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.
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