Burnt Orange Report

Ratliff Interview, GOP seeks ruling on Senate Rules

By Byron LaMasters

Today's news includes an interview with State Sen. Bill Ratliff (R-Mount Pleasant), who's announcement that he opposed redistricting set the stage for the removal of the 2/3 rule and for Democrats bolting the state. Also in the news today is the amending of a lawsuit by Democrats and Republicans going to the Justice Department to stop a Democratic lawsuit accusing them of violating the Voting Rights Act.

My favorite Texas Republican, Bill Ratliff, who conservatives call a RINO at times, but is strongly supported by his constituents (he beat a ultra-conservative former state rep. primary challenger last year by a two to one margin) for the first time since the Democratic senators fled to ABQ, agreed to an interview. He was strongly critical of the GOP Senate leadership. The Dallas Morning News reports:

A leading Senate Republican on Tuesday disputed his party's argument that 11 Democratic senators have no constitutional right to boycott the Senate and questioned whether the penalties imposed by his GOP colleagues are even legal.

Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, acting lieutenant governor in 2001 and 2002, also said it was a big mistake for Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to scrap the long-standing Senate tradition of requiring a two-thirds vote to take up legislation during the current special session on redistricting.

Mr. Dewhurst set aside the rule in late July, prompting the Democrats to flee to New Mexico because their bargaining power on congressional redistricting was essentially lost. The Senate has 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats.

And this is a very interesting revelation. I just love Ratliff. It takes some balls and a lot of integrity to stand up to Tom DeLay.

Mr. Ratliff, who had declined to comment on the redistricting fracas until Tuesday, also disclosed that in the summer of 2001 he was asked by Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land and current U.S. House majority leader, whether he, as acting lieutenant governor, would suspend the Senate's two-thirds rule so the GOP could push through a favorable congressional redistricting plan during a special session.

"I said, 'No,' I would not agree to that," he said, adding that the subject was not brought up again while he was the state's No. 2 officeholder.

And there's more.

Mr. Ratliff said the redistricting fight is very distressing. "I think the people of Texas understand this is doing great harm to what many people saw as a superb deliberative body. They see much of that being destroyed," he said.

[...]

Mr. Ratliff is the only Republican senator who has publicly disagreed with Mr. Dewhurst and other GOP leaders about the right of the Democrats to block a Senate quorum and bottle up redistricting. The state constitution requires that a quorum of 21 of 31 senators be present for the Senate to conduct business.

Although Mr. Dewhurst and the attorney general say there is no constitutional right to block a quorum, Mr. Ratliff disagreed.

Noting he advised the Democrats not to leave, he insisted, "This is a free country. You can leave the state of Texas if you want to. And they left because the rules were changed."

Regarding the fines, Mr. Ratliff, a member of the Senate since 1989, said he does not support them and is "not sure we had authority to do what we did."

And the Austin American Statesman notes the end of the senate as he knew it:

Ratliff said the standoff is killing the Senate's tradition of bipartisan cooperation.

"The real tragedy is that it was all predictable and avoidable," he said. "But each step that is taken, just by one more step, destroys the Senate I knew."

Republicans have also gone to the Justice Department to clear themselves in a Democratic lawsuit charging that changing the two-thirds rule and removing the blocker bill is a violation of the Voting Rights Act. The Houston Chronicle reports:

Republican state officials are asking federal authorities for an expedited ruling that the Voting Rights Act does not apply to the Senate rules that prompted 11 Democratic senators to flee to New Mexico.

"Our goal is to get this resolved as quickly as possible," said Texas Solicitor General R. Ted Cruz.

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, Senate Democratic Caucus chair, said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's change in Senate procedure "discriminates against voters protected under the Voting Rights Act."

She said the state's lawyers are "belatedly and secretly" seeking U.S. Justice Department approval.

[...]

The procedure, traditionally in place in the Senate, allows a third of the Senate's 31 members to block a bill from coming up for debate. With the rule in effect during the first special session, Democrats were able to block redistricting. Without it in the second session, they could only prevent a vote by breaking quorum.

The Democrats filed a federal lawsuit in Laredo claiming Dewhurst violated minority voting rights when he changed the procedure without first obtaining permission from the Justice Department. The case is before U.S. District Judge George Kazen.

In filings with that court and with the U.S. Justice Department, the state attorney general and secretary of state argue that the Voting Rights Act does not apply to the Senate's internal rules.

But just in case it does, Assistant Secretary of State Geoffrey Connor asked the Justice Department to bless Dewhurst's actions as legal because the federal law is intended to protect "the ability of voters (as opposed to legislators) to vote."

Both filings argue that the Voting Rights Act does not apply to state Senate rules governing the flow of legislation.

Van de Putte said changing the Senate procedure "prevents us from protecting the rights and political participation of the millions of Texans they (Republicans) seek to disenfranchise."

Republicans have a legitimate arguement there, but Democrats are irate because the Republicans went to the Justice Department secretly, without telling anyone. Democrats still haven't acted on their 3 PM deadline yet, but a lawsuit regarding the legality of the fines and sanctions is imminent, likely to claim that the fines and sanctions are illegal because 1) there was no quorum and 2) the meeting was closed to the public, a violation of senate rules.

The Democrats had set a 3 p.m. Tuesday deadline for the Republicans to rescind sanctions and fines or face possible civil or criminal action.

"Be assured, we're going to act," said Sen. Royce West of Dallas. "But we'll dictate the timetable."

Dewhurst said the two official misconduct criminal statutes that Democrats are threatening to use against Republican senators do not apply.

"These are only cases in which a public official knowingly and intentionally violates state law," he said. "Everything we've done in the state Senate is with the advice and counsel of the attorney general."

Dewhurst said a civil law on race discrimination does not apply because the sanctions were based on the missing senators' absence, not on the fact that nine of the 11 are minorities.

And there's more on Ratliff.

Also on Tuesday, Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, said he has been so upset by the Senate's leveling sanctions against the missing members that he thought about resigning. Ratliff served as lieutenant governor in the 2001 legislative session, after Perry was promoted to governor when George W. Bush was elected president.

Ratliff said bad feelings caused by the redistricting debate will not heal easily. "If I thought that it was all going to blow over when it's over, I wouldn't be nearly as distraught about what's going on. I don't think it's going to blow over. I think it may be a generation before the scars from this are healed and that's what bothers me about it."

Also today, Democrats have amended their lawsuit filed in Laredo regarding the Voting Rights Act. This is the same lawsut which Republicans are trying to clear themselves of at the Justice Department. The Dallas Morning News reports:

The 11 Democrats boycotting the Texas Senate over congressional redistricting asked a federal court Wednesday to determine whether the Senate sergeant-at-arms or the Texas Department of Public Safety can arrest the lawmakers for breaking a quorum.

The Democrats already filed a lawsuit in Travis County District Court asking that state officials or their deputies be prohibited from arresting them should they return to the state. That lawsuit also challenges Republican Gov. Rick Perry's authority to call a special legislative session on redistricting.

The Wednesday filing amends a federal lawsuit the Democrats had already filed in Laredo that claims state GOP leaders violated the federal Voting Rights Act by dropping a Senate tradition that requires two-thirds of the chamber to agree to debate a bill.

Confused yet? I think we all are. It's a traveling circus.