This Just In ...

Go ahead WI liberals, make my day

Posted by Kevin Fischer on Jan. 12, 2011

Consider the current political atmosphere and climate in Wisconsin.

We have a conservative Republican governor.

The state Senate is controlled, and how, by Republicans.

The state Assembly is controlled, and how, by Republicans.

Jim Doyle, the man who vetoed photo ID legislation three times? GONE!

Jim Doyle, who vetoed legislation to give free photo IDs to those who could not afford? GONE!

The vast majority of Wisconsin residents, and that includes a big chunk of Democrats, support a photo ID requirement to vote.

Republicans are poised (and not soon enough for me and many, many others) to approve photo ID legislation. Governor Walker will sign it.

Even though many, many Wisconsinites that consider themselves Democrats support photo ID, the problem is that Democrats in control of state matters the past several years have always stood in the way against the wishes of the majority of the citizenry.

Now that there is nothing stopping photo ID, what does one liberal group suggest as their trump card to fight this common sense approach and in the process support voter fraud because one party reaps the benefits? Court action. We’ll sue.

My reaction? Fine. Bring it on because you’ll get your hat handed to you.

Indiana is reported to have one of the nation’s most stringent voter ID laws on the books. To vote in the Hoosier State, proof of identification is required. ID must be issued by the state of Indiana or the U.S. government and must show the name and photo of the individual.






In April of 2008, the highest court in the land, the US Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s strict voting law, ruling that states can ask for photo ID from voters. Democrats had made the usual wimpy arguments that such requirements were unconstitutional, a huge burden, and discriminatory. Funny how those same Democrats never make the same claims against, oh, Blockbuster for example.

Bloomberg.com reports:

“Writing the court's lead opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens said the risk of voter fraud is ‘real’  and that fraud ‘could affect the outcome of a close election.’ States, he said, have a ‘valid interest in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process’.

Democrats contended that the new Indiana law will disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters, including a disproportionate number of minority, elderly and poor people.

Stevens said the evidence didn't back up those assertions. He said the record in the case ‘does not provide any concrete evidence of the burden imposed on voters who currently lack photo identification'."

Failing to win the court of public opinion and failing to legislate through the Legislature and failing in one court ruling, liberals decided to fight in the courts one more time. They went to the Indiana Supreme Court and swung and missed again.

Indychannel.com reported last June that the court ruled 4-1 that the state of Indiana has the power to require photo IDs:

“Justice Brent Dickson wrote in the majority decision that no actual voters harmed by the law were named in the suit.

‘No individual voter has alleged that the voter ID law has prevented him or her from voting or inhibited his or her ability to vote in any way,’ the decision states.

The Indiana Supreme Court said that the photo ID requirement was not a ‘substantive voter qualification.’ It cited the U.S. Supreme Court's 2008 ruling in a federal court challenge by the state Democratic Party to the Indiana law that said a photo ID is required to enter federal buildings and board planes and voting was equally important.

‘The voter ID law's requirement that an in-person voter present a government-issued photo identification card containing an expiration date is merely regulatory in nature,’ Dickson wrote.

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, a Republican, applauded the decision.

‘It is overwhelmingly supported by voters and taxpayers, despite a very small but very vocal partisan minority,’ Rokita said. ‘Protecting the votes of honest people from being diluted by those who have no respect for the franchise is the right thing to do’.”

Back in Wisconsin, news of potential quick passage of photo ID led newspaper reporters scurrying for mega-liberals to provide quotes blasting the concept. One of the most liberal in Madison is state Representative Terese Berceau (D- The People’s Republic of Madison) who said this in a statement:

"Wisconsin cannot afford this expensive, unneeded, and extreme voter ID proposal that will disenfranchise thousands of students, seniors, and low-income individuals in our state.”

Oh, that’s a riot. It’s amazing how tax and spend uber-lefties automatically, as if by some magic spell, turn into fiscal conservatives when they can’t get their way.

The National Conference of State Legislatures reports 27 states require some form of ID when voting. So, you lefties wanting to try to moan and groan your case in court, by all means, go right ahead.  Do more damage to the Democrat Party in the process.

A hardship to getting an ID? Really? Since when?

Seems a lot of folks have no tremendous difficulty securing an ID for renting videos, taking out library books/CDs, or even getting a nighttime bed at a homeless shelter.

So dear GOP legislators, don’t get bogged down in discussions about whether to do a photo ID bill or a bill with all kinds of voter reform measures tacked on. Do one bill at a time, ASAP. Photo ID first, then abolishing same day registration (Hello, can yu say, fraud?)  Hold the necessary hearings, let the opposed whine and cry. then use your power to get legislation through and passed and signed into law.

BINGO!

Instantly, you will be political heroes.

This is why the voters put you in power.  Don’t mess it up. Get it done, and get it done soon!