Posted on 05/15/2003 3:04:27 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
ARDMORE, Okla. - Come back! they said today down at City Hall, even before Texas' AWOL lawmakers headed home. And next time bring your Republican colleagues!
After providing a safe haven for 51 Texas House Democrats since Sunday, City Manager Dan Parrott was sorry to learn they'd be going soon.
"Oh no!" he said when told the lawmakers holed up at the Holiday Inn intended to be back at the Texas Capitol on Friday. "We'll welcome them back any time they've got a spat down there."
Parrot says money spent locally on food and lodging is always welcome.
Ardmoreites hadn't exactly gotten to know the Texans well.
The lawmakers spent most of their time at the hotel, where reporters milled around on the lawn or dictated stories from swimming pool chairs.
Dori Robinson, the clerk at the gas station next door, was a little hazy on the Texans' politics, too. But they had her empathy.
"I was wondering why they came here," she said. "Obviously they feel passionate enough to come up here. They're leaving their families, so they're dedicated to their jobs."
The lawmakers' landing in this southern Oklahoma city of 24,000 was roundabout. Rep. Jim Dunnum, D-Waco, once visited his wife's grandparents in nearby Mannsville.
"We had to go somewhere close to the border," he said. "This came to mind."
Down the street, past the scattered chain stores and along the neat row of early 1900s brick buildings, onion-laced burgers sizzled on the grill at the Hamburger Inn and talk turned to the Texans.
The Democrats had fled in protest of a GOP-backed congressional redistricting bill, which faced a Thursday voting deadline. Their absence kept the House from meeting quorum.
"That's no reason to run away," said Sandy Brooks, restaurant owner and a Republican, as she moved behind the long curving Formica counter.
"They're acting like a bunch of babies," said Dorothy Bridgman, a Democrat, hunkered over a towering piece of lemon meringue pie.
"Little kids," Brooks echoed. "Everyone that comes in here says they need to go back and face the music."
When she learned after the midday rush that the lawmakers were expected to head back across the Red River, Brooks commended them.
"I think they're doing the right thing," she said. "Finally."
The Texans looked like they were bringing trouble when they showed up 270 miles away from Austin.
Parrott had no idea at the time what the Texans were doing in town and was reluctant to step in to a political feud.
Without a warrant from the governor of Texas, Carter County Sheriff Harvey Burkhart didn't have the authority to arrest them, he said. And if he had to arrest them, he said he couldn't put them in the county jail.
"I don't have room to take 50 legislators and put them in a facility with rapists and murderers," he said. "And I was not going to put handcuffs on state legislators who were not creating a problem of any kind."
Burkhart, a Democrat, is somewhat sore that his comments have been taken as partisan.
"They're not fugitives from justice," he said. "They can stay as long as they want to. They're spending Texas money."
The city, which began in 1887 as a stop on the Santa Fe line, sits between the Arbuckle Mountains and the Red River Valley.
Ron Stahl, spokesman for the Oklahoma Tourism Department, came to the hotel Thursday to point out all the local attractions the legislators were missing -- such as "beautiful Lake Murray."
"It's not politics to us," he said. "It's an opportunity."
But then came the questions about Oklahoma's pre-state reputation as a hideout for outlaws, and he found himself touting Robbers Cave State Park at Wilburton, where Belle Starr's gang reportedly took refuge.
"But please," he said, "don't say I'm comparing these guys to outlaws."
Around town, a new song started airing on the radio. It was a revised version of the Eagles' "Hotel California," a spoof called "Hotel Oklahoma."
"It makes it feel like we're harboring fugitives or something," said a disappointed Kenna Montgomery as she walked downtown.
I hope Ron's superiors read this; obviously his heart's in his work!
So was Saddam.
(I like that "was" part ;-)
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