So much for priorities. It seems the Democrats have decided to put its voting reform legislation on the slow train to nowhere. Why am I not surprised.
Under pressure from state and local officials, as well as from lobbyists for the disabled, House leaders now advocate putting off the most sweeping changes until 2012, four years later than planned.
Overhauling voting systems before next year’s presidential election had once been a top Democratic priority, primarily to allow greater accountability and be certain that all votes registered on computerized touch-screen systems were counted. But state and local elections officials told Congress they could not make the changes in time for the balloting in November 2008, particularly in light of the extra workload involved in preparing for next year’s much-earlier presidential primary season.
Confronted by similar concerns, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and the chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, said she had already decided against seeking any major changes in voting equipment before 2010.
They’ve caved on Iraq. They’ve caved on Iran. They never had the chance to cave on impeachment since they unilaterally decided to disarm before they even assumed control of Congress. And now they have caved on voting reform, a critical issue to many of their constituents who put them in office to insure that all our votes would be counted next election in light of the vote fraud and voter suppression efforts engaged in by Republicans over the last 4 election cycles.
I have to ask: Is there anything Congressional Democrats stand for at this point other than getting elected? It’s getting harder and harder to make the case that they do, when their deeds consistently fall so far short of their rhetoric. No wonder Congress’ approval rating is in a free fall. They were elected to at least try to get something accomplished. All too often they’ve refused to do even that much.
