It’s been a helluva week for Repugnicans on Capital Hill. In the proud tradition of Marie Antoinette, the GOP has once again informed the subjugated masses that they must remain content with the crumbs they have. The debacle began earlier in the week with the rejection of an up or down vote on the long overdue minimum wage increase:

The 52-46 vote was eight short of the 60 needed for approval under budget rules and came one day after House Republican leaders made clear they do not intend to allow a vote on the issue, fearing it might pass.

So much for all the snarking about due process on up and down votes spewing from the GOP's talk-holes during the judicial hearings. Of course, the AP had an alternate spin:

The Republican-controlled Senate smothered a proposed election-year increase in the minimum wage Wednesday, rejecting Democratic claims that it was past time to boost the $5.15 hourly pay floor that has been in effect for nearly a decade.

Yes, 2006 is an election year and therefore this take is at least truthy. But the article fails to mention that Democrats have brought this issue up each and every year for nearly a decade:

The Senate vote marked the ninth time since 1997 that Democrats there have proposed — and Republicans have blocked — a stand-alone increase in the minimum wage.

Obviously this is a hot issue and has sparked a lot of righteous indignation. So I’m not going to engage in a debate in this particular post about the merits of raising the minimum, nor am I going to waste ink rebutting the fallacious arguments against it. Bottom line is that forcing employers to pay a fair, living wage is something that’s long overdue and the GOP knows it.

Nevertheless, we all saw it coming so I can’t be too surprised. But yesterday, they decided to further disenfranchise the majority by refusing to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 complaining that it “unfairly singles out nine southern states for federal oversight.”

The intensity of the complaints, raised in a closed meeting of GOP lawmakers, surprised Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and his lieutenants, who thought the path was clear to renew the act's key provisions for 25 years. The act is widely considered a civil rights landmark that helped thousands of African Americans gain access to the ballot box. Its renewal seemed assured when House and Senate Republican and Democratic leaders embraced it in a May 2 kickoff on the Capitol steps.

But many Southerners feel the law has achieved its purpose and become more nuisance than necessity in several respects. They have aired those arguments for years, but yesterday they got a boost from Republicans scattered throughout the nation who are increasingly raising a different concern: They insist that immigrants learn and use English.

I spent some time last summer working with Dr. Bernard LaFayette, one of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s advisors who played a key role in getting the bill passed. According to him, the timeline set on the Act was intentional; a measure that would ensure the issue remained a topic of public debate until such time that debate was no longer necessary. As the last three elections have taught us, this is not that time.

Perhaps this is simply an election-year tactic to fan the flames of xenophobia ushered in by Bush’s anti-Mexican stance. Either way, I am left with only the assumption that the GOP has thrown all prudence to the wind and are shunning even the appearance that they care about minorities, the poor, women, etc. In other words, they seem to be counting on the fact that the top 1% of the country, with the help of talk radio, FOX News, et al will be enough to help steal another election.