Sounds like the GOP is getting mighty nervous up in WI.
If today was April 1st, I’d say this was an April Fools Day joke. But it’s not. It’s March 31st and I just heard from a sane Republican.
Wait…what was that loud cracking noise? It was Hell freezing over.
A repub making sense?
Now that’s a sure-fire sign that there’s an election coming up!
Sensenbrenner, for all his many faults, really and truly gives a damn about the Voting Rights Act, and has for many years.
I take his op-ed in today’s NYTimes as a genuinely sincere effort to get VRA renewal through Congress, in spite of his own party’s resistance.
“I would rather lose my job than suppress votes to keep it.”
Now THERE is a pledge I’d like to see GOPers circulating.
Trump: This is being politically correct. No Muslims should be allowed to vote.
Cruz: Not enough, no blacks, no Muslims and only select Cubans should be allowed to vote.
FOX: Only conservative Whites should be allowed to vote.
This guy must not watch enough Fox & Freinds. Didn’t he get the memo from Kilmeade in 2012? you have to “intimidate” voters outside of polling stations, to counteract the massive wave of people with fake names who risk incarceration to alter, by one-millionth, the final vote count. It’s all so clear!
Wow, the GOP is so delusional that when a Republican legislator acknowledges reality it creates headlines. How sad is that?
"
Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin published an op-ed
Thursday in the New York Times criticizing his fellow lawmakers for
failing to restore the Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court gutted
it in 2013.
“Ensuring that every eligible voter can cast a ballot without fear,
deterrence and prejudice is a basic American right,” Sensenbrenner
wrote. “I would rather lose my job than suppress votes to keep it.”
Jim Sensenbrenner leading the charge on the Voting rights restoration, WOW !!!
Sensenbrenner and his GOP pals are just making noise to cover their butts. They know the Voting Rights act won’t pass the Republican House or Senate, so they can afford to pretend they support it.
“Sanity” entails consistently sane behavior, speech and thought. I think the term for this would be “a lucid moment,” not “sane.”
Get used to that sound because I suspect we’ll be hearing it almost daily over the next several months. These guys are scared, petrified of having to run for reelection while carrying around the anvil that is Trump. The very best they can hope for is to mitigate the damage by pretending to be sane, or by returning to their pre-Black President sanity.
“I would rather lose my job than suppress votes to keep it.”
Very noble sentiment indeed… if only it was true. This is the same guy who kisses Wayne LaPierre’s ass whenever he can. He added the NRA-proposed rider to the Patriot Act in 2005 that requires Senate confirmation of an ATF Director. This hoop left the agency with an unconfirmed and less powerful Acting Director for 8 years until B. Todd Jones was confirmed in 2013. (Who was forced to resign two years later when gun rights groups went apeshit over his proposal to ban armor-piercing .223 caliber bullets)
If he really cared about voting rights he would have proposed this in time to block all the states from suppressing the vote * before* this coming presidential election… A total bullshit offer for appearances sake, I say.
Ensuring that every eligible voter can cast a ballot without fear, deterrence and prejudice is a basic American right.*
*Some restrictions may apply. Void where prohibited by law. For entertainment purposes only.
Yes, Sensenbrenner’s bill stalled, but it didn’t go far enough.
The Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 goes far beyond the version introduced in 2014, which would have only required four states — Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — to get pre-clearance from the Justice Department before changing their voting laws. It was also widely criticized by voting rights advocates for a special carve-out for voter ID laws, so they don’t count against a state in determining whether they need federal oversight.
But that bill, a compromise aimed at winning support from Republicans, did not even receive a hearing in the House of Representatives, let alone a vote. Even Republicans in Congress who traveled to Selma, Alabama for the 50th anniversary of the attack on voting rights demonstrators known as Bloody Sunday told ThinkProgress they either didn’t support the bill or hadn’t taken time to read it.
Since that bill was introduced in 2014, Republicans have won control of the Senate, and the highest ranking supporter of the measure was voted out of office, setting up voting rights advocates for an even tougher road ahead.
But Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), one of the co-sponsors of the newer, stronger bill, told ThinkProgress that whether or not the bill has a chance of passing, it’s important to try.
“There are politicians here in Washington and around the country who are trying to erect barriers to the right to vote and we have to have an aggressive response,” he said. “Initially, two years ago, you had some Republicans who were with us on this, at least saying the right thing. But since then, a lot of that has broken down, but we have to continue to fight to move forward.”
Indeed, the lead Republican co-sponsor of the last bill, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) explicitly told The Nation that he will not sign on to the Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Under the bill, the states with 15 voting rights violations over the past 25 years — or 10 violations if one was statewide — have to get clearance from the Justice Department before making any changes to how they conduct elections. Thirteen states would be initially covered — Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia — and more could be added in the future.
If passed, those states would have to prove that everything from moving a polling place, to new laws making voters show proof of citizenship, to redrawn voting district maps, do not disproportionately burden residents of color.
Love your posts. Here is another “disclaimer”: “This ad contains actor in lieu of the actual lawmaker named.” Also “intended as satire only”
Actually it is just another indication of how stupid the GOP Congress is.
The only part of VRA that was eliminated was federal pre-approval in
certain states whether or not any indication of discrimination. It should
have covered all states or none. Scotus was right on this one but Dems
continually invent discrimination in any district it doesn’t win.
The Scotus disallowed one clause - Federal pre-approval in certain states whether
or not any discrimination. Clause should have been eliminated as it was unfair
& unconstitutional.
Unhinged remarks like yours are the reason no issue can be discussed fully.
Entire Republican Party wants EVERY CITIZEN to vote. Democrats want
anyone traveling through to vote at least once if not twice.