Dept. of Justice okays gerrymandering

How did I miss this? We all learn in junior high history that gerrymandering is a shameful and corrupt means of creating a political machine. From the Bush administration, we're learning that power is everything. From TPM:

A week ago it was reported that Justice Department lawyers had concluded at the time that the DeLay redistricting plan of 2003 violated the Voting Right Act, but that senior DOJ officials overruled that finding and okayed DeLay's plan anyway.

Justice Department officials have now instituted a policy to assure this never happens again. They have, as reported in today's Post, "barred staff attorneys from offering recommendations in major Voting Rights Act cases, marking a significant change in the procedures meant to insulate such decisions from politics."

Note that the policy instituted isn't to prevent the politicization of redistricting, but to ensure that people like DeLay are free to redraw the electoral map to favor their own party.

Naturally, the only hope for justice rests with the courts. The Supreme Court is going to take up the case. Which is why the Bushies are determined to stack the courts with loyal ideologues instead of ethical jurists. Checks and balances. I seem to remember something about that from junior high, too.