President Obama vs. Texas

They might as well put a ?Mess with Texas? bumper sticker on the presidential limo.

Attorney General Eric Holder?s announcement Thursday that he?s taking Texas to court over its voting laws is the latest battle between the White House and Lone Star State Republicans ? and one that both sides are eager to have.

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Texas vs. the Obama administration is one of most reliable shows in politics. Right from the start of President Barack Obama?s first term, Gov. Rick Perry refused to take stimulus money. He helped lead the opposition to Obamacare and has since refused to set up a state insurance exchange or expand Medicaid in his state. He never came across an Obama EPA regulation he didn?t challenge. And State Attorney General Greg Abbott has sued the federal government 27 times on everything from Obamacare to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

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Both sides have political motivation to keep going: The White House gets applauded in many parts of the country for casting Texas as the evil outlaw, and Republicans in the state count the money and the votes they get back home for telling the federal government to stuff it.

?Texans want to fight. They love to fight. The Obama administration is willing to get in the ring with us, and we?ll never step out of the ring,? said Bill Miller, a Texas lobbyist and political consultant who?s worked with both Republicans and Democrats in the state. ?Ten rounds, fifteen rounds, we?ll keep going. As long as the two sides are standing, they?re going to swing at each other. And both sides benefit from the fight.?

The latest round began last month, when hours after the Supreme Court struck down of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Abbott launched a website committed to implementing the state?s controversial new voter ID laws. Thursday morning, Holder countered, announcing in a speech to the National Urban League in Philadelphia that the Justice Department would ask a court to consider a new avenue to force those laws to go through federal pre-clearance, since he says they are clearly discriminatory.

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Voting rights, like immigration and affirmative action, goes directly to the question that will likely define the fate of Texas politics within the decade: How much will the growing black and Latino populations there spell the end of Republican dominance in the state ? and any hopes the GOP has of staying competitive in the Electoral College?

Democrats say state Republicans are on the wrong side of history, and sacrificing short term wins for long term decimation. Republicans, meanwhile, feel confident they?ve got a lot less to worry about than people think, and that fighting the Obama administration can only increase their popularity with Texans, no matter their ethnicity.

?It?s good to have an enemy in politics,? said Texas GOP consultant Mike Baselice. ?For states in the South, especially in Texas, you?re not going to find a better one than the federal government.?

That argument was enough to essentially form the platform for Perry?s presidential campaign, and for at least a week in August of 2011, make him seem like the perfect candidate to topple Obama.

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But while Perry on Thursday blasted Holder?s announcement as another example of an administration ?demonstrating utter contempt for our country?s system of checks and balances, not to mention the U.S. Constitution,? he?s already taken himself out of a race for reelection next year.

Instead, the Republican nominee and likely next governor is Abbott, who?s made an applause line out of describing his job as ?I go into my office, I sue the federal government, and I go home.?

Abbott carried that message to a conference call with reporters Thursday, peppering his remarks with phrases like ?state sovereignty? as he dismissed Holder?s chances and the necessity for bringing a case at all. As for Holder?s claim that there?s ?evidence of intentional racial discrimination ? as well as the history of pervasive voting-related discrimination,? Abbott argued that?s ?ancient history,? and on the contrary, Holder was using the voting rights laws ?for partisan purposes in ways that harm Hispanic Republicans.?

But after spending 20 minutes parsing legal technicalities, Abbott hit on the broader point.

?This seems to be more political theater than it does any kind of legal statement. And it disturbingly seems to make it look like the Obama administration is trying to insert itself into the Texas, which,? Abbott stuck in, ?really undermines the very purpose of the Voting Rights Act.?

Source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/obama-vs-texas-doj-voting-rights-94787.html?hp=t3_3

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