'Everybody-else-was-doing-it' defense is shot down again.

Lawyers representing Texans for a Republican Majority lost another attempt Monday to show that their clients, accused of breaking Texas election laws, were just doing what Democrats have always done.

After a morning hearing, state District Judge Joe Hart dismissed the Republican organization's request that the Texas Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee and the Texas Partnership, a political action committee once headed by Democratic Speaker Pete Laney, provide documents about transfers of money within the party.

Texans for a Republican Majority and its treasurer, former state Rep. Bill Ceverha of Dallas, are accused in a civil lawsuit of collecting and spending hundreds of thousands of corporate dollars during the 2002 legislative elections.