DeLay redistricting ripe for decision

-- Ben Sargent via Cagle.

When I was in Austin last summer, I was talking with a woman who said she lived downtown, within view of the State Capitol.

"But my State Senator and my Congressman both are from San Antonio," she said, with a disgusted sigh. San Antonio's about 75 miles away, and Austin is more than big enough to have its own representatives in those legislative bodies, without having to stretch the lines 75 miles.

It's like if you were John Gard and lived in Sun Prairie, but were represented in Congress by Gwen Moore and in the State Senate by Spencer Coggs.

The Austin woman's State Senator and Congressman are both Republicans, which is the more relevant fact.

It's a product of the redistricting done at the direction of Rep. Tom DeLay, to increase Republican control both in the statehouse and in the US Capitol.

Now the Supreme Court has decided to take the case and will review the redistricting.

Partisan redistricting is nothing new, of course. But this is extreme. Whether a Supreme Court with a Republican-appointed majority will think so is another question, of course. We shall see.