Pa. judge halts state's tough new voter ID law

HARRISBURG, Pa. — HARRISBURG, Pa. One of the toughest of a new wave of state voting laws was put on hold Tuesday as a judge postponed Pennsylvania's voter identification requirement just weeks before the presidential election.

The 6-month-old law in one of the most prized states in the election has become a high-profile issue in the tight contest between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Independent polls show a persistent lead for Obama in the state, but pollsters have said the requirement for voters to show a valid ID could mean that fewer people, especially minorities, end up voting. In the past, lower turnouts in Pennsylvania have benefited Republicans.

A top state lawmaker boasted at a Republican dinner in June that the ID requirement "is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania." Republicans have justified the law as a protection against election fraud.

The law had drawn protests, warnings of Election Day chaos and voter education drives as the law's opponents began collecting stories of people who had no valid photo ID and faced stiff barriers in their efforts to get one.

The judge's decision Tuesday could be appealed to the state Supreme Court, but it could easily be the final word on the law before the Nov. 6 election. The ruling also allows the law to go into full effect next year.

Democrats have used opposition to the law as a rallying cry to motivate volunteers and campaign contributions. They accused Republicans of trying to steal the White House by making it harder for young adults, the poor, minorities and the disabled to vote.

In a statement, the Obama campaign said the decision means that "eligible voters can vote on Election Day, just like they have in previous elections in the state."

The state's Republican Party chairman, Rob Gleason, said he was disappointed.

Other states face similar debates over voting.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana's voter ID law in 2008, and Georgia's top court upheld that state's voter ID law. But a federal panel struck down Texas' voter ID law, and the state court in Wisconsin has blocked its voter ID laws for now. The Justice Department cleared New Hampshire's voter ID law earlier this year.

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Column: Christie's tough guy act shows lack of civility

Chris Christie, New Jersey's nattering nabob of negativism, seems to have taken a page out of Spiro Agnew's playbook in hoisting himself onto the list of potential running mates for Mitt Romney, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential candidate.

AP

Gov. Chris Christie

DeWayne Wickham USATODAY columnist

Christie, the Garden State's rough-talking governor, has been auditioning for the GOP's vice presidential slot with a tough guy act that seems to play well with the Republican base. His supporters see combativeness as a blue-collar virtue that Romney lacks — and his centrist leanings as a magnet for independent voters. Christie's backers delight when he talks of kicking the butts of Democratic lawmakers, calls a reporter who challenged him during a news conference an "idiot," and labels an openly gay legislator a "numbnuts" for comparing Christie to segregationist governors for his position on same-sex marriage.

Agnew is the Maryland governor who catapulted himself onto the 1968 presidential ticket of Richard Nixon with tough talk of a different kind. He called a meeting of his state's moderate, black leaders following rioting that broke out in the wake of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and accused them of not doing enough to stop the violence.

Memories of Agnew

These black leaders didn't act because they were "stung by insinuations (they) were Mr. Charlie's boy" and "by epithets like 'Uncle Tom'," Agnew said as television cameras rolled. That dressing down of Maryland's black leaders got Agnew national media attention and an invitation to be Nixon's running mate.

Christie is a bully of another sort. He was caught on video recently menacingly berating a man who voiced some objection to his education policy while the governor strolled along a Seaside Heights, N.J., boardwalk with an ice cream cone in hand. "You're a real big shot, shooting your mouth off. Keep walking away. … Keep walking," Christie can be heard calling out to the man, whom the governor pursued briefly before being gently nudged into another direction by a member of his entourage. But to actually think Christie is a real tough guy is to believe The Sopranos was a real-life documentary, not an HBO fictional drama.

Baiting for attention

Like James Gandolfini, the show's star, Christie is an actor. He baits interest in his potential candidacy with the kind of tough talk that only true bad guys, and people with a security detail, get away with. His reckless speech might play well in a state besmirched by the false imagery of The Sopranos and Jersey Shore, an MTV series that negatively stereotypes the very neighborhood where Christie had his boardwalk blowup. But it won't pass on the world stage where vice presidents play an increasingly important role. In a recent interview on the ABC News show Nightline, Christie said coyly that he'd answer the phone if Romney called to ask him to be his running mate.

Let's hope that doesn't happen.

What this nation needs from both sides of the political aisle are serious men and women who will take a constructive — not a chest-beating — approach to leadership and governing. We need politicians who can proffer their ideas and defend their ideological ground without resorting to brutish behavior. This nation needs elected officials who will answer reporters' questions, or — when they choose not to — will do so with the good reasoning and civility public trust demands.

