Bush to Sign Voting Act That He Once Opposed

From The Washington Times:

With his signature today, President Bush will renew a key part of the Voting Rights Act that singles out 16 states as still practicing voting discrimination, including his state of Texas, where he was governor for six years, and part of Florida, where his brother is governor.

Less than a decade ago, Mr. Bush fought that exact part of the Voting Rights Act, with his appointed secretary of state, Antonio O. Garza Jr., calling the provisions a burdensome and unnecessary federal intrusion into Texas' affairs.

"The Bush administration has really done a flip-flop on this," said Edward Blum, a senior fellow at the Center for Equal Opportunity who has studied Texas voting and the Voting Rights Act. "This is not where he was, and this is not the kind of philosophy that then-Governor Bush had when it comes to getting Texas out from under the thumb of the federal government."

He said Mr. Bush has abandoned "the great color-blind ideals that conservatives believe in."

The key provision is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, designed to target six Southern states that had a history of discrimination against black voters. In the early 1970s, Section 5 was broadened to cover nine states -- Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia -- and parts of seven others -- California, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota.

Those states and localities are deemed so discriminatory that they must get Justice Department approval every time they change voting laws or procedures -- right down to moving a polling location.

With Mr. Bush's signature, that requirement will last through 2032.

***
Mr. Bush isn't the only former governor who finds himself urging passage of a bill that labels his state as discriminatory. Sen. George Allen, who was governor of Virginia from 1994 to 1998, also called for the provisions to be extended without amendment.

Mr. Allen's spokesman, David Snepp, said the senator sees his vote as a statement that the state is committed to minority rights.

"He doesn't think by voting to renew this act he is saying Virginia is one of these bad actors," Mr. Snepp said. "He is looking at it from a different perspective, and that is a commitment to make sure the voting rights of individual citizens is protected now and in the future."

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(emphasis added)

My Comments:
"With Mr. Bush's signature, that requirement will last through 2032."

Outrageous! Again, Reconstruction only lasted 7 years. With this bill, states who no longer practice the discrimination the Voting Rights Act is meant to eradicate will nevertheless have been treated as pariahs for a grand total of almost 70 years!

And then, in 2032, I'm sure Section 5 will be renewed yet again.

George Bush: courageous hero vetoing a popular stem-cell bill one week; sniveling coward signing a race-based special interest bill the next.

Alleged proponent of federalism, George "Jeffersonian conservative" Allen, apparently isn't any better.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
US Conference of Catholic Bishops Clueless on Voting Rights