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Texas Democrats learned the hard way about being nice to Republicans

By Jackson Thoreau

www.opednews.com

 During the 2000 campaign before the world went to hell under Bush-Cheney, Rodney Ellis, a Democratic state senator in Bush-Cheney’s home state of Texas, was asked by some national Democratic officials to travel around the country saying not-so-nice things about the dangerous corporate hack who now occupies the White House.

 Ellis, an African-American from Houston who once worked under the late Congressman Mickey Leland, one of many Democrats who have died in suspicious ways, said he would talk about Bush’s rail-thin record, such as his opposition to a law strengthening action against hate crimes. But he declined to bash Bush personally.

 Now after Bush, Rove and other Republicans have led efforts to squash minority voting rights in Florida, Colorado, Texas and other states, Ellis wishes it was early 2000 again. “Now I regret I was so nice,” Ellis said during a recent conference call with mostly Texas journalists.

Ellis is one of 11 Texas senators who have remained in New Mexico since July 28 to effectively block a Karl Rove-Bush-Tom DeLay plan to steal even more seats in Congress. The Republican mafia has whipped out every dirty trick in the book to get Ellis and other Democrats to comply with their scheme.

They have tried to arrest them using state and federal resources. They have fined them as much as $5,000 a day. They have hypocritically taken them to court as they bash courts and lawyers. They have called them negative names and said the situation was their fault because they refuse to “show up for work.” Never mind that many Republicans refuse to show up for work, even when they are supposedly on the job. Never mind that Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst changed the rules in mid-stream by doing away with a long-standing rule that two-thirds of senators must agree for a bill to be debated.

In short, Republicans have done everything they did in Florida in 2000 and more to get their own way in Texas. And Democrats have successfully held them off for months.

Some background: Redistricting in Texas is normally done in years ending with one - for example, 1991 and 2001 - every ten years right after new U.S. Census numbers are released. In 2001, the Texas Legislature could not reach a consensus, and new districts were redrawn in court.

After Republicans took control of the Legislature in 2002, DeLay, Rove and Co. wanted to solidify their power in Congress. So they hatched a plan to redistrict seats so Republicans would win them more easily, even though most of those seats are already Republican - voters just don’t like the Republicans who run for Congress in those districts.

This is the first time in Texas history that a party has made such a re-redistricting attempt in a mid-year without being under a court order, said Sen. Royce West, another member who left the state. Among the reasons for this unprecedented Republican redistricting push is to do away with the section that calls for preclearance in the federal Voting Rights Act that is up for a vote in 2007. “If Republicans can get enough support in Congress, that section won’t be reauthorized in 2007,” West said.

It’s important for people around the country to understand that what is happening in Texas and with the California recall election are not isolated incidents, West said. Those situations are part of a broader scheme by Rove-Bush-Cheney for Republicans to keep control of the country for decades. They don’t care how many rules and laws they break in the process.

“You have to connect the dots,” said West, an African-American from Dallas. “It started in Florida [in 2000] and moved to Colorado with the redistricting by Republicans there earlier this year. It’s now in Texas and California. These are not isolated situations. There needs to be a national effort against them. I blame Democrats if we don’t put up a defensive and offensive plan.”

 In Florida, Democrats eventually backed down to Republicans after putting up a half-hearted fight. I’m still almost as mad at Al Gore for conceding a victory he rightly won as I am at Bush for stealing that election. Gore didn’t have to EVER concede. He could have refused to accept the partisan decision by Bush’s buddies on the Supreme Court to stop the legal counting of votes in Florida.

 As Democrats.com outlined back then, Gore could have joined the lawsuits in Seminole and Martin counties, which could have been appealed to the Supreme Court using the equal protection amendment claim that Bush employed. He could have joined the lawsuit challenging Cheney’s residence, which was appealed to the Supreme Court. Gore could have lobbied Legislatures that had Democratic majorities in eight states that Bush won - Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia – to do what the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature was doing and override the voters in their states, switching their electors to Gore.

Gore could have asked three Republican electors to switch to him since in most states such electors were not required by law to vote for the candidate that voters chose. He could have lobbied Congressional Republicans to vote with Democrats to refuse to count Florida’s 25 electors.  

And it didn’t fall all on Gore’s back. Democrats in the Florida Legislature could have done what Texas legislators are doing and left the state when Republicans there vowed to declare Bush the winner of the state’s electoral votes even if the counts somehow went forward and Gore was rightfully found to be the winner in Florida. Democrats everywhere could have REFUSED to work with Bush-Cheney.

But most didn’t. Some like former Dallas Democratic Party Chairman Sandy Kress accepted positions under Bush and don’t even attend Democratic functions anymore. Kress has become a Republican. Many more, from Lieberman to Gephardt, might as well be Republicans.

In January 2001, Gore wouldn’t even recognize the few Congress members who protested the certification of the election by walking out of the process, as he presided over that process. He could have changed the rules, as Republicans OFTEN do to suit them, and allowed those protesting Congress members to speak.

