Today’s Republican Party Update

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Dave Weigel:

If you were expecting the Republican-run House of Representatives to hurry on a patch to the Voting Rights Act, what’s wrong with you? The Judiciary Committee’s Constitution subcommittee met today to talk this over, and the consensus was that the leftover parts of the VRA would work out alright.

Of course that was the consensus. There was never the slightest chance that they’d reinstate preclearance in any way, shape, or form. I confess that I’m mystified that anyone ever thought otherwise. But then again, I’m endlessly mystified that there are so many people who, even now, still don’t seem to understand the nature of the modern Republican Party. They would (a) never do anything to the VRA that might benefit Democrats, and (b) they would never do anything which tacitly admits that racism still exists. (Except for anti-white racism, of course. You know, the real kind.) Put those together and the chance of action on the VRA from Republicans was always zero.

And as long as you’re over in Weigel-land, you might as well check out the latest non-bombshell from Darrell Issa in the IRS scandal. The whole IRS affair has dwindled away to nothing over the past few weeks as we’ve learned more about what really happened, and obviously Issa just can’t stand that. So he promised fireworks today. Fireworks, I tell you! But guess what?

What’s that? You’ve already guessed? Hmmph. But I suppose that wasn’t very hard as Final Jeopardy clues go, was it? Click here if you still want the details.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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