Should Texas R's & D's sit on the kettle and smoke some pot?

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and other Senate officials quickly took steps to try to round up the missing senators, who deprive the Senate of the necessary quorum to conduct business. But Dewhurst said there wasn't much the Senate sergeant-at-arms or law enforcement officers could do since the Democrats had fled across state lines.

Dewhurst, who has tried to forge a redistricting compromise and concluded a lengthy meeting with most of the Democrats only minutes before they fled the Capitol, pleaded with them to return.

"I'm asking our Senate Democrats to come back and to work with us. But I've got to share with you, I'm disappointed, very disappointed," he told reporters.

Dewhurst said the absent senators were "putting their party affiliation over what they were elected to do."

Well now, if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black! The Republican Governor, Rick Perry, had to call this special session of the Texas Congress at no small expense to the taxpayers because De Lay's Republicans lost so much valuable time trying to redistrict the first time around, a few months ago. Now, it appears the Governor will wait for the Dem's to return at the end of this special 30 day session, only call another one. At even more cost to taxpayers.

See, the deal is, the tax payers paid for redistricting every 10 years at the conclusion of the national census. This was done in order to realign districts to insure each fixed group of citizens had their own representative. Then along comes the Republicans with De Lay's bright idea that they can redistrict every 2 years if necessary to insure that the Democrat voters in the states won't have enough concentration in any of the new districts to win in the next election. Doing this, of course, means the taxpayers will pay five times as much for redistricting every 2 years as they paid for when this gerrymandering was only done once a decade.

Yes, the Democrats walked out and that is costing taxpayers. But, this bright idea was all the Republican's in the first place with the intent of depriving Democratic voters in the state the value of their vote.

Pot & Kettle. I think both camps should sit on the kettle and smoke a little pot and regain their senses.

David Remer --PoliWatch.Org--