Partisan

Both the letters from Michael P. DeCicco ("Health bill stagnation is not Republicans' fault," Feb. 12) and Kathleen Farno ("Republicans to blame for health care bill's flaws," Feb. 15) did an excellent job defending their partisan political positions. But what their responses failed to do is recognize the anger and frustration that non-partisan independents and clear thinking party moderates have with both parties not working together for the betterment of this great country. Instead of the leaders of the Republican and Democratic party blaming each other for the health bill fiasco, it seems to me an apology is needed to the American public by the leaders of both parties in Congress and by President Obama for the bill's failure.

WASHINGTON --No military conflict in modern times has divided Americans on partisan lines more than the war in Iraq, scholars and pollsters say - not even Vietnam. Those divisions are likely to intensify in what is expected to be a contentious fall election campaign. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows what one expert describes as a continuing "chasm" between the way Republicans and Democrats see the war. Three-fourths of the Republicans, for example, said the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, while just 24 percent of the Democrats did. Independents are split down the middle.

Sen. Paul Sarbanes says his Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee should not get involved in the Whitewater affair. He accused Republicans in the Congress and in Maryland, who called on him and the committee to hold hearings, of "seizing upon it [Whitewater] in a highly partisan way."Imagine -- partisanship in the U.S. Senate!Of course there is a partisan divide over this issue. Of course Republicans want to make some political hay. As Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., put it, "You have to remember the position that [we]

J. Joseph Curran Jr., Maryland's Democratic attorney general and governor wannabe, worked the big Timonium fund-raiser crowd in his relaxed, friendly style.Dale Anderson, the former Baltimore County executive and Democratic party leader, munched hors d'oeuvres with his wife, Doris, as they greeted old friends.James A. Pine, who led the county's once-dominant east-side Democratic organization, did the same.Once bitter political enemies of anything that smacked of the GOP, these and a host of other Democrats appeared more than willing to forget the old partisan wars and turn out Wednesday for County Executive Roger B. Hayden and his brand of almost non-partisan Republicanism.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court gave politicians a new legal license yesterday to aggressively redraw election districts to benefit the party in power, as it upheld the mid-decade redistricting plan engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Texas Republicans. By clever line-drawing, DeLay and the Texas Legislature, with both houses newly under GOP control in 2003, remade its delegation in Congress, turning a 17-15 Democratic majority into a 21-11 Republican majority in 2004.

AS ALWAYS this year, when Maryland lawmakers convene for the start of their annual 90-day sojourn, Howard County's fortunes will depend heavily on unity. With some of the legislature's most experienced, outspoken and partisan members, the county has as strong a team of individual lawmakers as any county in the state. Few are in powerful positions, though, so the group must act together to maximize influence. Democrats, to cite the biggest threat, must avoid the temptation to cash in the benefits of majority status at the expense of their colleagues.

A WOODEN cross was erected this year on a street corner in Austin, Texas, at the intersection of the three new congressional districts drawn to divide and dilute the voting strength of a liberal oasis in that mostly conservative state. The marker bore the inscription: "R.I.P. Democracy. Killed by Tom DeLay on this spot." The reference was to a knock-down, drag-out remapping battle choreographed by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay that resulted in a crazy-quilt pattern of the state's 32 districts intended to create as many as possible in which the odds are stacked toward Republican candidates.

Joe Steffen is finally on deck. A Harford County Circuit Court judge ruled yesterday that Joseph F. Steffen Jr. - the former aide to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. who has said he was involved in identifying state workers to be fired - should testify today before a special legislative committee. The committee is investigating whether longtime government employees were terminated for partisan reasons to make room for Ehrlich loyalists. In a brief hearing, Judge Maurice W. Baldwin Jr. upheld the committee's subpoena power, dismissing Steffen's motion to quash.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it would hear a constitutional challenge to the Texas redistricting plan engineered by Rep. Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, and consider reining in the most extreme forms of partisan gerrymandering. The challengers say a "purely partisan" move to redraw districts in mid-decade and to rig the results to favor the majority violates the Constitution because it deprives some voters of fair representation. In the past, the high court has rejected such challenges, concluding it is impossible to separate partisan politics from the drawing of electoral districts.

WASHINGTON - After two days of listening to public criticism of President Bush's fiscal strategy, some Republican governors left the National Governors Association conference yesterday complaining that its tone had been uncomfortably partisan, thanks in large part to Maryland's Gov. Parris N. Glendening, the association chairman. After voting unanimously on policy resolutions concerning Medicaid and education reform yesterday, governors heard a closing speech by Senate Democratic Leader Thomas A. Daschle, whom Glendening inadvertently referred to as "the majority leader."