As with Agnew, Christie's selection as a vice presidential candidate would be great theater. But to put someone who delights in using fighting words so close to the Oval Office would place a blustering bully a heartbeat away from the presidency.

DeWayne Wickham writes on Tuesdays for USA TODAY.

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White House adviser: Can Romney make tough calls? (AP)

WASHINGTON – A White House adviser say Mitt Romney has "moved all over the place" on issues from abortion to gay marriage over his career and might not have firm enough convictions to make the tough decisions as president.

David Plouffe (pluhf) jokes that if Romney thought "it was good to say the sky was green and the grass was blue to win an election, he'd say it."

Plouffe, who was Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager, notes a new Iowa poll showing Herman Cain leading with 23 percent support, and Romney next at 22 percent.

Plouffe tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that Cain "seems to have tapped into something." Plouffe says lots of voters still are "looking somewhere else" beyond Romney and he wonders whether the early front-runner can turn that around.

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Black Dem faces tough race for Miss. governor (AP)

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press Emily Wagster Pettus, Associated Press – Wed Aug 24, 8:05 pm ET

JACKSON, Miss. – After making history this week as the first black candidate to win a major-party nomination for Mississippi governor, Democrat Johnny DuPree now faces the tough reality of trying to win a general election against a better-known, better-funded GOP candidate in a strongly Republican state.

DuPree, the mayor of Mississippi's third-largest city, Hattiesburg, said he's not daunted because he has usually been outspent in campaigns. He said he plans to continue running a race-neutral campaign focused on jobs and education.

"We're in the race to try to make a difference for the citizens of Mississippi," the 57-year-old DuPree said after winning the Democratic primary runoff Tuesday night. "Our first priority is not the (campaign) finances."

An expert on black political participation said Wednesday that DuPree has little chance of defeating the Republican nominee, Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, in the Nov. 8 general election.

"My guess is if the odds-makers were putting odds on this, it would probably be something like 100-to1," said David Bositis, senior political analyst for the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "Mississippi isn't ready to elect a black candidate to major statewide office."

Bositis, who has spent more than two decades researching voting trends, said Mississippi is one of several Deep South states that has developed re-segregated electoral patterns, "with the Republican Party being the white people's party and pretty much just African-Americans being the Democratic Party."

Mississippi's current governor, Republican Haley Barbour, is limited to two terms and couldn't seek re-election this year.

Republicans have held the Mississippi Governor's Mansion four of the past five terms, and the state has voted Republican in every presidential race since 1980.

With a population that's 37 percent black, Mississippi now has more black elected officials than any state in the nation, according to the joint center.

However, Mississippi hasn't had a black statewide official since Reconstruction. Decades ago, black citizens faced threats, violence and poll taxes for trying to exercise their right to vote. The political structure started to change and black voter participation began to increase after the federal civil rights and voting rights acts became law in the mid-1960s.

Marvin King, a political science professor at the University of Mississippi, said DuPree's win this week is significant.

"Even in Mississippi, you can have a statewide candidate who is black, who won a nomination, who earned his way to the top of a ticket," King said Wednesday.

Bryant, the one-term lieutenant governor, said that when he called DuPree to congratulate him Tuesday night, he noted the significance of a black candidate winning a major-party nomination for governor.

"I told him, there are children all across this state that look to him as an example now," Bryant, 56, of Brandon, said Wednesday. "I think it's a very historic moment. Now, we disagree on some issues and we'll have a debate about that."

Aaron Barksdale, a Mississippi voter who describes himself as a Libertarian, posted Wednesday night on DuPree's campaign page on Facebook: "Just remember: A vote BECAUSE he is Black is just as RACIST as voting AGAINST him because he's Black."

DuPree campaign manager Sam Hall posted a response that said "voting for or against someone because of their skin color is a ridiculous way to pick a candidate. That's why the only time we talk about race in this campaign is when the media asks about it or someone brings it up like this."

DuPree leads a city that is roughly half black, half white. He does not dwell on race as an issue in the governor's election, although he has acknowledged in interviews that it's a concern for some voters. He said the color he likes to discuss is green, as in money generated from job creation.

DuPree defeated Bill Luckett, a white Clarksdale attorney and developer, in the runoff.

Luckett immediately endorsed DuPree, saying the mayor has shown a desire to help all people in the state.

Independent Will Oatis of Silver Creek is also running for governor. Rival factions of the Reform Party want to put a candidate in the race.

Barksdale, 31, of Ocean Springs, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that he posted the Facebook comment because he got tired of people treating him as if he's racist because he didn't vote for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008, when Obama was elected the first black U.S. president.

