Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

State Sen. Mario Gallegos, right, greets Sen. John Whitmire from his sickbed in the Capitol. (James Nielsen/Houston Chronicle)

A hospital bed near the Texas Senate chamber is an apt metaphor for the political climate in the state Legislature this year.

The bed in the Senate sergeant's office is for Sen. Mario Gallegos, the Houston Democrat whose body may be rejecting the liver transplant he had four months ago. Gallegos is in Austin in defiance of doctors' advice because the Senate Democrats need his vote to block a voter identification bill they oppose and Republicans embrace.

That hospital bed is a poignant reminder of the poisonous politics of the voter ID bill. The bill is based on the false premise that Texas is suffering a wave of voting by illegal immigrants, which is patently not true. Democrats believe the bill is part of a national effort to disenfranchise poor and elderly voters who are inclined to support Democratic candidates.

If it passes, the bill would require voters to show a Department of Public Safety photo ID or two other pieces of identification. Some poor or elderly voters might not have two approved IDs on them when they arrive at the polls and wouldn't be able to vote.

Gallegos is the critical vote for Democrats blocking the bill. In the Senate, 11 members can keep a bill from a floor debate and vote. If Gallegos isn't available when the voter ID bill is brought up for debate, the 10 Democrats couldn't keep it from a vote and it almost certainly would pass.

If Democrats can keep their 11 members close by until midnight tonight, then the bill would probably be dead for this session. That's why Gallegos must risk his health to stay near his Senate desk.

Some Republicans who favor the voter ID bill have been considerate of Gallegos, including Greenville Republican Sen. Bob Deuell. Deuell, a physician, ordered the hospital bed delivered for his Democratic colleague. And Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst didn't push for a vote when Gallegos was absent one day for a biopsy on his liver.

What is most amazing about the situation is that a senator has to risk his life to oppose legislation that has such a clearly phony basis. No one has shown that illegal voting is a problem in Texas, and the statistics thrown around are unreliable or worse.

According to polls and conventional political wisdom, Texans think there's a problem with illegal voting and support voters producing identification at the polls. So Republicans see a political advantage in pushing the bill. There's no downside for them, and if it suppresses some Democratic Party votes, so much the better. They don't care if the "problem" doesn't exist.

But a Senate colleague's health is on the line and partisan politics should take a back seat. If GOP lawmakers took advantage of Gallegos' ill health to push a vote on the bill, they would appear shabby and ruthless. And their coldhearted political avarice would reverberate around the country.

That hospital bed off the Senate chamber should remind them that this bill isn't worth the price that would be exacted by passing the voter ID bill while Gallegos is fighting for his life.