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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (37575)	9/7/2003 1:17:26 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 59480

Democrats Make Crusade of Tex. Fight White House Redistricting Role Alleged By Brian Faler Special to The Washington Post Friday, September 5, 2003; Page A11 Two days after suffering a critical defection, the band of Texas lawmakers who fled their state in order to block a congressional redistricting plan attempted to turn their arcane, if widely publicized, dispute into a nationwide issue -- and a crusade for the Democratic Party. The state senators accused the Bush administration yesterday of orchestrating Texas's ongoing fight over whether to redraw its congressional districts -- an effort, they said, that stretches the law and would diminish the influence of the state's burgeoning minority population. "With all due respect, President Bush no longer can hide his administration's complicity in this unprecedented and immoral assault on democracy," the Texas senators said in a statement. Several of the senators, who had fled to Albuquerque, met there with two of the Democratic presidential candidates in town for a debate. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) condemned the Republicans for what they also called an assault on the democratic process. "The president smiles in Washington while his handpicked henchmen, Tom DeLay and Karl Rove, are undermining American democracy by doing this," Dean said. "Mr. President . . . show some statesmanship and put an end to this." Gephardt called the GOP effort in Texas "destructive" and "wrong." The cheerleading sessions came as Texas Democrats tried to regroup after suffering a defection when state Sen. John Whitmire decided to leave the Albuquerque hotel that has been home to the legislators and return home. His presence in the state Senate would give Republicans the quorum they have been lacking to pass a new congressional map that will give the GOP a majority of the Texas House delegation. The White House did not return a call requesting comment. But in a briefing Wednesday, press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush considers the matter a state issue. The senators, with help from the online advocacy group Moveon.org, are taking their message beyond the state of Texas. The lawmakers are touring the country, visiting eight cities, where they will tell their sides of the story, raise money for the cause and pressure the Bush administration to end the impasse. "We're here because this battle started here," said Texas state Sen. Rodney Ellis during a visit yesterday to The Washington Post. "Because people in the White House called up Texas Republicans and said, 'We want more seats.' " Moveon.org , which has raised more than $1 million in recent weeks for the new campaign, announced that it will run television, radio and print ads in eight battleground states and the District of Columbia -- aimed primarily at Latino voters, who the group said would be disenfranchised by what the GOP wants to do in Texas. Their effort is part of a broader campaign by the online group to "connect the dots," as one official put it, between the Texas fight, the recall election in California, the 2000 Florida election recount and President Bill Clinton's impeachment. "The pattern is clear. When they can't win elections fair and square, the Republican leadership will go to any lengths to undermine the Democratic will of the voters," said Moveon.org co-founder Joan Blades. Staff writer Dan Balz in Albuquerque contributed to this report. © 2003 The Washington Post Company