Cracking, packing, and kidnapping

Jeffry Toobin of the New Yorkerweighs in with an interesting piece about the recent spate of gerrymandering, culminating in the recent Tom DeLay-orchestrated manuevers in Texas. Interesting stuff. It's lightly anti-Republican, but not offensively so, and it makes for an interesting primer on the issue for those who don't know a lot (like me) in advance of the Supreme Court's upcoming decision. Here's the gist:

“This was a fundamental change in the rules of the game,” Heather Gerken, a professor at Harvard Law School, said. “The rules were, Fight it out once a decade but then let it lie for ten years. The norm was very useful, because they couldn’t afford to fight this much about redistricting. Given the opportunity, that is all they will do, because it’s their survival at stake. DeLay’s tactic was so shocking because it got rid of this old, informal agreement.”

Interesting, and from the little I know, mostly accurate. We'll see if those who know more about politics (such as Travis), illuminate me.

UPDATE: The Colorado Supreme Court yesterday rejected a redistricting plan, discussed in the article above, on state constitutional grounds.
- posted by Anonymous @ 8:08 PM