May 24, 2016

There may not be a more repugnant misanthrope in Congress than Virginia Rep. Dave Brat, which makes a recent Supreme Court decision especially sweet. Brat is one of a handful of conservatives whose re-election may be at risk, because Virginia's latest gerrymandering schemes have been squelched, thanks in part to Justice Stephen Breyer.

In an opinion Monday by Justice Breyer, the court said the politicians lacked legal standing to pursue the appeal.

The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed an appeal by three Republican congressmen seeking to invalidate a Virginia voting map they claimed harmed their chance of re-election.

The lawmakers had challenged a map drawn by a federal court that found the original districts set by the state Legislature after the 2010 Census discriminated against African-Americans, who have tended to support Democrats.

While drawing political lines to disadvantage minority voters is illegal, the Supreme Court has never held that partisan gerrymanders, designed to help one political party over another, violate the Constitution. The issues often blur, however, as minority voters have favored Democrats while white voters, particularly in the South, have trended toward Republicans.

Duh. GOP state legislatures routinely create just a few "Democratic" districts by carving up their state along racial lines. They hide their racism by saying it's a partisan gerrymander. The end result is more Republicans AND Whites in the State House. Coincidence? Ya think?

Virginia Republicans sought to block

new district boundaries that led Rep. Randy Forbes to seek election this year in a district where he doesn't live.

Reps. Rob Wittman and Dave Brat, both Republicans, also argued they were harmed because in their districts -- the 1st and 7th, respectively -- their "base electorate" was replaced by "unfavorable Democratic voters." Breyer wrote that Wittman and Brat didn't present evidence to back up their claim.

The assertion that the Tea Party is rooted in racial segregation is indisputable when you look at their non-stop efforts to suppress the minority vote.

The high court ruled that none of the GOP legislators had legal standing to oppose the boundaries set in place after a federal lawsuit found the old district lines weakened Black voter clout by packing too many Black voters in the 3rd District. The 3rd's incumbent is Rep. Bobby Scott, the only Black person elected to Congress from Virginia since the late 1800s.

There's no denying that Dave Brat is a particularly loathsome Teabagger. He has disputed the separation of church and state, and claimed that ISIS had set up a base in Texas. He's an ardent ammosexual, as expected. He called his own primary defeat of Cantor in 2014 a 'miracle from God.'

The corporate-funded, astroturf group known as the Tea Party garnered impressive Congressional victories in both midterms of the Obama years. Since their ascension to power, these ersatz 'legislators' have fulfilled their roles as well as any spurious con-artist could. They campaigned on the idea that government doesn't work and then, with unprecedented, obstinate obstructionism, proceeded to discredit the entire institution. Each and every one is a science-denying, racist, homophobic miscreant ill-suited for public service, and their well-deserved day of reckoning can't come soon enough.

Legal experts say this decision will likely result in more Democratic House Seats from Virginia. May the House-cleaning commence!

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