Colbert mocks Va. Senate Republicans for redistricting ambush
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Once again, Virginia’s General Assembly is providing fodder for late-night comedians.
Last year, it was the controversy over legislation requiring women to submit to an ultrasound procedure before having an abortion.
Last night, Stephen Colbert had fun with the redistricting ambush that Senate Republicans pulled on Monday.
Colbert noted the irony that Republicans executed the maneuver on the holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., while one Democratic senator — civil rights lawyer Henry Marsh of Richmond — was attending President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Said Colbert: “In the words of Dr. King: ‘I have been to the mountain top. And while I was there, they heavily redistricted the promised land.’”
Colbert also noted that the Senate closed Monday’s acrimonious floor session by adjourning in honor of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson.
– Michael Sluss
January 24, 2013 - 7:08 AM
These Republicans should be so ashamed that they all resign in unison. Unfortunately for the rest of us, that would require a brain and a conscience, neither of which these non-humans possess.
I understand the irony of it, and it may have been an ambush but both sides do things like that. Also, Stonewall Jackson was a Virginian, one of the greatest generals ever,and he also held Sunday School classes and taught them for slaves and free african americans in Lexington, and even taught them to read and write, in defiance of the slave codes that forbade it. What’s wrong with adjourning in his honor?
Sound familiar? Isnt this how the dirty democrats pushed the health care bill through?
Virginia is nationally embarrassed again. Did they not learn anything from McDonnell & his obsession with unwanted vaginal probes?
Another reason to be embarrassed to be a Virginian at the present time. I keep hearing that “elections matter” from politicians. Those saying that seem to forget elections can cut both ways. From Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to this present batch of republican politicians. What a come down!
I thought the Democrats adopted new redistricting a few years ago that would “benefit” them. So I “Googled” it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-rousselot/2011-virginia-elections_b_1083901.html
In its 2008 party platform, DPVA wisely pledged that:
“We support legislative redistricting that is fair to all citizens, that follows logical geographical and jurisdictional boundaries, and that strives to keep communities of interest intact. We support the creation of an independent, bipartisan commission for the redistricting of legislative boundaries.”
In 2011, claiming that they had tried to honor DPVA’s party platform pledge, but had been thwarted by Governor McDonnell and the Republican HOD leadership, Senate Democrats, led by Dick Saslaw and Mary Margaret Whipple, abandoned DPVA’s party platform pledge entirely. Their decision was supported publicly by DPVA Chair Brian Moran.
Rather than sticking to their guns on non-partisan redistricting, the Senate Democratic leaders capitulated to Governor McDonnell, and unveiled a hyper-partisan Senate redistricting plan (hatched in secret by only a tiny handful of VA Democratic Senators). They then got that plan passed by the VA Senate on a strict party-line vote.
At the same time, Saslaw, and Whipple only recruited 3 Democratic challengers to Republican incumbent Senators while the Senate Republican leaders recruited 16 Republican challengers to Democratic incumbent Senators. See VPAP: (How can you expect to retain a majority with odds like these?)
This is just politics …. TV media and newspapers just dont point out when the democrats do it. You dont think Obama paid people off to get his national healthcare law through? As for the abortions I vote republican every time but I wouldnt mind planned parenthood in every public housing complex in the state.
This is also how the Federal Reserve came into existence. When members of Congress were going home for Christmas they passed the Federal Reserve Act in the middle of the night.
#2 Would you choose Veteran’s Day to adjourn in celebration of Elder John Kline? Would you adjourn on Lee-Jackson Day in celebration of the ca. 50,000 Virginians who fought for the Union?
No kidding, June. It seems that whenever Virginia makes the national news it’s for something fail. The Democrats need to make it clear to McDonnell that if he wants anything at all to happen during his last year in office, he needs to not sign that crap.
Leave it to the GOP to use a day honoring a black man to screw over the state.
Actually MLK day WAS originally Lee Jackson day. It was moved for the same reason MLK day even exists. The never ending appeasement of blacks. A bottomless pit that will never be satisfied.This is this south. Those that don’t like it know the way back up north.
The Republicans’ move is not politics as usual. Democrats in Virginia and elsewhere have gerrymandered districts to their advantage. However, redistricting by convention (and, by law in Virginia) has only been done once a decade in response to new census information. Republicans, such as those in Virginia now and in Texas a few years ago, are the ones who are deciding to redistrict whenever it suits their purposes.
It’s part of a general Republican trend to violate and ignore all of the unwritten and informal “rules” of politics, which in the past at least offered some semblance of comity and the ability to work together, in the name of unyielding partisan advantage.
I guess if I am a Democrat I would like to know why Senator Marsh was in Washington when the state that he was elected to represent had business in Richmond. I’ve commuted between these two cities before on I-95 and it doesn’t take that long to get back and forth. It seems like he took an ill-timed junket, and got caught with his pants down. As a New River Valley resident, the last thing that I want is somebody from Franklin County representing me. I’m thinking about running in the next election; I just haven’t decided if I’m going to have a (D), a (R) or a (FU) after my name on the ballot.
That’s ok GOP. You reap what you sow.
And then you close out the day with such an act of cowardice by honoring General Jackson. He would be ashamed of your actions this day.
Shame, shame on your sorry representation of Virginia.
Henry Marsh represents me. Monday was a federal holiday and Senator Marsh was honoring the memory of Martin Luther King in Washington DC while attending the swearing-in of our president. This bothers me not! What does bother me is why the VA Senate met on a federal holiday that was also the same day as the swearing-in. This is nothing but dirty politics as they decided to pull this crazy bill out of a hat, and didn’t mind blindsiding not only Senator Marsh but the governor and lt governor as well. If McDonnell has any guts at all, he will veto this bill when comes before him. Everytime VA gets in the news lately it is due to some Republican nonsense!
Hey @namewithheld, The 21st, which this year was also MLK day, is Stonewall Jackson’s birthday so that’s why they closed in remembrance on that day. And like I said, Jackson educated and helped slaves so…
Governor McDonnell now has a chance to secure his legacy as a statesman and trustee of the Virginia Way. Veto this chicanery, Sir, and be done with it.
To Earl B…”non humans”? Seriously?
And to the Roanoke Times…have you no shame? Where were you when 60 Democrats in the Senate voted in the middle of the night on Obamacare? Where were you when not one single Repub in Congress voted for an act consisting of 3200 pages that was voted upon within 20 hrs by all but 34 Democrats in Congress? Isn’t this the so called “pot calling the kettle black”?
I for one can be consistent. The way Obamacare was voted upon…and the way the Va Republican Senate handled redistricting…should be rejected by the citizens. We can do better.
Your newspaper and the newspaper industry in general is dying a slow death simply because you refuse to be consistent in your opinion regardless of political consequence. Continue using the power of your ink for political purpose. Shameful.