once they eat all the prey, they start sniffing each other

[sisyphusshrugged]

Last week, Texas GOP lawmakers celebrated a victory when they broke the unity of 11 Democratic state senators who had fled to New Mexico, forcing them to return to the State Capitol and take up the redistricting proposal in the third consecutive special session called by Gov. Rick Perry (R) since early this summer.

Before dawn this morning, the Republicans, who control the Texas House and Senate, pushed a new congressional district map through the House over bitter objections by Democrats.

But the House's version is unacceptable to some moderate Senate Republicans, and a public squabble over district boundaries between one west Texas state senator and the speaker of the Texas House{ndash}both Republicans -- has stalled progress toward a new map, at least temporarily.

The intraparty dispute has become so intractable that Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), the House majority leader who has been actively involved in pushing the redistricting idea in the state legislature, flew to Austin last week to broker a compromise among the Republicans. He failed.

For their part, the Democrats, even while licking their wounds, are hoping that the GOP's fraternal quarrels may yet delay any new redistricting plan from being implemented in time for next year's general election.

Comments

My tax dollars at work in Austin

[gentlyepigrams]

I assume you're reading Chuck Kuffner and saw his reference to the Lasso (the Austin paper's blog) where they talked about bribing Charlie Stenholm with an endowed chair at Texas Tech if he'd give up his seat and not run for Texas Senate.

If we could recall Rick Perry and David Dewhurst, not to mention Tom DeLay, I'd sign that petition in a second. If not faster.

[canonfire.livejournal.com]

Delay created a monster that he can't control. Doubleplus Asshole.

Minor quibble

[(Anonymous)]

I'm fairly sure that Sen. Robert Duncan would be surprised to see himself described as a "moderate". He's against the House redistricting plan because his constituents have told him in no uncertain terms that they don't like it. He wants a plan that doesn't affect his district. Since that conflicts with what Speaker Tom Craddick wants, we have ourselves a spat. Who knows what happens next, but it could be fun to watch (if you like this sort of thing, anyway).

-- Charles Kuffner