Yea!!! One down, two to go. First Colorado (leading in something!) and then Texas Republican legislators decided they could take a second stab at Congressional redistricting, after the 2002 elections. It was a bold, reprehensible move, rebuking 200 years of precedent.

Each move has been challenged in state courts, and today the Colorado Supreme Court ruled: No freaking way.

Thank God.

Highlights from the AP story:

In a decision with national implications, the Colorado Supreme Court threw out the state's new congressional districts today, saying the GOP-led Legislature redrew the map in violation of the state constitution.

Lawmakers can redraw congressional districts only after each census and before the ensuing general election, the court said in a closely watched 5-2 decision that followed party lines.

"Because the General Assembly failed to redistrict during this constitutional window, it relinquished its authority to redistrict until after the 2010 census," the court said. "There is no language empowering the General Assembly to redistrict more frequently or at any other time."

The justices chastised the lawmakers for claiming they should be able to redraw the maps "two, or even 10 times in a single decade.

"If the districts were to change at the whim of the state Legislature, members of Congress could frequently find their current constituents voting in a different district in subsequent elections," the ruling said.

"We conclude that the General Assembly does not have the unprecedented power it claims," the ruling said. "Federal law grants the states the authority to redistrict, and federal law defines and limits this power. Our state constitution cannot change these federal requirements."

I federal case is still pending, but it was brought by the Dems who will now drop it. Rs could still appeal this case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On that same Face the Nation, Gary Willis--who I generally like a lot--brushed aside gay marriage as a really trivial issue. He went on at some length about how unimportant it is.

Maybe for him. I can understand his point that for straight people who it does not affect directly have a lot of other shit to worry about, but that's sort of inherent in being part of the priveleged class, right? You don't really have to worry about whatever shit you're throwing at the other classes, no matter how demeaning.

I'm going out on a limb here to guess he is or has been married: how would he feel if someone stepped in and divorced him against his will and then declared his marriage null and void, refused to recognize it had ever happened? Suddenly, I think it would become a paramount issue in his life, and what the hell we were doing in Iraq or on taxes would seem trivial in his world.

How odd that he tried to put in the context of the civil rights struggle, and said in time we would probably have gay marriage if it was seen as a right (kind of a syllogism there--is that the right use of that term? i always confuse it). For some reason the civil rights of blacks and women were two of the great achievements of the 20th century. How come the final crucial issue for gays is trivial?

I just watched Face the Nation and I'm staring at Bob Schiefer in disbelief. He just said that the Dems are in disarray, no one has pulled ahead for the nomination.

Is he in the same country as me? Later, after a break, he hedged slightly, saying that if anyone was pulling a little, a little ahead, it was Howard Dean. Oh, thanks for noticing that he has come from nowhere to a double-digit lead in New Hamphire, raising more money now I believe than the rest of the other nine combined, drawing crowds bigger than the others combined . . .

Just what in the hell will it take for some people?

And he offset that little hedge by launching back in to the mindless McGovern comparisons. The flimsiest, really infantile comparison of the whole campaign. Big, big smirk about how Dean/McGovern bumper stickers were surfacing. Great, so handful of his enemies have latched on to an idiotic tactic that press boobs like him are willing to give a big ride to. It's not like the stupid things are sweeping the country. I've never seen one. I bet there are pleny more of them in Washington, though.

That's the only thing I can figure. All those dem "leaders" in DC, all they seem capable of saying is how Dean will be their downfall, and all the press keep saying quite a bit of it, though gradually less and less so. They are so trapped in that echo chamber that some of them just cannot grasp what is happening out in the 50 states north, west and south of their little metropolis.

Bob Schiefer definitely needs to get out of the capital for awhile. Or start circulating with a different circle of people. Just too much.