Three major events this week have landed like a hot potato in the lap of Republicans this week.
1. SCOTUS's gutting of the Civil Rights Act and punting to Congress to fix it -- or not. The GOP establishment is pulled between trying to placate the Tea Party and to expand their voting constituency to include blacks and Hispanics. If they obstruct Democrats' efforts to fix the VRA -- by redefining who is under the spotlight for passing laws that disenfranchise the very groups they're trying to attract -- they're going to lose big in 2014.
2. SCOTUS's killing DOMA and reviving California's marriage equality is going to bring out some die-hard conservatives who will try once again to reinforce their anti-gay laws. So are they going to stand in the way of the tidal wave of change that is sweeping states? If they do, they will lose the young vote, which they're also trying to attract.
3. The Senate today passed a bipartisan immigration bill. If the House continues to obstruct this other wave of change that is so necessary, they will lose Hispanics in 2014 by an even larger margin.
As Chris Hayes said tonight: In the House, the Tea Party Controls John Boehner instead of the other way around.
Schadenfreude, Schadenfreude . . . . (sung to the tune of "Edelweiss, Edelweiss . . . ).
Ralph
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On the voting rights issue, I'm speaking here only about the political dilemma for Republicans. Of course, the voting rights decision will hurt Democratic voters and candidates more -- but as a policy issue for them, it's something they can run on -- rewriting the bill that's about voting rights, not about race.
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