Tea Party throws in the towel on redistricting suit

Well, the Tea Party won't get to gerrymander the Kentucky House after all.

Last week, Kentucky lawmakers finally approved the redistricting warranted by the 2010 census, and the new map isn't as bad as you'd expect considering how badly Kentucky Democrats usually cave. We'll know the map unfairly favors the Republicans if the GOP wins control of the Kentucky House before the next census, but the new map does seem to have a few bright spots for the Democrats - for instance, Louisville gets a new seat that everyone thought would go to Boone County. On the other hand, right-wing extremist and ALEC foot soldier Joe Fischer was shored up a bit - but he's still beatable. (Fischer first got elected back in the '90s after he won a lawsuit to force the legislature to draw a district where he could win.)

The Tea Party's been bawling their little peepers out over the new map, largely because Boone County (their local base) doesn't get an extra seat. The Tea Party apparently thinks Boone County is automatically entitled to at least one new seat with each census.

But the Tea Party has decided not to continue with the lawsuit in which they sought to have a federal court let them draw the districts themselves. I guess they finally realized they had no case.

Kentucky is surely the state where the Tea Party has been at its most litigious, and it's time the courts come down on hard on them for filing frivolous suits. Out of 4 absurd Tea Party lawsuits that I can think of offhand, they've lost one and given up on another, but 2 are still pending, and it just goes to show how they try to sue their way into power because they can't win free and fair elections.