Re-Districting Junk

There's no stronger reason to question whether the Democrats can take the House in the upcoming mid-terms than the big ugliness over redistricting. Based on what I've seen and heard, no one outside incumbents has much love for the current method of drawing district boundaries, which, as most people agree, has created for those same incumbents. The trick comes with how to repair the problem.

Writing for Slate, Bruce Reed prepared a pretty apt description of how the way district lines were drawn could thwart the popular will. Reed blames the GOP, and Tom DeLay in particular, for the situation, a position that can only partially be attributed to his politics; the reality is, the GOP drew the damn lines so, if you think they suck - and I do - it's kinda hard to avoid blaming the GOP.

But a guy named Jay Cost, who writes for RealClearPolitics blog, typed up a very thorough response to Reed's column. It's a much more thorough look at all the factors that got us to this point - and is worth the read for that alone. His main point, though, isn't all that uplifting; in simple terms, Cost argues that the cure could be worse than the disease. Take that as an apt warning, I suppose, but a great meandering shrug seems a horrible way to react to a bad situation.

Just try to fix it. If you fail once, try again. No one benefits from uncompetitive seats - again, except incumbents.

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