STAR-TELEGRAM/KELLEY CHINN Wearing red bandannas sent to them by "personal messenger" from country singer Willie Nelson, four Texas House Democrats walk out of their hotel in Ardmore, Okla., late Wednesday. From left are Reps. Barry Telford of De Kalb, Patrick Rose of Dripping Springs, Jim McReynolds of Lufkin and Mark Homer of Paris. McReynolds held up a note from Nelson that said, "Way to go ... stand your ground." Nelson also sent T-shirts and eight bottles of whiskey to the Democrats, who are trying to thwart a Republican redistricting plan.

On the eve of a deadline for key legislation to live or die, the Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives formally halted efforts to arrest the 51 Democratic legislators who fled to Oklahoma.

But nothing stopped the war of words Wednesday, with Republican leaders blasting away from the Governor's Mansion and Democrats firing back from exile in Ardmore.

"I don't think the people of the state of Texas appreciate the work stoppage, the walking away from the important issues of the day," Gov. Rick Perry said after his weekly breakfast with state House and Senate leaders.

The Democrats' stealthy departure over the weekend, aimed at killing a plan to add Republican seats in the U.S. Congress, paralyzed the House because it did not have enough members to create the necessary quorum of 100 members.

But the boycotting Texas lawmakers disputed Perry's accusations that they are holding up key legislation, such as finding better ways to fund public education and improving insurance for children.

"Nothing's further from the truth," Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, said during a news conference outside the Holiday Inn in Ardmore. "A resolution to this problem is fairly simple and straightforward: Drop consideration of the unnecessary and unfair redistricting effort, and we all go back to work immediately in Texas."

Later Wednesday, Democrats said they had sent House Speaker Tom Craddick a letter promising that if redistricting is dropped, they "would not break a quorum on other issues ... even when we disagree."

Republican House leaders have said repeatedly that negotiating is not an option.

Meanwhile, a key deadline looms tonight for bills that originate in the House, and Democrats have already indicated that they will not return until Friday. Assuming that they hold out another day, the effort likely will have killed redistricting and possibly other legislation at least during the regular session, which will end June 2.

Republican House leaders moved to salvage some of the potential wreckage Wednesday by adjourning and convening committee meetings to consider bills originating in the Senate, which can still be considered.

"It keeps us from bogging down the session even more than we've been bogged down," said Craddick, R-Midland. The move by the speaker to adjourn seemed to be recognition that the Democrats aren't coming back before the deadline expires.

Craddick said several revenue-generating measures were jeopardized -- money that's needed to plug a $9.9 billion hole in the budget. However, Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said the Senate has identified ways to revive most, if not all, of the money-making legislation.

Democrats also said dead bills could be brought back through special procedures that require a supermajority to pass. Given the toxic political environment, it's unclear whether that is a realistic possibility.

The boycott has prompted speculation that a special session would be called soon after the regular meeting ends, but the governor said a special session was "not even on the radar screen" right now. He sidestepped a question about whether he would call a special session to consider a new redistricting bill.

The walkout is reverberating in Washington, D.C., where the careers of several Democratic congressmen could be on the line. U.S. Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, is pushing a redistricting bill in the Texas Legislature that would increase GOP strength in Congress at the expense of several Democratic congressmen. Texas Democrats outnumber Texas Republicans in Congress 17-15.

On Wednedsay, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, led efforts by Texas Democrats calling for an investigation of any federal involvement, past or future, in the ongoing standoff.

Doggett sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, demanding an accounting of federal actions, including a Star-Telegram report that a division of Homeland Security had been asked to find the plane of former House Speaker Pete Laney, D-Hale Center, who used it to fly to Ardmore.

The Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center in Riverside, Calif., confirmed that it had tried to find Laney's Piper Cheyenne at the request of Texas law enforcement. The agency could not find the plane, but state officials eventually did.

Craddick said it was Laney's plane that led to the discovery that the Democrats had fled to Ardmore.

"It's a matter of great concern," Doggett said in an interview. "When you have a man as powerful as Tom DeLay saying he has a U.S. attorney researching it and that the FBI ought to be involved and Homeland Security tracking aircraft, there's reason to raise the alarm."

The letter was signed by 16 of the 17 U.S. Texas Democrats. Rep. Ralph Hall, D-Rockwall, a conservative Democrat close to the White House, did not sign it.

On Tuesday, DeLay, the architect of the map that would give the GOP five to seven additional Texas seats in redrawn districts, told reporters that he would like the federal agencies to be involved "because this is a federal issue, these are congressional seats."

"If it's legal, it would be nice for them to help them out -- help out the Texas Rangers and Texas troopers," DeLay said.

The walkout sparked a search for the missing lawmakers, but those efforts have ceased. The Texas Department of Public Safety was formally called off by the House on Wednesday. A letter was sent thanking the agency and saying "your responsibiities in this regard are at an end."

DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said the agency had already begun pulling back Tuesday night because it wasn't difficult to figure out where the Democrats were.

"It became a moot point," he said.