If you have been trying to track down the whole story of the case of the missing Texas Democrats, you have probably found yourself coming up empty-handed or near-empty handed. The shortened versions of the stories appearing most places fail to convey the reality of the case. And by failing to provide the public with all the facts, the American media is doing with this case exactly what they did with the case against Iraq: allowing falsehoods and misrepresentations to creep up and fill in the blanks. Thus we hear nothing about the Watergate scale abuse of power by the three Toms (Delay, Craddick and Ridge), but we hear rightwing-generated pundit spin aplenty about how the Democrats were "cowards" who "ran away from a fight." In short, we don't get the meat and potatoes - we get moonshine.

So here, collected into one place and framed, admittedly in my own "pithy" (ahem!) style, is the whole story:

TOM DELAY PLOTS A CRIME

Tom Delay, the mean-spirited, piggy-eyed ex-exterminator who professes to be a "good Christian," but is known both as the "hammer" for his brutal self-serving political tactics and as the key figure in a major boiler room operation that has bilked doctors and teachers out of thousands, decided, predictably, to play dirty. To help the GOP keep control of Texas (where its popularity is steadily slipping), Delay colluded with Republican state house speaker Tom Craddick to draw up a scheme to redraw all of the districting lines in the state in such a way that they increase the number of Republican districts, while squeezing out Democratic districts. By doing so, Delay and Craddick would, in effect, have been stealing from the American public. Imagine finding your largely black, poor inner city district (for example) suddenly "erased," along with your representative, and replaced by another district that never existed before, dominated by wealthy white suburbanites who have nothing in common with you. That, in essence, was Delay and Craddick's scheme.

THE DEMOCRATS LEAVE THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

Because they are the minority party in the Texas state legislature, the Democrats were powerless to stop this plan: Craddick planned to railroad the scheme through, no dissent considered.

But the Democrats were tired of being pushed around by rightwing thugs - the same sort of thugs who like to beat up on little kids (thanks to the GOP, Texas healthcare for children is the worst in the nation) and women (the Texas Dixie Chicks have been mercilessly smeared). So the Dems did the only thing that they could do as the minority party: leave the state before the scheduled redistricting debate and remain away until the May 15 deadline for the passage of House bills had gone by. By being bodily absent from Texas, the Democrats deprived the GOP of the required quorum for debate. By just showing up, they would have provided a quorum and thus been forced to be silent, disempowered witnesses to a crime against the people of Texas and the United States. In short, the Democrats had the guts to say "No!" and walk out. The "Running away from a fight" bit was a fiction created by one of Texas's biggest liars and cowards: Tom Delay.

THE CASE OF THE THREE TOMS AND THE MISSING EVIDENCE

Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick, drunk with his illusions of grandeur and power, actually ordered state troopers to find the Democrats and drag them back to Texas!

This would be like walking out off the job at a bank after the boss asked you to be a disempowered witness to his theft of funds from the safe - then having the boss send the bank security guards out to track you down and forcibly drag you back to the bank so you could hold the bag while he shoveled the stolen cash into it!! Outrageous! But in the Texas case, it got much worse! Craddick whined to Delay, obviously wanting "Big Daddy" to fix it for him with his friends in Washington. So Delay put in a few phone calls - including, allegedly, one to his ole buddy Tom Ridge. This is as if the bank boss called Alan Greenspan and asked him to send the Federal Treasury Guards out to help track you down so you could aid the bank boss in his crime!

The Democrats hung tough, however, and stayed away, under seige in motel rooms in Oklahoma where, according to local reports, they were cheered on by many Oklahomans! Meanwhile, a call was put into Homeland Security to invoke the agencies' crime tracking resources to track the missing Democrats. To get the call past the Texas Dept. of Public Safety (DPS) officials, the case was first reported as a missing plane (the one that transported the Democrats to Oklahoma). But even this story is full of holes and illegality: missing planes must be reported to the Federal Aviation Administration - NOT to Homeland Security. Homeland Security as a department is charged ONLY with tracking criminal activity. The fact that the call went to Tom Ridge's office clearly and frighteningly shows that it was the intent of Delay and Craddick to declare the Democrats "criminals" or even "terrorists"! Had this effort succeeded, it would have reduced America to a third world banana republic run by despotic intriguers who have all dissenters and political opponents jailed or shot - a betrayal of everything most Americans believe in.

When the Fort Worth Star-Telegram broke the story that Delay had called in favors to Homeland Security, thereby trying to use a federal agency to advance his own political objectives, the Texas DPS sprang into action: it started shredding the evidence as fast as it could be fed into the shredder.

At first, Delay denied having ever made any phone calles to Homeland Security. But as the evidence mounted - afterall, SOMEONE had made the call! - Delay admitted that he had "investigated" (read "tried to call in favors") on Republican Texas State House Speaker Tom Craddick's behalf if the FBI and U.S. marshals "could be used" (read that "would agree to") help round up the missing Democrats.

This memo was sent to Marshall CAsiey, chief of the DPS criminal law enforcement division: "Any notes, correspondence, photos, etc. that were obtained pursuant to the absconded House of Representative members shall be destroyed immediately. No copies are to be kept. Any questions please contact me." It was signed by L.C. "Tony" Marshall, commander of the DPS Special Crimes Service."

So, this had become a SPECIAL CRIMES SERVICE issue? Opposing rightwing thugs like Delay and Craddick means you are instantly branded not just a criminal but - with the call to Homeland Security - a "terrorist"? Is this frightening or what? In a stunning demonstration of JUST where the GOP is trying to drag America, one of the Democrats, Helen Giddings, was "captured" by the Texas state troopers as she returned to the Capitol and actually arrested! Meanwhile, several family members of the rebelling Democrats were accosted and interrogated by DPS agents! Incredible ! Welcome to the Fourth Reich or, at the least, to Noriegaville.

