Contempt for democracy: In December 2003, then-House Speaker Tom DeLay engineered a coup of sorts in the state of Texas when he rejiggered the state’s electoral districts to ensure that Republicans would win a majority of seats in Texas delegation to the U.S. House.
Electoral districts are usually redrawn after each census so it was unusual to reconfigure them three years into the decade. It was also expedient and effective. In the 2004 congressional elections, delegation flipped from a 17-15 Democratic majority to a 21-11 Republican majority.
But a memo leaked this week shows that Bush political appointee at the Justice Dept. quashed objections to the redistricting plans on grounds that it violated provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
Democrats want answers:
The House Democratic leader wants an independent inquiry into the Justice Department’s decision to approve a Texas redistricting plan that staff lawyers concluded diluted minority voting rights.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the decision by senior officials to ignore the staff lawyers’ conclusions – contained in a 73-page memo made public Friday – was political.
“There must be an independent inquiry into the contemptible politicization of the Justice Department to rubberstamp U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay’s illegal redistricting scheme in Texas,” Pelosi said.
The plan was pushed through the state legislature by DeLay, R-Texas, to help elect more Republicans to the House when he was the chamber’s GOP leader. It was approved in time for the 2004 elections.
Several political hacks who were installed by the Bush team at Justice allegedly helped DeLay enact his redistricting scheme, including Sheldon Bradshaw, an assistant to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, overruled the staff and approved the plan for use in the next election cycle. Hans von Spakovsky and Brad Schlozman, political appointees to the civil rights division, were also alleged to have been involved.
DeLay’s plan was audacious. He did it right out in the open. Liberals were outraged but the media treated it like a political stunt. Texas House Democrats halted the plan briefly in regular session by breaking a quorum and going to Oklahoma. Senate Democrats held it up for two months with a quorum break in New Mexico.
Democratic Texas Sen. Leticia Van De Putte, who was involved in the failed fight to stop DeLay’s plan back in 2003, says:
“Washington Republicans, led by the White House and Tom DeLay, are dismantling minority voting rights as fast as they can. It is ironic to find out now that the Justice Department civil rights attorneys agreed with us.”
When the Texas Dems fled to Oklahoma, I was appalled by the way the media treated it like some sort of whimsical fraternity prank, without ever addressing the substance of the Dems charges. Unbeleivable. As someone so poignantly put it – “When the autopsy of American democracy is performed, the cause of death will be listed as media silence”.