Democrat legislators prepare to return to Texas

Haivng achieved their goal of stopping the Texas House from passing a controversial redistricting plan, the Democrat House members are now preparing to return from their self-imposed exile in Oklahoma.

Aside from issues raised by the design of the redistricting plan (which was pushed by US Representative Tom Delay, and would have served to add 4 more Republican seats from Texas to the US House of Representatives), the Democrats were also protesting the Republicans plan to focus on the redistricting rather than focusing on issues such as school finance and the state budget. They also noted that there was little reason to persue redistricting at this time, since it has last been done only 2 years ago, by a three-judge panel, following the last census - the time redistricting is traditionally done.

Even though the Democrats are returning, there is a new controversy arising out of their decision to leave the state. Apparently, in order to try and track down where the were located, Texas Governor Perry called in the services of the Homeland Security department - the new department created to deal with terrorism - to locate the plane of one of the missing Representatives.

In Washington, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, led 16 other Texas Democrats in an effort to get answers from Attorney General John Ashcroft, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, and FBI Director Robert Mueller. They fired off a letter to the officials Wednesday and Doggett renewed the call in a floor speech Thursday.

"Americans had thought this department was to look for terrorists," he said. "Perhaps those who attacked these courageous citizen-legislators would treat them as terrorists. This is how tyranny begins.

"That's why 16 members of this house request an official administration explanation. America is waiting. Who is hiding now?"

I had thought it was bad enough when Gov. Perry was trying to send Texas Rangers (the legandary law enforcement service, not the baseball players) into Oklahoma and Arkansas to look for and arrest the missing Democrats, but calling in the Homeland Security department? I'm sorry, but I don't think having a group of legislators taking a stand - even if in doing so they take off for another state - is a threat to the security of the US. If we're going to have a department that is dedicated to combating terrorism, then they need to be allowed to focus on terrorism, and not be available to the pet projects of governors or other politicos who decide their services might be convenient.

Posted by thorswitch at May 15, 2003 09:06 PM | TrackBack