AUSTIN – While politicians and political junkies watch Texas lawmakers plod through a Donald Trump-inspired special legislative session, the football eyes of Texas soon will shift to “The Shoe.” That’s the 103,000-seat stadium in Columbus, Ohio, where the Longhorns will take on Ohio State in a rematch UT fans hope will avenge last season’s heartbreaking Cotton Bowl loss to the Buckeyes in the Big Ten school’s march to the national championship. The long-anticipated debut of wunderkind-in-waiting Arch Manning as the Longhorns’ full-time starting quarterback gives the game added sizzle.

A battle of the titans in a season-opening contest is unusual. Most big-time programs prefer early-season warm-up games against the real-life equivalent of, say, the Fighting Clippers of the Wichita Falls State Barber College.

Granted, Manning and the Horns come home the next weekend to take on San Jose State and then UTEP and Sam Houston State, not exactly gridiron behemoths, but that opening battle with the Buckeyes is how we Texans prefer to think of ourselves. Taking on the toughest is a Lone Star State tradition, whether on the playing field, the battlefield or in the business world. We’re hardy, resourceful and hyper-competitive. Unless, that is, we’re a Texas Republican.

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Instead of competing in the marketplace of political ideas, today's Republicans seem to prefer jiggering the rules to guarantee a sure thing. That’s why Gov. Greg Abbott acceded, however reluctantly, to President Donald Trump’s demand to redistrict the state’s congressional delegation years earlier than scheduled, even though we just redistricted four years ago. The only reason, as the president readily admitted, is to shore up his party’s tenuous hold on the House majority. He realizes that if Democrats take control of congressional committees in next year’s midterm election, they’ll do everything in their power to check his mad rush toward autocracy. Texas redistricting could guarantee him five additional GOP seats.

That’s why the Longhorns aren't the only Texas team headed north. On Sunday, dozens of House Democrats flew to Chicago in a tried (if not true) tactic to block the Republican redistricting scheme. For the moment, at least, their retreat denies the House the quorum needed to conduct business, not only on redistricting but other items Abbott’s call for the 30-day special session includes four disaster-preparedness bills prompted by the Guadalupe River tragedy on the Fourth of July weekend.

Those bills are vital, but redistricting is the real reason Abbott summoned lawmakers back to summertime Austin. Like Nipper, the iconic RCA Victor canine, Republicans hear their Master’s Voice and invariably respond. They will erase and redraw, despite the Democrats’ strategic retreat.

“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu of Houston in a statement.

“We’re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,” Wu said. “We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent. As of today, this corrupt special session is over.”

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For now, Republicans hold 25 congressional seats and Democrats 12. An almost sure 13th Democratic seat awaits, but Abbott is taking his own sweet time calling a special election to fill the Houston seat long held by the late Sheila Jackson Lee.

The grotesquely gerrymandered........

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