Monday, January 23, 2006

Voter ID Law - Political Influence at the Department of Justice?

Speaking of the GOP monkeying with voting, as we did in the previous post, the Voter ID Law (New Slogan: “Brand New Amendments, Same Great Racism!”) is back before the Senate tomorrow.  

Expect the same kind of fireworks we saw last year on this thing, and expect about the same result.  Trust us, no one can dissuade the Georgia Republicans when it comes to suppressing black votes.

Of more note however, is an article in today’s Washington Post.  (“Politics Alleged in Voting Cases”)  WaPo staff writer Dan Eggen has done his homework, and put together a preponderance of evidence that something is rotten in the Department of Justice.

This is related to something that we mentioned some months ago, when the WaPo got a leaked copy of the staff memo to the higher-ups at Justice.  (“More on the Voter ID Bill”)  If you’re keeping score at home, you’ll know that there are essentially two strata of lawyers at the DOJ: the career attorneys, who work at DOJ from administration to administration, and are essentially non-partisan, and their politically-appointed superiors.  According to the WaPo, that politically-appointed upper layer has been reversing opinions from the career civil rights lawyers, in order to help the Republican Parties in Texas and Georgia.  

Related: Athens Banner-Herald: Voter ID back before Georgia lawmakers” 01/23/06
       Washington Post: Criticism of Voting Law was Overruled” 11/17/05
       DOJ Section 5 Recommendation Memorandum, via Washington Post,
pages 1-11, 12-19, 20-31, 32-38, 39-51

2 comments:

Cufflink Carl said...

Not taking the bait today, but if you actually want to talk about the Constitution, which is part and parcel of both issues you mentioned, then I'm up.

More importantly, please note that the above-referenced WaPo story is front page. So once again, Republicans in our state government have managed to make Georgia look like a state full of racist, mouth-breathing douchebags.

Fishplate said...

Gerogia Republicans may be former Klansmen (and Klanswomen), but what's the alternative? Plantation Democrats?

Do you know how many signatures it takes to get a third-party candidate on the ballot, while the interchangeable Republicans and Democrats can freely put up whichever knucklehead they feel can garner the tiniest extra percentage of a vote?

Hint: What does it take to be taken seriously by the leadership of either major political party? It's not knowledge or opinions...

No matter who's in power, they want more: more of my wealth to redistribute, more of my feigned fealty, more of my power to lord it over their counterparts across the aisle...