Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives are so upset with the way the new Republican leadership is handling getting their agenda pushed through - including a redistricting plan that has been described as creating bizzare districts and boundaries - that they have fled the state in order to shut down progress on the Republican bills.

Apparently, they snuck away in the middle of the night, some going to Oklahome and New Mexico, and some possibly even going to across the border to Mexico.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry immediately dispatched police to track down the missing legislators, arrest them and bring them back to do the state's business - even asking neighboring New Mexico if the Texas Rangers were empowered to make arrests there. (New Mexico's attorney general [Patricia Madrid] - a Democrat - said no.)

[...] “Nonetheless,” she added in a statement, “I have put out an all-points bulletin for law enforcement to be on the lookout for politicians in favor of health care for the needy and against tax cuts for the wealthy.”

While a few Democratic legislators have stayed (at last count, 4) and reported to work today, by leaving, the rest have prevented the legislature from being able to have a quorum, which has effectively shut the legislature down.

The Republican leadership has said that they will likely call a special session over the summer to try and get the disputed billed through, but Democrats have indicated they might just pull another disappearing act if that happens. Given that the governor now has a manhunt going to try and find the Democrats, I have to wonder if he'll try to use law enforcement to keep tabs on them prior to the start of such a special session to prevent them from being able to leave.

All I can really say right now is that it has to be a pretty bad situation for lawmakers to pull this radical of a stunt to try and get their point across.

Posted by thorswitch at May 13, 2003 06:03 AM | TrackBack