The Democratic voters of Michigan and Florida are unhappy, or so we read. They, or if you will, their representatives, moved up their primary dates and drew a punishment from the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee. Since then, what have the voters of Michigan and Florida actually done to try and reverse or repair their problem? Nothing but complain.  Read more 

All at the same time.  Read more 

Revised:

The reason this country lacks universal voting rights is that progressive reformers have been unwilling to sacrifice a just, decent, affordable, humane system for a merely universal one. Universality, after all, is easy. Widespread voting access and actual enumeration are not. And demanding a perfect system is easy. But as Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Johnson, Kennedy and Nixon have found, achieving such a system is not. Now, the argument over which type of system is the most worthwhile, and which sort the most possible, is a worthy one, and it’s perfectly defensible to argue — as Stoller does — for nationalized voting rights in that context. But to accuse Thurman, Helms, Byrd and so many others who’ve devoted their lives to the study and struggle of this issue “unserious” because they don’t believe we’ll dissolve the states rights industry in a single legislative penstroke is profoundly, well, unserious.  Read more 

I really do have to run (to Virgina, no less) but Please Ma’am, can we have this in Congress?

ORAN INTRODUCES BI-PARTISAN REDISTRICTING
RICHMOND – House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian J. Moran today re-introduced a bipartisan constitutional amendment to ensure a fair redistricting process during the next redistricting in 2011. The legislation, originally co-sponsored by then delegate, now House Speaker, William J. Howell and then Senator, now Senate Majority Leader, Walter Stosch in 1992, will create a bi-partisan redistricting commission ensuring districts are fairly drawn based on population without regard to partisan advantage. The current system of legislative control allows districts to be drawn to serve partisan advantage and incumbent protection.  Read more 

Well, it looks like Republican racists—not completely redundant, though it’s a shame that those Republicans who aren’t racist don’t have the courage to denounce those who are—won’t be able to derail passage of the Voting Rights Act. Although, naturally, they’re still trying to gut it:

Having quieted dissenting conservatives, House Republicans are trying again to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act in an election-year effort to win support from minority voters.

The story is that image, for the mid-terms, is everything:

The bill’s progress through Congress is considered by Republican leaders as one way to stem the damage to the party’s “big-tent” image among minorities watching the contentious debate over whether to grant most of the nation’s 12 million illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship.

But you know? The only Republican “big tent” I’ve seen lately is Bush’s codpiece.

The real story is buried further down:  Read more