The Supreme Court has another look at partisan gerrymanders.

Gregory G. Garre has 10 minutes to represent the Bush administration and Smith has four minutes for rebuttal. He warns that if the Texas gerrymander is approved, the country will be launched down a "dangerous road," wherein there's a "partisan festival" of gerrymanders, tit-for-tat around the country.

When the session ends, one thing is clear: That magical legal standard for judging when political partisanship has crossed from ordinary to impermissible? It's not been pulled out of any top hats here today. There's little to suggest that Kennedy's changed his mind after Vieth, although it also seems clear he's not yet quite ready to fling up his hands and walk away. It must be hard to just shrug and concede that even the slimiest of ideological sleaziness might, from now unto forever, just be known as "politics."