In the last week, with lightning speed, the nation's foremost political leaders have jettisoned any pretense of political fairness in favor of an all-out partisan war for power.

Lofgren, the chair of California’s 43-member Democratic delegation, consulted in June with a trusted data expert who dismissed it as absurd — a foolhardy end-run around the state’s popular redistricting panel with no guarantee of yielding enough blue seats to fully offset Texas.