As someone who campaigned - admittedly falsely, in my opinion - as a reformed moderate, Bob McDonnell seems to continually demonstrate that he is anything but what he claimed. First he screwed gay state employees, then he was soft on slavery, and now he's trying to keep blacks disenfranchised if they were ever convicted of non-violent felonies. Something that is not all that difficult to have happen in Virginia's highly flawed and racial bigoted (and homophobic) judicial system. Now, the Washington Post has called McDonnell out on his revisions to the process to restore voting rights which likely will slow the process rather than expedite it in the manner McDonnell claimed to support as a candidate. As I have noted before, voters need to recognize that GOP candidates who emulate his false campaign are not moderates no matter how much they lie on the campaign trail. Here are highlights from the Post's editorial taking McDonnell to task:*
AS A CANDIDATE last fall, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell earned praise and reinforced his carefully nurtured image as a moderate by pledging to streamline the cumbersome process by which nonviolent former felons may regain their voting rights after completing their sentences.
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We take the governor at his word. But his initial attempts to expedite the process have come with a fat asterisk that casts doubt on any claim to fairness and decency, let alone moderation: Mr. McDonnell is also requiring ex-offenders -- who have already paid their debt to society -- to pass what looks like a character test before they can cast a vote.
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In 48 other states and the District of Columbia, voting rights for most felons are restored automatically once their sentence is fulfilled. Only Virginia and Kentucky insist that some sanctions last indefinitely -- until the state, in its infinite wisdom, grants what the U.S. Constitution regards as the inalienable right to vote. In the Old Dominion, the result is that huge numbers of people are disenfranchised. Although the powers that be in Richmond regard former felons with such contempt that they don't even bother counting them, voting rights advocates estimate that some 300,000 ex-cons in Virginia remain barred from voting. African Americans account for just a fifth of Virginia's 7.8 million citizens but are thought to constitute about half of those ineligible to vote. This is Jim Crow by another name.
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Now Mr. McDonnell may be compounding the damage by insisting that nonviolent former felons -- people convicted of shoplifting and other property crimes, for instance -- must do more than just apply to the state if they wish to vote, a process that until now has been time-consuming but generally successful for those who stick with it. Mr. McDonnell would have them submit a letter making the case that they have contributed to society since their release -- an utterly arbitrary standard. What's more, they are asked to explain why they think they should get their rights back.
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Mr. McDonnell is transforming the process into a kind of literacy test -- as obnoxious in its own way as the literacy tests of Jim Crow, which were intended to exclude blacks from voting. Whatever the intent, the likely effect will be to dissuade thousands of people who might otherwise apply.
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We would forgive any Virginians who do not feel grateful for this patronizing offer. It should not require applications, essays or the approbation of condescending bureaucrats to restore the vote to people who have paid for their wrongdoing. It is a matter of equity and democratic fair play and should be treated accordingly.
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McDonnell knows that black Virginians who have their voting rights restored are unlikely to vote for his party and, therefore, he appears to want to make it as difficult as possible for such individuals to ever have the right to vote again. Yet another example of the screwed up values of today's Republican Party. The party of Lincoln is now the party of racists, bigots, tea baggers and birthers.
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