Political Quotes

“I would like to review after this hour-long debate we have just finished why virtually every major newspaper in Texas is editorialized in saying that "what Mr. DeLay is trying to do in forcing a partisan redistricting plan down the throats of 20 million Texas citizens is wrong." First they admit and say that what he does diverts the legislature's attention from huge problems facing Texas. A $10 billion deficit, hundreds of thousands of children being thrown off the CHIPs health care program, school finance, it is important to parents all across our State. The editorials are right; the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) is wrong. The secret back-room deals that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) and Texas Speaker Tom Craddick would rip apart historic communities of interest, and they have orchestrated a process that only the Keystone Cops could admire and have drawn a bizarre map that would give modern art a bad name. Let me be specific. First the process. Texas Republican legislators refused to have hearings across Texas, thus violating the legislature's own 2001 guidelines for seeking broad Texas citizen input into something as important as congressional redistricting.”