Clueless in D.C.

Although the Texas press and the blogosphere are paying attention, the national conventional news outlets seem to be slipping into a stupor when it comes to Texas redistricting.

From the transcript of "Washington Week Online" printed in today's WaPo and listed as "Thursday, August 28, 2003; 2:00 PM":

San Francisco, Calif.: Please talk about the Texas redistricting and the threatened arrest of the fleeing Democrats. Why is this not getting the attention that the California recall debacle is receiving?

[Moderator, Managing Editor & PBS Anchor] Gwen Ifill: Eleven Senate Democrats are still holed up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the legislature has adjourned. So nothing new is actually happening in the Texas redistricting case. Meanwhile, in California, the country's most populous state, the voters are poised to throw the recently reelected governor out on his ear, possibly replacing him with a movie actor. You tell me which one of those stories sound more like news to you.

(Emphasis & bracketed portions added by BeldarBlog.)  Good catch, Gwen!  You've managed to completely miss yesterday's federal court hearing and ruling — the direct results of which may end up causing a several-vote swing in the composition of the 2004 US House of Representatives. 

I could find no mention of the hearing, in fact, anywhere in today's WaPo, or on the PBS/Newshour website, or even in today's edition of the nation's "newspaper of record," the NYT.  For that matter, I haven't seen the hearing mentioned on any major national blogs, left or right — which is grassy-knoll odd!

AP affiliates all over the world, however, do have a typically mangled version of the story (continuing to refer to Lt. Gov. Dewhurst as "dropping a rule that requires two-thirds of senators to agree to consider a bill," for instance).