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Mugshot of former Chair of the Republican Party of Florida Jim Greer
Most Republicans will deny fiercely that their ALEC-fueled efforts to ram through voter ID and other voter-suppression laws aren’t about suppressing the votes of black Americans. But recently (h/t Meteor Blades), two prominent Florida Republicans have come forward to state, on the record, that this is exactly what the GOP is trying to do.
First off, here’s former Florida Republican Party chair Jim Greer:
In a 630-page deposition recorded over two days in late May, Greer, who is on trial for corruption charges, unloaded a litany of charges against the “whack-a-do, right-wing crazies” in his party, including the effort to suppress the black vote.
In the deposition, released to the press yesterday, Greer mentioned a December 2009 meeting with party officials. “I was upset because the political consultants and staff were talking about voter suppression and keeping blacks from voting,” he said, according to the Tampa Bay Times. He also said party officials discussed how “minority outreach programs were not fit for the Republican Party,” according to the AP.
Greer’s charges are being pooh-poohed by Republicans quick to point out that he is in deep legal trouble, as if that by itself somehow totally disproved what he said. But they can’t use that gambit against former Florida governor Charlie Crist who went on MSNBC recently and blasted Rick Scott, his fellow Florida Republican and his successor as Florida governor, for pushing “shameless” voter-suppression tactics such as photo ID laws, preventing former felons from voting, and heavy-handed purging of voter rolls — and agrees with US Attorney General Eric Holder that the intent of these tactics is to suppress the black vote, Jim-Crow-fashion:
Mitchell noted that Attorney General Eric Holder had recently compared voter photo ID requirements to Jim Crow laws, telling the NAACP that they were the equivalent of “poll taxes.”
“He’s on the right track,” the former governor agreed. “Anytime that you put more impediments into a citizen’s right — a legal citizen’s right to vote and make that more difficult, you impede the natural right of democracy and a citizen’s right to have their voice heard in important elections.”
By the way: Aren’t you wondering why, instead of seeing this news in your local paper or on your evening broadcast TV news, or hearing about it on drive-time radio news programs, you’re probably hearing it first from me? Yeah, me too.
21 Comments
Not really. Jim Crow isn’t the only thing that rich whites are trying to return to. Suppressed media and segregation are also popular with them these days.
Come on, PW, you’re kidding of course! Crist and Greer are simply disgruntled people who can’t see the big picture.
OH BROTHER !!
There was a time in the not too distant past that these admissions would not have been made. Florida, Pennsylvania are two that come to mind that have had officials openly admit that the goal is to have the white guy win this election through voter suppression.
Looks like Archie Bunker’s (more) evil twin, no?
Hey what do ya want the Pukes know if every American were to VOTE they would be on the dust heap of history! So their only way to win is to disqualify as many Americans as possible! Just another way to STEAL The VOTE!! Of coures they are also making sure all the black Box voting goes their way also… See Brads blog! For the long History of their antics….
How many open admissions that these tactics are designed only to suppress minority votes in order to elect Republicans will it take until there are prosecutions?
Indeed.
Paging Eric Holder…
Empty Suits can’t hear pages.
Why? They are empty.
A previous actor, K. Harris, was very good at this as well, if I recall correctly.
Ralph Kramden had popped in me head, too, but there was nothing remotely malevolent about him, so Bunker must be the one.
Thanks for this info, which merely confirms what is already a known fact. That said, so what? Not meaning to sound rude or disrespectful; just cynical. Nothing, absolutely nada, will come from such admissions whether made on tv or in court or anywhere.
Most citizens, frankly, could give a rat’s shit about any of this; don’t care one whit about voter suppression; and will, at most, shrug their shoulders. Good little authoritarians, no matter how they vote, aren’t inclined to care about trivia when there’s things like Dancing with the Stars or the TimKat divorce to discuss with their pals.
Just saying… NO politician will do a damn thing. The end.
Why would any well-meaning, kind-heartede person be a Republican at all? The GOP is a hateful, racist, homophobic and anti-intellectual confederation of the dim and the stupid. It also wants all of your money. Forget retirement; there are wars to be fought, and profits to be made. (Ask Mitt.)
The Democratic flip-side? Fuck them. Bback-stabbers, all. Hello Nancy Pelosi.
Face it, we do not have a functioning political democracy at all. There are no good guys.
thanks for the brad blog link; just got myself lost over there ;o)
Hey, phoenixwoman, great work as usual — always know i’m in for an interesting read when i see your byline. Thanks!
Very happy to see Charlie Crist resurface after he was blackboxed out of Senate seat. I just don’t believe northern FL gopers would vote for a unknown miami cuban over Crist and know dems like myself plus teachers voted for an independent Crist.
I guess that sometimes I should make my snarky comments a little more obvious. I just think that most of the readers here have seen enough of my comments to recognize it.
Crist turned out to be a much better person and more interested in helping the whole state to succeed than I thought he would be; kind of a 0 in reverse, which would make him a positive. That was his problem: the loud mouthed haters could not abide a real governor, they only wanted an enforcer of the t-party ideology (if you can dignify it as ideology) so he was out. The repugs got what they wanted, a crook with no desire for the state to see to the welfare of its citizens.
Chain gang Charlies doesn’t get a pass from me because he comes out for common decency now. This is a guy who paraded state prisoners in black and white stripes to drum up the racist white vote in the past. But history doesn’t mean much to THE PEOPLE WITHOUT MEMORIES.
Chain gang Charlie doesn’t get a pass from me because he comes out for a little common decency now. This is a guy who paraded state prisoners in black and white stripes to drum up the racist white vote in the past. But history doesn’t mean much to THE PEOPLE WHOSE MEMORIES TELEVISION ERASED.
What opened Herman Melville’s eyes was sailing the South Seas in the heyday of American empire, and seeing what “the white man” was doing to nature and other civilizations—with, all the while, a marching band of self-righteous ignorant narcissism to make itself feel good. So the more the planet has come to resist that and to cringe at the band-music, the more the GOP becomes visible as its last redoubt—and if you think they’re crazy now, imagine what they were as “normal” generations ago. These fascist clowns and monsters were, in mainstream media discussion before 9/11, a virtually-finished political entity. So let’s keep hope and learning going against them, and may they utterly implode sooner than later.
From what I understand via the “public service announcements” on my local radio station, Mr. Holder is busy urging folks not to buy “fake” handbags and illegal downloads.
Much more important “crimes,” don’t ya know.