Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Lt. Governor David Dewhurst

As much as Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst would like it to be true, there are no "do-overs" in politics.

Once a politician writes or utters a polarizing, regretful statement, it lingers in the arena of public discourse.

Backpedaling makes things worse. Apologies can, but don't always, soften the blow.

And all the damage control in the world usually can't put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

It is in that rhetorical limbo that Dewhurst now finds himself.

Earlier this week, his office put out a tactless letter, which Dewhurst later claimed he hadn't seen, calling into question the patriotism of 11 Senate Democrats.

The Democrats, aided by a Lazarus-like appearance by stomach-flu sufferer and state Sen. Carlos Uresti, drew the lieutenant governor's ire after mustering the votes to block consideration of the so-called voter ID bill.

The legislation requiring registered voters to produce photo identification at the polls has been short of the necessary two-thirds majority to be brought up for a floor vote in the upper chamber.

Even though all 11 Democrats have stood against the bill from the beginning of the legislative session, Dewhurst tried to press his advantage by quickly calling a vote on the bill in the absence of Uresti and Democrat John Whitmire.

After a verbal scrap with Whitmire, and Uresti's decision to cut short his sick day, Dewhurst's gambit was over.

If the story ended there, it would be an interesting inside-baseball story about hard-knuckle politicking in the usually staid Senate.

But Dewhurst didn't leave well enough alone. In the letter that later went to senators and the media, Dewhurst scolded his colleagues in sanctimonious tone.

"Yesterday all 11 Democrat members of the Texas Senate voted against the (voter ID) bill and blocked it from going forward. I think this is an outrage against all Americans," the letter read.

Dewhurst quickly distanced himself from the language, saying the missive was inadvertently sent out before he had a chance to read it.

In the "edited" version, the paragraph read like this:

"Now, all 11 Democrat senators are friends of mine and good Americans, but I want people to consider that with eight to 12 million illegal aliens currently living in the U.S., the basic American principal of one person, one vote, is in danger."

Some passages were so over the top that simple editing wouldn't suffice. In a section that appeared in the original, but was later made to disappear altogether, Dewhurst flatly accused the Democratic senators of endorsing voter fraud.

"I can only conclude that the senators who voted to block consideration of House Bill 218 did so not because it's good public policy, but because they don't believe in the basic American principle of one person, one vote."

That kind of sweeping bully logic is tantamount to Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to kill poor children by not putting more money into the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Democrats and Republicans have a very real difference of opinion on the voter I.D. legislation.

Republicans believe the bill would be a step toward ensuring ballot integrity. Democrats think it's part of a nationwide Republican effort to make it more difficult for the elderly, the poor and poor minorities to vote.

The topic merits vigorous political debate, not Dewhurst wrapping himself in the flag and taking an "us against them" stand that's as sophomoric as calling liberals "commies" or conservatives "fascists."

Dewhurst must live with both letters because they only allow "do-overs" on the playground.