Firmly in control of the state legislature and governorship, Georgia Republicans have pulled off a mid-census redistricting bill a la Tom DeLay. Roll Call's Lauren W. Whittington has the scoop [subscription only]:

Republicans in the Georgia Legislature have reached consensus on new Congressional boundaries, moving a proposed map forward that would shore up Rep. Phil Gingrey's (R) swing district and potentially complicate the re-election efforts of Democratic Reps. John Barrow and Jim Marshall.

The state House and Senate redistricting committees passed the same version of a new Congressional map Friday, bringing an end to a week of behind-the-scenes wrangling over how to reconcile the chambers' two competing plans.

[...]

State Democrats privately expressed relief after seeing the compromise map Friday, as they admitted that the redrawing of lines could have hit them much harder politically.

"It could be worse," said a Georgia Democratic operative. "My guess is if everybody ran for re-election, we'd end up with the exact same delegation we've got right now."

Still, Democrats are likely to mount legal challenges if the new lines are approved.

The GOP has appeared to back down to a degree by not fundamentally disenfranchising most Democrats in the state. Nevertheless, as long as the Republicans are willing to cheat the system by redistricting between censuses, the Democrats will have no choice but to do the same in states like Illinois, New Mexico and Louisiana. It won't be a pretty picture, but it might be inevitable at this point given these GOP actions.