Now the Texas law enforcement folks and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott - a REPUBLICAN - are stonewalling against any investigation of this affront to America. Abbott's excuse for not investigating is a veritable admission of guilt: he said that they investigate only if documents had been destroyed after a public request for them had been made! Yet the documents were OBVIOUSLY destroyed as quickly as they were specifically to make sure that there would be no time possible for any such request to be made. And, other officials have admitted that records are usually kept around for some days - not instantly turned to confetti.

Meanwhile, Tom Ridge has refused to release transcripts of taped conversations that took place between Homeland Security and the Texas DPS concerning the hunt for the Texas Democrats. What is HE hiding? Obviously something.

THE DEMOCRATS SPEAK OUT - TO A "HEAR NO GOP EVIL" MEDIA

On May 21, federal Democratic legislators gathered for a press conference to condemn the actions of Delay, Craddick, et al.

These courageous Democrats spoke out loudly and clearly against the colossal misuse of federal agencies and the trampling down of civil liberties by the key elements in the GOP. This was an historic moment. The attempted crime of turning political opponents into "terrorists" and "criminals," using federal agencies to hunt them down, arrest them, and force them to comply with illegal activities (the stealing of districts) - is of a magnitude equal to and perhaps even greater than Watergate. In Watergate, a crime was committed by one group against another for political purposes - a crime never meant by the perpetrators to be detected. But in the current case, the GOP was attempting to change the entire fabric of US law to accommodate their own political ends - and to perpetrate the subversion of the Constitution and our most fundamental concepts of liberty and free will in order to steal from the American people (the theft of rightful districts).

Yet did this story make page one of ANY newspaper? No. In the Washington Post, which, as the District of Columbia's major newspaper SHOULD be Washington's primary watchdog - the government's fourth branch, as one Democrat put it - there was a postage-stamp-sized article on page 16 or 17. But splashed across page one was a story about a Bush fundraiser! But it does not suprise me that these are the Post's priorities. Earlier the same week, the top execs at the paper were schmoozing with Bush and a swarm of rightwingers, including Tom Delay, at a posh dinner bash at the White House. This, then, is what America's "fourth estate" has come to.

But I listened to the entire press conference and taped it, knowing that if I didn't the words of these brave Democrats, who are the "thin blue line" now separating Americans from a complete takeover by the Bush led corporazi, would likely never be seen in print. Here are some excerpts from the press conference:

Gene Greene: on the legality of hunting down and arresting absent legislators:

"Unless they have an arrest warrant, [law enforcement reps] cannot take [legislators] anywhere because [walking out] is not a violation of the House rules in the state of Texas - not civil law, not criminal law - obviously not federal law. Why is a law enforcement agency in the state of Texas destroying records and a federal agency that we depend on (Homeland Security) for our security refusing to release them? What are these agencies trying to cover up...this doesn't pass the smell test....

I was a member of the select committee that created the department of Homeland Security and never did we anticipiate that that new department would be used for domestic political purposes."

Sheilah Jackson Lee:

"Republican president, Republican House, Republican Senate...Republican governor, Republican House, Republican Senate in the state of Texas. With 13 Democrats standing here, you might just give us the short shrift and suggest that it is only a political issue. I would say to you that is an issue that has been created by Republicans. We [Democrats] did not give any calls to any agencies to provide security for these individuals. We did not set any traps for them to be able to call the Homeland Security Department...we did nothing like that. So if there is a political smell test, ask the Republicans why political influence was utilized to either intimidate civilians who had nothing to do with the protection of this country - particularly in the last 48 hours when we moved to an orange alert and ever single resource of the Homeldand Securtiy dept are needed...I believe that we have a situation that requires member of Congress to demand accountability and to demand justice.

."..I do believe we have now found ourselvesd with a federal question. The destruction of documents in the course of a request by federal legislators in a federal investigation appears to be a federal obstruction of justice viiolation under 18 USC 15-12 subsection B. For that reason I believe it is imperative we ask the judicary committe to join in terms of a hearing of oversight on any violation of this statute, and the government reform committee to likewise to investigate whether there has been an abuse of power. "

Nick Lamson:

" I found myself on Saturday night standing before six or eight hundred people at an armed forces gala in Houston Texas (for Armed Forces Day). And following my remarks, I had one of my constituents come up to me and tell me that he was glad that I wasn't one of the Texas legislators who ran off to Oklahoma. After I had regained my composure, I said to him, respectfully. "You are so grossly wrong in what your opinion is. And here's why: You stand befiore me in the uniform of a military branch of the United States of America, took an oath of office to protect our land and our government. But a government can be lost from within as easily as it can be lost from without. If we can't speak up in protection of what we believe in so strongly, and are willing to put so much into - to be willing to send you off to another place in world to sacrifice your life for - then we must be wrong ...and we are not wrong. We deservre to have a free, open, and knowledgable government that we can completely and totally depend on and trust. When information is taken, when abuses occur then something has gone wrong with the system. The patriotic thing to do is to make sure that these papers, these tapes and any other information from any other agency be brought forth and be brought forth quickly. People of the United State of America deserve it. ..The question is...why do we want these tapes released? Could it be that a federal official's name was invoked by the DPS in making this request to the federal dept. of Homeland Security? "

Giddings Arrested:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,86773,00.html

Texas Department of Public Safety (just whose safety do they mean??) destroys evidence

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,87555,00.html

Just what is the Texas GOP, Homeland Security, and the Texas Department of Public Safety trying to hide?

www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/5919208.htm