It should come as no surprise that the GOPs redistricting plans for Texas had an alterior motive. For those with short memories the Republicans of Texas decided that they needed to redraw the districts in Texas ahead of the 2004 election even though this is customarily done once every ten years after census data is collected and the last redistricting occured in 2001 after the 2000 census.

Now in black and white you can read the email from Texas Republican Joby Fortson which gleefuly spells out why they did it - to engage in partisan gerrymandering to gain them an extra 6 to 7 seats in Congress and hence the majority of Texas seats. Fortson even includes a couple of Dr Evil like "ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha" exclamations for effect when describing how Congressmen Doggett and Frost will lose their seats.

Personally I find it amazing that there could ever have been a Democratic majority in Texas, but the bizarre nature of the American political system that allows phenomena like a president elected without the popular majority vote never ceases to amaze me.

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