{"id":183564,"date":"2013-01-22T20:54:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-23T01:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/01\/22\/this-is-why-you-cannot-trust-republicans\/"},"modified":"2013-01-22T20:54:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-23T01:54:00","slug":"this-is-why-you-cannot-trust-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/01\/22\/this-is-why-you-cannot-trust-republicans\/","title":{"rendered":"This is Why You Cannot Trust Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Virginia state senate is evenly divided by party, but yesterday, when a Democratic member of the institution was at the inauguration, they <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesdispatch.com\/news\/state-regional\/government-politics\/va-republicans-push-through-rewrite-of-senate-districts\/article_1e6faf38-e5db-5b37-b3ae-63f544108f03.html\">passed a Gerrymandered redistricting of the senate<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">An ambush reapportionment effort by Virginia Senate Republicans spilled into partisan conflict tinged with racial resentment Tuesday, raising fears of a legislative train wreck that would derail the Republican governor\u2019s final bid for a legacy.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">Black Senate Democrats referred to the GOP\u2019s party-line power play Monday as \u201cplantation politics,\u201d reprising the specter of the same spiteful partisan gridlock that paralyzed the Senate last year.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">A scowling Gov. Bob McDonnell delivered a clear rebuke while most Republicans in the House maintained a cold, dismayed silence over the Senate move that caught them off guard.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cObviously the tactics used yesterday were a surprise and don\u2019t think that\u2019s the way business should be done,\u201d McDonnell said. \u201cI\u2019m not happy about the things that have happened.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cWhat I\u2019ve said is that this session should be about education and transportation, not redistricting and other things,\u201d he said.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">Despair over the partisan rift was so deep that many lawmakers of both parties compared the damage to the 2001 session, the only one in modern Virginia history to adjourn without finishing work on the state budget.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">Ignoring ancient legislative traditions and even a <b><span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">just 2004 amendment to the Virginia Constitution that limits redistricting to once a decade<\/span><\/b>, the Senate\u2019s 20 Republicans shocked Capitol Square by their actions Monday. They abruptly amended a House bill that previously made minor technical boundary adjustments into a total revision of all 40 Senate districts passed in 2011.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span>   <span style=\"color: blue;\">With Democratic Sen. Henry Marsh away at President Barack Obama\u2019s inaugural Monday, Senate Republicans caught the 20 Senate Democrats one vote short and muscled Sen. John Watkins\u2019 surreptitious floor amendment to passage on a 20-19 vote with little debate in <b><span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">just 30 minutes<\/span><\/b>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(<i>emphasis mine<\/i>)<\/p>\n<p>As to &#8220;Governor Ultrasound&#8217;s&#8221; disapproval, I would not expect a veto.<\/p>\n<p>After all, he disapproved of the transvaginal ultrasound bill, and signed <b>that<\/b> into law.<\/p>\n<p>Even if he were inclined to veto the bill, McDonnell wants to be the Republican Presidential or Vice-Presidential pick in 2016, and dirty tricks and voter suppression has become a core value of today&#8217;s Republican Party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Virginia state senate is evenly divided by party, but yesterday, when a Democratic member of the institution was at the inauguration, they passed a Gerrymandered redistricting of the senate: An ambush reapportionment effort by Virginia Senate Republicans spilled into partisan conflict tinged with racial resentment Tuesday, raising fears of a legislative train wreck that &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1000,969,1020,978],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections","category-evil","category-legislation","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}