Posted on 09/03/2013 9:56:33 AM PDT by jazusamo
PJ Media has engaged in a long-running series of articles regarding Republicans who are trying to re-impose the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was partially struck down by the US Supreme Court this summer. We reported that staff within the Republican National Committee are working to re-impose it, outside the public eye. The RNC officially and vehemently denied. But. We’ve also tracked the statements of elected Republicans including Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, and the activities of their lobbyists and staffs. Sensenbrenner is under the influence of a long-time former staffer who is currently lobbying for the far-left ACLU.
Juan Williams, Democrat columnist, is praising Sensenbrenner in a Hill column for, you guessed it, seeking to re-impose the full Voting Rights Act.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) defied political stereotypes and several other Republicans when he announced an end-of-the-year deadline for reviving the pre-clearance provision of the VRA.
“I am committed to restoring the Voting Rights Act as an effective tool to prevent discrimination,” said Sensenbrenner to repeated cheers. He was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee when a bipartisan group approved reauthorization of the VRA in 2006.
“This is something that has to be done by the end of the year so that a revised and constitutional Voting Rights Act is in place by the 2014 elections — both the primaries and general election,” Sensenbrenner told his largely black Republican audience.
Williams praises Sensenbrenner for “defying stereotypes,” as if it’s shocking that a white Republican can support civil rights. It may be news to Williams, but Republicans were instrumental in passing the 1960s civil rights legislation. There is no stereotype there to “defy.”
Williams praises Sensenbrenner for telling a story about traveling to the south during his formative years and being appalled by the racism he saw. The south has changed a great deal since the elderly Sensenbrenner was a boy, and Democrats imposed segregation. Democrats are no longer in control across the south. Their heinous Jim Crow racist regime has been blown away.
The specific laws that Democrats like Williams want to use the Voting Rights Act to undo now are laws mandating photo ID at the voting booth — which Sensenbrenner claims to support. And, which heavy majorities of the American people support. And, which have been shown to increase minority voter turnout. Voter ID is sensible and especially critical in the border states, where vote brokering, identity theft and fraud are all too easy for even non-citizens to perpetrate.
So if voter ID isn’t Sensenbrenner’s motivation for seeking to put several southern states back under federal receivership when they make even minute changes to voting regulations and laws, then what is? Why does the Wisconsin Republican believe that the “full power” of the Voting Rights Act is still necessary in the south? He should step out and explain publicly what he intends to do and why, and to which specific states.
He should also explain publicly which part of the VRA he wants re-instated. If he wants Section 4 reinforced then he is accusing the South of ongoing racism and seeking to put it back under federal receivership — meaning, for the next three years at least, under Eric Holder’s boot. He is begging the Obama administration to continue suing states that seek election integrity through voter ID.
Sensenbrenner is not the only Republican with some explaining to do.
After his speech, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that both Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) have publicly stated their support for fixing the VRA.
And his presence at the RNC lunch also suggests that his political crusade has the blessings of the national party and party chairman Reince Priebus. The chairman is on record as telling a reporter after the Supreme Court ruling that “voter suppression obviously has no place in our world or our society.” (emphasis added)
What a red herring. Voter ID is not about voter “suppression.” What, specifically, do Sensenbrenner, Cantor, Boehner and Priebus want imposed? What do they regard as “voter suppression”? They should lay their cards out on the table.
Remember, the RNC denied that it is working behind the scenes to get the “full power” of the VRA restored. Rep. Sensenbrenner apparently does not believe that denial.
My understanding is SCOTUS threw out Section 4 of the VRA which states the method used to determine which states fall under Section 5.
SCOTUS said Section 4 could be redone by Congress but it’s most unlikely with the Repub House, in effect what SCOTUS did basically killed the VRA.
Sensenbrenner wants to rework Section 4 and now this piece says possibly Boehner and Cantor possibly do too, lets hope not.
Supporting it? It’s his adopted baby.
It gets even more cynical. They know they can't "fix" the VRA. SCOTUS made clear that Congress could amend the VRA and bring back mandatory preclearance - based on new findings of discrimination in voting based on 2013 data. What is the state with the biggest discrepancy in minority population versus minority percent of the vote? Massachusetts. Yea, that's gonna happen.
Indeed, Sensenbrenner was once considered conservative, but I have found him to be erratic and driven by polls - his “brand” as he calls it.
