Republicans are more apt to believe Democrats are playing Glenn Close's scorned yuppie from "Fatal Attraction." As the GOP sees it, the Dems, dumped by voters, are out to avenge their rejection. The redistricting bill is the bunny they've dropped in the stew pot.

DeLay is nobody's boiled rabbit. When the Dems went on the lam, the Republicans went ballistic. This being Texas, they called for the sheriff. State House Speaker Tom Craddick, a Republican, ordered Department of Public Safety troopers to go forth and arrest the missing legislators.

On Monday, staffers at Gallego's offices in the West Texas town of Alpine were treated to the sight of three armed troopers arriving to capture the 74th District's democratically elected representative. To no avail. Gallego was safe -- already in Democrat-ruled Oklahoma, where the Republican troopers have no legal jurisdiction.

DeLay waded into the dust-up on Tuesday. The irritated majority leader ordered staffers to see whether the FBI might be brought in to arrest the absent Democrats.

Calling DeLay's idea "incredible," Keith warned that such tactics could backfire, especially if voters watch popular pols dragged back home to be displayed like Caesar's captured Gauls in chains.

"I can't imagine anything that would blow up in DeLay's face more than having FBI agents arrest the Democrats," he says. "The Republicans can be really hurt by this."

Others have similar opinions. "When this goes down in history they [the Democrats] will be heroes, and we'll be a bunch of schmucks," Republican state Rep. Pat Haggerty of El Paso warned the El Paso Times.

That seems to be the impression in Gallego's Alpine, a conservative town near Big Bend National Park. Voters here expressed a certain dismay upon learning the governor had ordered the Democrats' arrest for, well, being Democrats.

"Does that mean they can come to my door and pick me up whenever they want?" wondered bartender and independent Michael Espinoza.

With the Republicans left hyperventilating in Austin, the Democrats are staying put north of the Red River.

"They're still here," says Shelba, who works in the Denny's that adjoins the now famous Holiday Inn, "and they're eating a little bit of everything, especially the Grand Slam [breakfasts]."

The Democrats-in-exile are eager to show the voters they're not enjoying their time off. For instance, they're not openly quaffing cosmos in the adjoining Gusher Lounge; nor are they enjoying Ardmore's tourist marvels, which include the Gene Autry Oklahoma History Museum, which is "Dedicated to the Singing Cowboys of the B Westerns." Instead, they're holding meetings, scripture readings and working groups while dutifully turning out for the TV crews making the drive north from Dallas.

Republicans, meanwhile, have few options but to heap ridicule on their missing colleagues. Images of the wandering Democrats were pasted on milk cartons. Texas GOP's Web site published a downloadable deck of cards of the "Chicken D's," each one sporting a photograph of a missing Democrat. Gallego, for example, is the 10 of spades.

The results only energized the Democrats. Ardmore was soon lousy with fruit baskets and Texas Democratic loyalists who drove north to Oklahoma to cheer on their heroes.

Such twists and turns might seems absurd to voters in other democracies, but Texas has a soft spot for cussed stubbornness. The cry "Remember the Alamo" is still taken seriously in the state -- which was an independent country for nine years before joining the United States.

"We Texans are schizophrenic," Keith says. "On one hand we want things to work smoothly, but when someone stands up against the odds we admire their chutzpah, to use a non-Texas term. There's a rich history of Texas populism, of people liking it when those without power stand up to those with power."

During the 1971 legislative session, 30 mostly liberal Democrats and even a few conservative Republicans revolted against state House Speaker Gus Mutscher. The legislators, dubbed the "Dirty Thirty," pushed for a vote to investigate a scandal swirling around him. Mutscher retaliated by killing bills and ordering the reformers' state districts redrawn to destroy them politically. The reformers retaliated by barnstorming the state urging Mutscher's overthrow. It worked -- the speaker was later voted out of office and convicted of bribery charges.

In 1979, 12 Democratic state senators called the "Killer Bees" hid out above an Austin garage for five days to stop the state legislature from recasting the presidential primary date to favor a former governor, the Democrat-turned-Republican John B. Connally.

Keith doesn't see the Republicans buckling. The Democrats refuse to return. The redistricting bill will most certainly die. So what happens next?

"I think Tom DeLay wants a congressional redistrict so badly that if the bill expires this week, his supporters will try to resurrect it and attach it to another bill during the session's final weeks," Keith predicts. "At that point, Democrats won't flee again, but probably use a filibuster or other guerrilla tactics to kill it." By making speeches long enough to rival Castro's -- a whole series of them, in fact -- they would block a vote and, in effect, talk the measure to death.

But even if the Democrats win this battle, Texas still needs to be governed. Bills on home insurance, healthcare and the state deficit -- which is running at $9.9 billion -- need to be debated, voted on and passed. What will happen if the entire legislative session collapses like the Hindenberg?

The result, Keith says, could well be an even bigger fight later this summer when the legislature will return for a special session before the fiscal year ends on August 30.

In Oklahoma, Gallego reiterates he and his fellow Democrats will cooperate fully with the majority Republicans -- as long as redistricting's a dead issue.

"The Republican leadership is out of step with folks at home. If you ask anybody in Del Rio, Fort Stockton or Alpine if lowering property taxes is more important than redistricting, they say yes. Is funding for education more important than changing congressmen? They say yes. Redistricting is not the fundamental priority of Texans."

Will Texas stand down? Keith isn't optimistic.

"Who can step in and cool things off?" he asks. "There are no candidates that have arisen yet.

"It's always hot in Austin during the summer, but when the politicians get back here, the tempers are going to be so frayed it will be a very hot summer, indeed."

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