Redistricting in Texas is a little like a war.  No, that’s not right.  It’s a whole lot like a war.  And Democrats usually get creamed – first by Tom DeLay ten years ago when he tried to marginalize the Democratic Party by targeting every white Democratic congressman in Texas.  With only a couple of notable exceptions, he succeeded.

This explanation is for folks from foreign states who will be enjoy all the fun of Texas redistricting.

Texas Democrats were stunningly unsuccessful in re-taking the state lege for the current  redistricting  despite pumping millions and millions of dollars into pretty-much-worthless consultants who seemed helpless in focusing on a message for the party or in organizing the grassroots.  So, Democrats went into this lege as window dressing only.  The Republicans had a super majority.  The Democrats who were left in the lege showed up only out of habit.

They say that God takes care of drunks and fools.  After I tell you what’s happening in Texas you’ll wonder if Texas Democrats are drunk, fools, or both.   But, mostly you’ll see that Republicans know how to get elected but they do not know how to govern.  In this case, that’s the good news.

The one thing Texas Democrats have going for them is their lawyer, Chad Dunn, who is smarter than an owl with the fifty pound dictionary.

Redistricting gets confusing because lawyers are involved and lawyers get paid to make things confusing.  I will keep this as simple as possible.

Joe Barton, Republican Texas Redistricting Stud

Texas got 4 new congressional seats, mainly through the growth of the Hispanic  population in Texas.  However, Republicans totally screwed Hispanics, giving them no new seats and then gerrymandering all 4 of the new seats to be Republican.  Under the leadership of Congressman Joe Barton, the Republicans figured this money greed thing was working out pretty good for them, so they decided to extend that money greed to power greed.  They trusted that Barton and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott could persuade the United States Department of Justice that screwing Hispanics is sporting and fun.

That appears not to be working very well.  The case is now before a three judge panel in San Antonio, who appear to be redrawing the maps.

Texas Democrats won the first round by having the judges approve a longer filing period than Republicans wanted.

And it’s suspected Democrats will win more.  Let me tell you about one of the Republican judges hearing this.  His name is Xavier Rodriguez.  He was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court in 2001 by Texas Governor Rick Perry.  He ran for election in 2002 and was soundly defeated in the Republican primary by a unknown named Steven Wayne Smith, even though Rodriguez outspend Smith  $558,000 to $9,500.  You would have to be deaf, dumb, blind and semi-dead not to realize that Rodriguez got beat in the Republican primary by an unknown named Smith for only one reason.  Rodriguez, a grad of Harvard Law, is not stupid.

Daddy Bush eventually appointed Rodriguez to the Federal court, but I imagine the lessons Rodriguez learned about running in the GOP primary while Hispanic might linger.  I don’t know this to be true, but I imagine that if you’re a Republican in a Hispanic-screwing lawsuit, this is  the one judge you don’t want.

So, hang in there for a fun ride.