Progress Now Action

Much of the news and blog coverage of the US Attorney scandal has centered on the US Attorneys in question prosecuting Republicans, as in the case of US Attorney Carol Lam and disgraced former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham. But the larger over-arching issue what Republicans call "voter fraud." Voter fraud is almost nonexistent in this country, but Republicans like to wave this red herring in their attempt to suppress minority voter turnout.

McClatchy brings this out into the open in the mainstream media with a story about Hans von Spakovsky, the Republicans' go-to man in the Justice Department using unethical and strong-arm tactics to hide the effects of their vote suppression efforts.

But let's remember that these efforts at suppressing minorities, though being taken to a recently unheard of level, are not new. Republicans have long sought to use the law to suppress their opponents' right to vote. Before becoming a drug-addled Supreme Court appointee, the late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William Rehnquist was a foot soldier in the Republicans' minority vote suppression machine in
Arizona.

Democrats have rightly long been apologizing for and distancing themselves from racist Jim Crow laws perpetrated by conservative Democrats in the South after the Civil War. But the racists just switched parties, and their efforts to marginalize minorities continues at full steam under the Republican Party's umbrella. Like Osama bin Laden in a cave, Jim Crow is alive and well, hiding in plain sight. The Republican Party gives Jim Crow aid and comfort, and furthers his insideous agenda from the highest levels of government.