To say that I am concerned and alarmed at what I see happening to the Republican Party in DC would be a gross understatement. You might be welcoming the news that the House of Representatives finally reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, but the details are scary. Speaker Boehner had to, once again, violate the so-called Hastert Rule which holds that no vote will be allowed that the majority of the majority doesn’t support. The final roll call in the House ended with the majority of Republicans (138-87) opposing the reauthorization.
Now, on the one hand, that the Republican leadership is growing increasingly comfortable governing with a reliance on the Democratic minority is a positive development and something that I felt was absolutely necessary if we are not going to implode politically in this country.
On the other hand, the House Republicans are dangerously radicalized. I’d also note that Eric Cantor stood with the radicals today and throughout the battle over reauthorization.
Cantor’s main objection is that the new version of the law empowers Native American tribal courts to prosecute people who come on their reservations and rape women. Irin Carmon wrote about this problem last year in Salon.
“We have serial rapists on the reservation — that are non-Indian — because they know they can get away with it,” said Charon Asetoyer, executive director of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center in Lake Andes, S.D. “Many of these cases just get dropped. Nothing happens. And they know they’re free to hurt again.”
Asetoyer was talking about the loophole that prevents tribal authorities, who have jurisdiction over crimes committed on Indian territory by Indians, from having any authority over non-Indian male abusers. That’s despite the fact that non-Indian men account for an estimated 80 percent of rapes of Indian women, and that the astronomical rate of abuse of Indian women is well documented by the federal government.
This is this situation that Eric Cantor fought so hard to perpetuate. I mean, this is crazy. Before the House passed a bill that addresses this issue today, they voted for a version of the bill that would not address it. It actually got 166 votes, only two of which were cast by Democrats (Dan Lipinksi of Illinois and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina).
I’ll give credit to Boehner for sticking up to his own crazies this time, but I don’t know how much longer he can hold on.