"I have nothing against Johnny DuPree. He did a lot of good for Hattiesburg," Barksdale said. "But in 2008, it was the largest black voter turnout in history and it was all because Obama was there."

Barksdale said he voted for one of the Republicans who lost to Bryant in the Aug. 2 primary, and he doesn't yet know which candidate he'll support in November.

Two other high-profile black politicians ran for Mississippi governor as independents in the 1970s. Charles Evers, brother of slain civil-rights leader Medgar Evers, ran in 1971. State Sen. Henry Kirksey ran in 1975. Neither had to go through a primary.

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Rick Perry may have tough time swaying Latino voters (Daily Caller)

As speculation swirls that Texas Gov. Rick Perry may enter the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, the Miami Herald reports he may have difficulty attracting Latino voters.

Yesterday in San Antonio, Perry addressed the 28th annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. The governor’s speech made mention both of his record of appointing Hispanics and his economic achievement as the state’s executive. And though he received polite applause, the mood was tense.

(Perry joke about Jose Cuervo falls flat at Latino convention)

At the root could be the governor’s inclusion of a “sanctuary city” bill in the special session of the state legislature. The bill threatens to withhold state aid from local governments that prevent police officers from asking about immigration status. Hispanics may also be upset with a bill Perry signed into law last month, requiring photo identification at polling stations. Both are hot-button issues for Latinos.

And Latino voters could prove to be a crucial demographic in 2012. They’re expected to turn out in record numbers, with a possible 26% increase in Latino turnout from the 2008 election.

Perry, a master politician, avoided any mention of the sanctuary city bill or the photo identification bill during his speech, instead focusing on broad themes. He also addressed the audience, saying Hispanic contributions were important for “the future of Texas.” The state’s future, he said to the Latino crowd, is “incredibly right because of men and women like you.”

But one of Perry’s opponents remains cautious. Democratic state representative Trey Martinez Fischer, chairman of Texas’ Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, told the Herald: “Governor Perry is a phenomenal politician and he can campaign like no other, but you’ve got to get beyond the person…Latino voters will look at action but not words. When Latinos scrutinize the actions that have been taken in this state, they’ll look for another choice.”

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Senators unveil tough resolution on Libya (AP)

WASHINGTON – A resolution before the Senate pressures President Barack Obama to seek congressional consent for continued U.S. military involvement in Libya and requires the administration to provide a detailed justification for the decision to go to war.

Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., introduced the resolution on Wednesday, expressing the same frustration with the commander in chief as House members who last Friday voted to rebuke Obama for failing to get authorization from Congress when he ordered air strikes beginning March 19 against Moammar Gadhafi's forces.

The Constitution says Congress has the power to declare war, and the 1973 War Powers Resolution requires the president to obtain congressional authorization within 60 days of the start of military operations, a deadline that passed last month.

"The issue for us ... is whether a president, any president, can unilaterally begin and continue a military campaign for reasons that he alone has defined as meeting the demanding standards of a vital national security interest worthy of risking American lives and expending billions of dollars of our taxpayers' money," Webb said in a Senate speech. "What was the standard in this case?"

Corker said it has been more than 80 days since the first U.S. military action "but neither the Congress nor the American people have any clearer view of the administration's stated mission or end game for our military involvement in Libya."

While the rebels have made gains in Libya, Gadhafi has maintained his grip on power, saying he will fight to the death.

The Senate resolution mirrors the House measure in arguing that Obama failed to provide a "compelling rationale" for U.S. action in Libya. It also prohibits U.S. ground forces in Libya except to rescue a U.S. service member and requires the administration to answer more than 20 questions on the scope of the mission, its costs and the impact on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan within a two-week period.

Going beyond the House resolution, the measure expresses the sense of the Senate that Obama should request congressional authorization for continued U.S. military action. NATO commands the operation, but the United States still plays a significant support role that includes aerial refueling of warplanes and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance work.

Corker said he expects the Senate to debate the resolution next week, but its prospects remain unclear as several senators favor a stronger endorsement of the U.S. mission. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., the Foreign Relations Committee chairman, and John McCain, R-Ariz., proposed such a measure last month.

The White House maintains that it has been in compliance with the War Powers Act and has called the resolutions unhelpful and unnecessary.

Initially the White House brushed off the nonbinding House measure, saying it had provided answers at various briefings. But on Wednesday, it said it will respond to detailed questions on the U.S. mission in Libya within a two-week deadline.

The House resolution was sponsored by House Speaker John Boehner.

"We will answer the questions in that resolution within the time frame that he specifies," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday.

The deadline for providing answers on the operation's objective is June 17.

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