Nice to see that the DCCC still hasn’t learned how to play this game:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was involved in reviewing maps submitted Tuesday to the court by one group of plaintiffs challenging the state’s congressional districts.

The admission that partisan organizations were involved in drawing maps that are formally being considered by the court adds yet another layer of political intrigue to the case. The Florida Supreme Court invalidated the current congressional lines back in July — finding them unconstitutionally drawn to favor Republicans and at odds with state anti-gerrymandering provisions — in part because Republican consultants were involved in drawing the first round of maps.

…so having a bunch of Democratic consultants draw the second round is probably not going to fly all that well with the courts. Kind of a rookie error there, in fact. I mean, Democrats in California were much better at sneaking their partisan maps through the process, honestly.

Sorry, is my cynicism showing?  It is, isn’t it, the wretched little thing. …Yeah, redistricting is one of those things that sounds easier to reform than it actually is. Here’s the unvarnished truth of the situation: the Democrats like to play vicious partisan games with election maps, and Republicans are traditionally forced to play catch-up. Or, if you prefer: Republicans ruthlessly exploit Democratic party fault lines to get districtly maps that they like, and the Democrats have to grin and bear it for the sake of party unity – and then take the whole thing to court. It doesn’t really matter; the practical result of the whole thing is that there isn’t a redistricting map in the world that doesn’t have somebody muttering darkly in a corner about it. And that’s never going to change – and maybe that’s not so bad, at that. Squabbling over election district shapes at least keeps a bunch of political lawyers and operatives busy.

Still: this was, again, a sloppy move by the DCCC. I can only assume that their desperate need to target Hispanic Republican Congressmen overwhelmed what good sense that the organization has left after seven years of Barack Obama, and nine of [mc_name name=’Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’P000197′ ]. Or possibly they just didn’t think things through? Wouldn’t be the first time a political organization did that, after all.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

(H/T: @TheRickWilson)