He once pushed our Republican float out of a 4th of July parade and made us change our position because he didn’t want to walk next to a Republican entry — as if that would fool the people in his district where he was quite well known as a Republican. He was raving in front of all the other parade entries until the organizer moved us.
He also was the biggest spender in Congress on travel jaunts the last year that he was chair of the judiciary committee.
I once engaged him in argument when he (singlehandedly) prevented ANWR oil drilling from coming to a vote in the House. He voted with the Dems to block the vote. This was in Bush’s first term when we had majorities in the House, the Senate, and held the Presidency.
His reasoning?
1) The Alaskan oil is too thick and would be sold to Japan. (oil is a world commodity and any increase in availablity helps all.)
2) The oil wouldn’t help Wisconsin — just CA and Japan. (last I looked, CA was part of the US, as is WI. Also, see above on world commodity)
3) We should use up everybody else’s oil (keep importing and continue to be held hostage by OPEC) before we touch ours. (This argument is so self servng and stupid that it doesn’t deserve an answer.)
4) There is no way to get the oil to the US. It would take 10 years to build a pipeline. (My “debate” with Sensenbrenner was 9 years ago.)
What in the Wide World of Sports is a-going on here?
The Supreme Court finally gives us a good decision and these Republican idiots are trying to mess this up???? Its crazy. The want to be the permanent minority party
What the He// is going on here?
Man the phones and email!
Dirty rotten traitors are going behind our backs AGAIN!
Please Ping Your Lists.
There is no longer any reason to vote Republican - PERIOD.
Apparently, Sensenbrenner is nuts.
Thanks for the ping, Onyx. I’m all over it.
There are about 5 in congress I trust and only 1 in the senate I trust.
Only 6 people I trust does not make a government I can trust.
On the *heavy* issues, our phone calls and emails matter not anymore.
If we got a chance, it will come in 2014 and that is a damn big if.
Just totally disgusted today and ranting a little.
Probably should just go out and stomp around the yard some :)
Special PING!
Onyx, you’re right. We should all be calling and emailing our reps and telling them we don’t want Section 4 of the Voting Rights act that was shot down by SCOTUS to be rewritten by Congress.
Our elected representatives no longer even pretend to represent us. GTH GOP!
I’m holding up one hand. I can count on the fingers of that hand the aggregate number of minority votes this would get the Stupid Party in all General Elections around the country. I wonder how many thousands of votes will be lost?
3) We should use up everybody else’s oil (keep importing and continue to be held hostage by OPEC) before we touch ours. (This argument is so self servng and stupid that it doesn’t deserve an answer.)
__________________________
Please note that this has been US policy for a long time. Bush’s Sec Treas, John Snow, was asked at a press conference when we would drill in ANWR. He was leaving the podium and I saw him on TV, turn and over his shoulder, off mic, but loud enough to be picked up, say (paraphrased):”It will be 20 years, so we can keep our oil in the ground as the rest of the world uses theirs.”
As to self-serving, Snow came to government from a long career in the railroads. His policy inputs were formed, like Buffet’s, by regard for his own financial benefit.
We have been had for decades by the party that cynically assumes we will vote for them, no matter what. There hasn’t been citizen input for a very long time. We the people may win a round here and there, but then, as soon as we do, our own so-called *side* will turn on us and/or everything will be re-arranged by them, against our interests, ASAP.
Personally, I am on strike. No votes and no donations for hypocrites, fools and liars.
Add another scumbag traitor to the list. “Sensenbrenner”.
Where is my new party??
Paging Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz. Please pick up the red, white, and blue courtesy phone.
And HURRY.
Agree completely...The GOP-e are turning backflips to get the minority vote and it’s getting them nowhere and as you say it’s costing votes.
BTTT!
You are absulutely right on target with your observations. However, where would we be if we had approved (when we had the votes) expansion of drilling in ANWR in 2004? I say, we’d be looking at $2.00 per gal. gas today. We might even have a Republican administration.
Screw him. He can go to hell. I wouldn’t shed a tear if he got caught in the crossfire of a drive-by. Why should southern states be subjected to this travesty any further, when we are already more “integrated”, thanks to monstrous fedgov, than the north? What is this pool of vomit, stick it to whites left right and center? I am getting truly, deeply, and rapidly fed up with this crap. Despicable POS, I wish I could force everyone of them and their families to live in a New Orleans hood.
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