WEEKEND MEMOS

'Weekend memos' give our editorial writers a chance to express their own opinions, comment on topics they have been writing about, or take a lighter approach. The opinions in 'Memos' do not always follow the Enquirer's editorial positions.

The tumbleweed-and-whiskey world of Texas politics got rougher this week. Steamed over a redistricting plan the GOP majority designed to increase the number of Republicans sent to the U.S. House, 51 Democratic members of the Texas House high-tailed it out of town. Out of state. They holed up in a motel in Ardmore, Okla., possibly doubling that state's number of registered Democrats. Willie Nelson sent them some booze in a show of support. Honest.

Back in Austin, business came to a halt, putting hundreds of bills at risk, including one to create "God Bless Texas" license plates. Republicans were reduced to waging paper-wad fights, and making wanted posters of their AWOL pals. That's because under Texas rules, if you don't have a 2/3rds quorum of members present, you can't vote on a bill. If you don't vote on a bill within a certain number of days, it expires. Leaders can send state troopers to arrest quorum-killers and haul them back to Austin, but not across state lines. Hence the vacation/boycott/caucus-by-the-pool deep in the heart of Oklahoma.

Sorta gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "rump session."

Democrats' petulant decision to take their ball and leave the game shows that - like their U.S. Senate counterparts, who won't even allow a vote on judicial nominees - they don't really believe in majority rule. They have a 17-15 edge in Texas' U.S. House delegation, even though 56 percent of Texans voted for GOP candidates. Reflect voters' will? No way.

For good or ill, this probably couldn't happen in Ohio. It only takes a majority for a quorum, so the majority party by definition can vote all by itself; a bill does not expire until the end of the two-year session. Lawmakers can be dragged back, but chances of such a confrontation are slim.

It might seem tempting to just let lawmakers shut things down. "Sometimes your work is passing legislation; other times, your work is making sure it stops," said Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston. But the only thing Texas Democrats seem to be proving is expressed in that old Western cliche: "This town ain't big enough fer the both of us."

Back to work, varmints.

Ray Cooklis