After they spent four days evading Texas Rangers, state troopers and Homeland Security bureaucrats, the notorious "Killer D's" - 51 quorum-busting Democrats - returned to Austin on Friday. Their high-stakes rendezvous in a Denny's just across the Oklahoma border was successful, not just for the Democratic Texas House members, but for the issues that drove them to such drastic action.
The 51 fugitives stayed on the lam long enough to ensure the death of a devious Republican-backed redistricting bill that would have chopped up several Texas congressional districts, eliminating at least four Democratic seats in the U.S. House.
The current map was drawn after the Texas Legislature failed to perform its redistricting duties after the 2000 census. The U.S. Supreme Court approved the district map, but it would have given Democrats a majority in the Texas congressional delegation. U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, just couldn't stand for that, so he and his cronies in Austin whipped up a map that suited their partisan purposes.
The outnumbered Democrats decided they'd rather be fugitives than stand still for that power play. It was a rare stand against the partisan, backroom deals that distort government in legislatures nationwide.
DeLay wasn't the only one wasting his time. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security also got involved. A Texas trooper reportedly contacted the department seeking help tracking down a "missing" plane - Texas Democratic Rep. Pete Laney's private plane. The Austin American-Statesman reported that officials were led to believe the plane might have crashed, but the details remain murky. U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and several other Democrats have requested an investigation. It's worth finding out how an agency that is supposed to be protecting the country from terrorists was roped into this messy political roundup.
- Elyse Ashburn, a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is an intern on the Times editorial board.
