Ed Gillespie Orchestrated Racial Gerrymander, Now Praises Court For Striking It Down

I've said before that I find GOP U.S. Senate Candidate Ed Gillespie to be a despicable individual.  Throughout the campaign Gillespie has made much of his rags to riches immigrant family history, but he leaves out the fact that along the way he sold his soul for money and for partisan advantage has been willing to overlook the humanity of those unpopular with the GOP base's white supremacist bigotry - something incompatible with Gillespie's claimed allegiance to the Catholic social justice message.  Think Progress on a recent development that underscores Gillespie's utter hypocrisy and willingness to lie if it furthers his interest.  What am I talking about?  The GOP's racially based gerrymandering in Virginia which Gillespie helped to orchestrate even though he now praises a panel of judges for striking down the unconstitutional district.   Here are details from Think Progress:

In a debate with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) Monday, Senate candidate Ed Gillespie (R-VA) praised a recent court decision for tossing out Virginia’s racially gerrymandered congressional maps — even though the maps were the direct result of a partisan redistricting scheme he himself crafted. 

Asked if he would support a bill to restore Voting Rights Act protections gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, Gillespie argued that more protections are unnecessary because the courts are still able to strike down discriminatory laws like Virginia’s. 

“We saw here just recently in Virginia that civil rights and the Voting Rights Act is being enforced. We have had our district lines overturned by the courts and it is one of the reasons why the federal court is so important,” Gillespie said, . . . . .

The problem is, Gillespie was a key architect in Republicans’ gerrymandering effort that led to the Virginia maps in the first place. 

Shortly after Gillespie became the chair of the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) in 2010, the group launched a major push to redistrict state legislative maps to favor Republicans, called the Redistricting Majority Project, or REDMAP. The RSLC raised more than $30 million to pack state legislatures with Republicans who would approve maps to lock in Republican seats for the next decade.

The now invalidated Virginia maps, which were approved after Republicans took control of the state Senate, are considered one of the most aggressive racial gerrymanders in the nation. The maps consolidated several disparate African American communities into one awkwardly shaped district, effectively siloing black voters so they would not impact other districts. The legislature must now redraw more equitably distributed maps by April.

Despite the setback in Virginia, Gillespie’s national Republican gerrymander has achieved its goal, costing Democrats 1.7 million votes in seven states in the 2012 election.

Note how Gillespie doesn't support re-enacting portions of the Voting Rights Act.   Gillespie continues to prostitute himself to Christofascists and white supremacists.