I know it has gone fairly unheralded, but we have one more new Democratic member of Congress as of yesterday, and I for one, am pretty darn pleased. Not only are we getting back a member of Congress who voted against the war, but we are seeing a slow repudiation of the 2003 Tom DeLay redistricting debacle. We will be greeting returning Texas member Ciro Rodriguez in January, who beat 14-year incumbent Republican Henry Bonilla. Those of you around for the 108th Congress remember Rodriguez as a member of Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs committees, as well as the chair of the Hispanic caucus, so the Iraq vote was pretty brave. He had what some could almost define as a miraculous resurrection yesterday, after a pretty rocky two years.

Things all started going very, very badly in 2003 when Tom DeLay redrew the lines of his San Antonio-based district to shift the population base to the much further south city of Laredo. Out of that effort, a Democrat with strong ties to that southern area, Henry Cuellar, challenged Rodriguez in the 2004 primary. Cuellar, who I consider to be a profile in pandering, was accused of many indiscretions in that election: voter fraud, misdirection, all the usual dirty tricks. Cuellar had cut his conservative chops on a congressional race in 2002 in a more Republican district – against Bonilla!

But all is fair in love and politics in Texas and after Rodriguez lost in the primary against Cuellar again for his old district in 2006, he sashayed over to the district next door (they do that a lot in Texas). In the time between the March primary and the final December election, everything conspired against Bonilla and for Rodriguez. The situation in Iraq, the president’s distinct odor, a lawsuit challenging the movement of too many Hispanic votes from district to another (the reason for the late date of the election). All was darkest before the dawn. In the November primary, Bonilla took 48.1% of the vote to Rodriguez’ 20.3%. However, the field had been cleared and when the ballot only had two names, Rodriguez struck a decisive victory. By the time the votes were counted, the district built to keep Bonilla in office by Mr. DeLay handed him his hat.

For me, the final irony is that my Kerrville parents are now represented by a Democrat. I am going to sidle up to my Mom this holiday to find out if she voted for Mr. Rodriguez. I know she was pretty darn sick of the direction of the country these days and once in a blue moon (last time, I think, was Jimmy Carter) she gets crazy and goes Democrat on us, an expression my Dad loves to use when mechanical things go haywire. So the county that brought us Kinky Freidman must have also served up a few more dissatisfied voters this election — I hope one of them was my Mom.