Prometheus 6   

TRB FROM WASHINGTON
Character Witness
by Peter Beinart

Think this wasn't part of a national strategy orchestrated by the White House? Then explain the fact that Colorado Republicans have done the exact same thing. Last November, Republicans won both houses of the state legislature there as well. This year, they used their new majority to replace a court-ordered redistricting plan with one that guarantees them more seats. (As in Texas, the Colorado GOP did this by packing blacks and Hispanics into overwhelmingly minority districts. And you thought Republicans opposed racial separatism.) The Houston Chronicle, which endorsed Bush for president, wrote last month that such actions "would set a precedent for redistricting any time a Washington bully wanted to impose it." Beltway conservatives, by contrast, have expressed not the slightest concern.