Voting Rights Act renewal postponed
The four-decade-old law enfranchised millions of black voters by ending poll taxes and literacy tests during the height of the civil rights struggle. A vote on renewing it for another 25 years had been scheduled for Wednesday, with both Republican and Democratic leaders behind it.[emphasis added]
The shift came after a private House GOP caucus meeting Wednesday in which several Republicans also balked at extending provisions in the law that require ballots to be printed in more than one language in neighborhoods where there are large numbers of immigrants, said several participants.
[full text here, at the Detroit Free Press. More discussion in the SF Chronicle. According to the NPR report I heard (audio available later this evening), the Justice Dept. backs renewal of the Act as-is.]
Do I hear the sound of 'nativist' (i.e., anti-immigration) drums in the land? [see the recent Flame thread...] Or is that the sound of slow Republican suicide?
Probably both. It becomes increasingly apparent that the GOP no longer has effective leadership, let alone a standard-bearer for 2008... which only makes this November's mid-terms more of toss-up.