TAMPA — With Florida Republicans set to vote Tuesday for their
preferred presidential nominee — almost surely Mitt Romney —
Democrats chose Friday to put on a political show-trial accusing
Republicans of attempting to deny the vote to blacks, the young,
the elderly, and selected other Democratic constituencies (no
mention yet of widows and orphans, but it’s early).
The show took place at the Hillsborough County Court House
in downtown Tampa Friday, and it starred Democratic U.S. Senators
Dick Durbin of Illinois and Bill Nelson of Florida, along with a
supporting cast of useful witnesses who (as we have learned to say)
stayed on message.
Nelson, seeking re-election this year, has charged that
changes made by the heavily Republican Florida Legislature last
year to Florida’s voter laws are nothing short of attempts at voter
suppression, suppression that strikes at the very heart of
democracy and self-government. Durbin used his Senate Judiciary
subcommittee to orchestrate this overwrought charge by holding a
hearing Friday in which witness after witness repeated the
Democratic talking points. I’ve been to pep rallies that were less
one-sided.
Republicans, including the legislative sponsors of the
legislation, spokesmen for the Florida Secretary of State’s and the
governor’s office, and the chairman of the Republican Party of
Florida, say the charges are bogus — cheap and transparent
political theater. The laws were changed to save some election
expense and to guard against voter fraud, they say, and do not
prevent anyone from registering and voting.
The Durbin/Nelson rodeo got going Friday morning in front
of the courthouse with the usual demonstrators with quaint costumes
and loudspeakers forecasting the end of self-government if these
evil laws are not struck from the books. Scattered among the
college students and various leftist indignatos were a few
counter-demonstrators who weren’t going along with the gag. Most of
these thought Nelson, rather than Florida’s new voting laws, should
go.
Dueling signs carried such messages as: “Those who fear
our votes don’t deserve our votes,” and “Buh bye Bill Nelson.”
There were several rat-bags with signs indicating they were “part
of the 99 percent” (of what, their appearance did not make clear).
And there was one lonely guy whose sign carried this universal but
ambiguous message: “The joke’s on us.”
Retiree Lew Green of Apollo Beach thought he knew what the
joke was. He didn’t miss the irony of a senator from Illinois, with
its colorful history of voting practices, lecturing Floridians on
how to vote. “I’m from Chicago,” Lew told me. “I can’t wait till I
die so I can go back home to vote.”
So what’s the ostensible cause of all this heavy breathing
on the part of Nelson, Durbin, et al.? No, the poll tax hasn’t been
re-instated. The legislature, however, did cut early voting days in
Florida from 14 to eight, but added evening and weekend hours so
plenty of non-work hours are available to all voters. The time that
third-party registration outfits have to turn in voter paper work
to supervisors of elections offices was more than cut in half and
penalties added for late filing.
That’s it. Inside the court house, witness after witness
said what Nelson and Durbin wanted to hear, that the new
arrangements leave blacks and Hispanics and students and the
elderly at wits end as how to ever register and cast a vote. No
mention that Florida counties have multiple supervisor of elections
offices and that other venues, Department of Motor Vehicles offices
and public libraries to name just two, are available for the
eligible to register or to deal with matters such as address
changes.
There’s ample time to deal with these matters before
elections. But Friday’s witnesses, many from various racial and
ethnic grievance groups, panted that this minimal level of
responsibility required on the part of potential voters is just too
big an obstacle for their constituencies. One witness shot the moon
by saying the new laws were worse than Jim Crow, an absolutely
knee-buckling thing to say, not just because the guy saying it
wasn’t even born when Jim Crow, a truly nasty fellow, was run out
of town. Neither Durbin nor Nelson had anything to say about this
remarkable assertion. Apparently when accusing Republicans of
perfidy, there is no upper limit, no credibility test at all. One
is justified in wondering if there would have been even a ripple if
a witness had claimed the new law requires poll workers to eat
Democrats if they attempted to vote.
At the end of the proceedings, the spinning of the issue
complete, the unanswered charges laid out in breathless detail,
Nelson said, “Mr. Chairman, I think that rule of law has been
assaulted here in this state by this election law under the
pretense of election fraud.” There was indeed a good deal of
pretense going on in Tampa on Friday. But not the kind Nelson wants
the world to believe. The purpose of the “hearing” was clearly not
to gather information but to deliver a point of view. If anything
was assaulted, it was common sense.
For the most part the mainstream media in Florida played
their assigned role in this charade. No matter how transparently
overwrought and politically motivated the charges are, Florida
reporters mostly rose to the bait, as Nelson knew they would. News
outlets took the charges seriously in newspaper stories and TV
stand-ups, rarely quoting anyone on the other side of the
issue.
Florida isn’t the only state in the voting law hot seat
this year. Durbin said his subcommittee will be looking at the laws
of more than 30 states in search of similar frontal attacks on the
franchise. His ministry will be supported by U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder, who has crooned about how evil Republicans are
attempting to require Democratic voters to meet unreasonable
standards at the polls, like having to show a photo I.D. to ensure
the voter is who he represents himself to be. (Yes, a photo I.D.
The same thing many Americans have to show to cash a check or to
buy a six-pack of beer.)
When services were over Friday after two-plus hours of
fantastical testimony, I felt like I’d been at the Queen of Heart’s
court with the Mad Hatter as bailiff. But I ask for no sympathy
from TAS readers. Further, I caution those on the mainland
not to just enjoy a laugh at Florida’s expense and move on. This
political circus may soon be coming to a courthouse near
you.
