GOP Texas Congressmen Holding Up Passage Of VRA

Leave it to Republican Congressmen from Texas to oppose the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. Worse than that, they’ve teamed up with lawmakers from Georgia to form a Texas-Georgia axis that threatens to derail the bill and cause other significant problems.

Among the ringleaders of the problem from Texas’ delegation are freshman Louie Gohmert (R-Tyler) and Kenny Marchant (R-Coppell) along with fellow Republican Henry Bonillia.

In a meeting Thursday afternoon, the Texas-Georgia Axis was talking stratey and gloating over the fact that they have cancelled a House vote on the measure that was supposed to ocurr this week.

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) won’t tell the media what Gohmert’s and the others’ objections to the reauthorization actually are, but the media (Roll Call and others) have indicated it has to do with the requirements many Southern states face when amending their election laws.
Texas and eight other states from the South have been required for a number of years to get permission from the Justice Department for any election law or procedure changes. Some portions of seven other states are also required to do the same thing.

Of course, it is the Republicans’ contention that we don’t need to be under those provisions that require special clerance any more. Of course, one need look no further than the partisan 2003 Redistricting scheme to realize that equality (racial or otherwise) will never be allowed to get in the way of a Republican power grab and to understand why this provision still makes sense for Texas and other states in the Deep South.
I was particularly surprised that Henry Bonillia, a Hispanic, would come out against this:

“Why should one state have to live under a federal law when somebody a few miles away is exempt? All or nothing. It’s an issue of fairness,” said a senior Texas Republican, Rep. Henry Bonilla.

Here’s why Texas must still get clerance from Justice:

States that discouraged minority voters in 1964, 1968 or 1972 – with poll taxes or tests of “good character” or literacy – and also experienced low minority turnout have been subjected to federal oversight.

Here’s a run down of exactly what is going on right now:

Texas Republicans, including most of the freshmen, signed on early. They brainstormed the issue at their weekly lunch last week, members said, and again Thursday.

“If it’s good enough for a handful of states it’s good enough for the whole country,” said freshman Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.

Rep. Kenny Marchant, a GOP freshman, said Texans don’t like being singled out and will fight to change that, though “I don’t think that necessarily means we’ll vote against it (renewal of the act) if it isn’t that way.”

But legal scholars have warned that the Supreme Court could strike down a national law, noting that decades ago, the court gave its OK in part because the law only targeted states with proven records of discrimination.

Of course, Kenny Marchant is nothing more than a mere piece of furniture in the House. If being a Freshman in the House was really anything like being a freshamn in High School, some bigger, smarter Congressmen would have already come along and stuffed both Marchant and Gohmert into their lockers for being such dopes over the VRA.

Of course, our own junior U.S. Senator, John Cornyn, is fine with all of this delaying and trouble-causing:

“It doesn’t expire until 2007. We’ve got some time to work on it,” he said. “There’s more than the Voting Rights Act at stake. There’s political calculations going on, and I want to try and make sure I understand what that’s all about.”

Ok. Let me just get this straight real quick: the junior senator from Texas just admitted that Congress is playing politics with the Voting Rights Act? That’s great.

Tweet This Post   Ping This Post

Bookmark It