Instead of becoming a college professor, Gore could have formed a powerful, national organization to work against everything Bush-Cheney stands for. He could have been a REAL voice of opposition and joined the few Democrats like Rep. Cynthia McKinney who were really opposing Bush-Cheney. That’s why she was targeted so much by Rove to be smeared and defeated, which occurred in 2002. That’s why strong Democratic voices like the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, whose suspicious plane crash probably had the involvement of agencies close to Republicans, were silenced.

But Gore didn’t really fight for the victory he won. Such a lack of backbone, of doing EVERYTHING to fight for what is right, is what’s really missing among many Democrats.

In Colorado, Democrats could have fled the state last May, as they did in Texas, to hinder that redistricting process. But they didn’t. Democrats there are now fighting an uphill battle in court to reverse that process, rather than a proactive, preventive battle as Democrats are doing in Texas.

In Florida, Gore and Democrats fought for a mere six weeks before conceding a victory they won to Republicans. In Texas, Democrats have been fighting for FOUR MONTHS to stop the latest Republican power play. That’s backbone. Take note, Democrats across the land. THIS is how to fight the Republicans.

Even though they’ve been fighting Republicans for months, West, a big guy and former college football player, said the battle has just begun. He vows to remain out of Texas through a third special session and so on. “If you use a football analogy, we’re only in the second quarter,” he said. “This is a long way from being over.”

Take note, Gore. THAT’S how you fight. You don’t just do it for a few weeks, then concede. You don’t try to take the high road. Republicans are going to spin things against you and accuse you of playing dirty even if you don’t. So you might as well play hardball and win a few victories for a change.

First, House Democrats in May, then senators in July, fled out of state to keep the redistricting plan from being considered. Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who gets his marching orders from Rove and co., has called two special sessions for redistricting, wasting almost $4 million in a year in which Republicans cut billions from health and human service programs such as health insurance for lower-income children. Perry has vowed to call a third session and even move the primary voting dates to get the redistricting scheme in place by next year. He doesn’t care how much money he wastes.

MoveOn.org has showed its appreciation of Texas Democrats by raising $1 million for a national media campaign to raise awareness about the situation. The best thing that can happen is that Democratic politicians throughout the U.S. enact similar tactics as the Texans, who have succeeded in stopping Republicans in their filthy tracks where Dems in Florida and Colorado failed.

Ellis and West represent a growing number of Democrats who tried to play with Republicans only to find that they cheat to win. They are not radicals in the sense of Malcolm X, though they have always found ways to stand up for justice. Ellis was president pro tem of the Texas senate for two years and is chairman of the Senate Government Organization Committee. West was the first African-American chief felony prosecutor in Dallas County and is vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

“They pushed us over the edge,” Ellis said. “People are just not going to disrespect us.”

Ellis is particularly incensed by the fines imposed by Republican. “We have no intention of paying those fines,” he said. “Republicans in the Senate and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst betrayed [former] President [Lyndon] Johnson’s legacy by voting to impose a new poll tax on minority members of the senate, and those that represent minority communities....It is a racial issue. Most of us who were targeted with those fines are minority.”

The Democratic Party is starting to get some backbone, West observed. “We have some real differences between our parties, and we will draw that distinction [in the 2004 elections],” he said.

Some Democrats in New Mexico, where the party controls the state Legislature, are discussing redrawing Congressional seats to combat the Republican efforts. Hopefully, Democrats in more states are making similar plans.

I haven’t heard of any real efforts to recall Republican governors, beyond petitions against Perry. But perhaps there are some efforts I haven’t heard about - I hope so. I sure hope that if Enron-Rove puppet Arnold Schwarzenegger prevails in California’s recall election, Democrats there IMMEDIATELY implement a petition drive to recall the groping Robot Man. Almost 700 people have signed an Internet petition I began to recall Schwarzenegger at http://www.petitiononline.com/schwarze/petition.html. I sure hope that some Congress members initiate proceedings to expel dirty trickster DeLay – almost 2,000 people have signed the petition against DeLay that I started at http://www.petitiononline.com/tdl0000/petition.html.

Another positive sign is that even the mainstream late-night comedians like Leno and Letterman are becoming more aggressive against Bush and other Reps. Here’s one from Letterman: “The White House says that the vacation in Texas will give Bush the chance to unwind. My question is, when does the guy wind?” Here’s one from Leno: “Bush’s economic team is now on their jobs and growth bus tour all across America. I think the only job they created so far is for the guy driving the bus.”

Here’s another from Leno: “The United States is putting together a Constitution now for Iraq. Why don’t we just give them ours? It’s served us well for 200 years, and we don’t appear to be using it anymore, so what the hell?”

Besides Iraq, the terrible economy and the crackdown on constitutional liberties, another issue to pound Bush on is how he is closing Veterans Affairs hospitals throughout the country and reducing services for vets, especially in areas like mental health and substance abuse, as he spends billions every day to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan. One prominent Texas veteran who supported Bush in 2000 told me: “Veterans got Bush in office through the military write-in votes in Florida. And veterans may get Bush out of office.”

There is so much anger against Bush, even from supporters, that you can’t help but think another Sept. 11 event will occur soon to divert people’s anger. That’s another diabolical way Bush and other Republicans plan to stay in office.

But we’ll keep fighting. Hopefully, more people, like Sen. Ellis, have learned their lesson the hard way about working with and being too nice towards Republicans.