Don't Republicans Have Mothers And Sisters And Daughters And Granddaughters Too? Or Are They Just So Far Gone, They Don't Give A Rat's Ass?

North Carolina closet case Patrick McHenry helped lead the charge against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act

If the House Republicans weren't so deranged, the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act would have been a non-issue. Renewal could have been/should have been a simple voice vote weeks ago. They could have just agreed to the bill passed by the Senate in a bipartisan 68-31 roll call, every single Republican woman senator voting yes, and just 31 crabbed old white males bigots voting against it. And even some Republican men voted yes, like Lamar Alexander (R-TN), John Hoeven (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Dan Coats (R-IN), not exactly liberals or even moderates.

But nooooooo... the lunatic fringe found a way to embarrass themselves and their party and wage some more war against women-- a war that is absolutely killing the Republican Party brand among non-Limbaugh/non-Fox consumers. With Alaska conservative Lisa Murkowski urging the House to stop the monkey business, the House Republicans have found allies to supporter teabagger Sandy Adams crazy version of the bill (which rolls back vital protections for women) among explicitly misogynistic groups that exist to cut back on equality for women, like the National Coalition For Men, SAVE (a very shady right-wing mail order bride service) and Timothy Johnson, a convicted North Carolina Republican Party official and serial wife-beater.

According to court records, Johnson was arrested on Christmas Day 1995 in Cleveland, Ohio, and was later indicted by a grand jury for two felony counts, one of felonious assault and the other of kidnapping. According to the arrest report, when the police arrived, they found Felix-Johnson bleeding from the face. Timothy Johnson told the officers, according to their report, “I admit it. I hit her, that's the only way I can get her attention.” Felix-Johnson told the officers he restrained her on the couch, holding down her neck. One officer reports Ofelia Felix-Johnson saying that Johnson also punched her breasts, saying that she had no heart, and hit her over the back and buttocks with a plastic shoe rack, breaking the rack. The police report in the court file states that Johnson broke his wife's nose and toes, causing her to be hospitalized.

In the end, of course, the Republican leadership forced enough of their trembling Members to vote for it, regardless of the wrath that they know will be headed their way from women and from men who like and respect women. The vote was 222-205, 23 Republicans telling Cantor and Boehner to go fly a kite. And of course there were 6 conservative assholes who call themselves Democrats but who voted with the GOP, including the disgrace the DSCC picked to run for the Senate in Nevada, New Dem slime bucket Shelley Berkley, who normally only sells out the Democrats when there's some cash in it for her. The other anti-woman Democrats were just teh standards: John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Colin Petersen (Blue Dog-MN), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT) and Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC). Good floor speech by John Conyers, in which he addresses teabagger Sandy Adams, widely considered the dumbest member of the GOP caucus (and that's by her fellow Republicans!). Notice she says "shame on them" to the 300+ groups opposing the house gop bill. (She's talking about the U.S. Conference of Mayors, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, National Network to End Domestic Violence, National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, Break the Cycle, Legal Momentum, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Organization for Women, Feminist Majority, YWCA USA, AAUW, Business and Professional Women’s Foundation, National Women’s Law Center, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, American Bar Association, NAACP, National Council of La Raza, Human Rights Campaign, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and National Congress of American Indians.



Carol Shea-Porter is running against one of Adams teabagger buddies from New Hampshire, Frank Guinta and, of course, he voted for the watered down Republican bill. Carol reacted quickly: “Today, Congressman Frank Guinta voted for a weakened, partisan version of The Violence Against Women Act that leaves out vital protections for victims of abuse. He rejected pleas from hundreds of religious, civic, humanitarian, and law enforcement organizations and sharply limited protections for gay, immigrant, and Native American victims of violence. Frank Guinta even refused to vote for a motion that would have prevented a suspected batterer from being notified of a victim's efforts to seek assistance from law enforcement. Mr. Guinta was the only member of the New Hampshire Delegation who found stronger protections for victims of violence unacceptable.” 

Rob Zerban was quick to point out that "moderate" media darling Paul Ryan also opposes the whole idea of protecting women from violence. He stuck with the GOP leaders and teabaggers on this-- like on everything else. Rob put it like this: "He voted for the House reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) but only after House Republicans stripped the act of its most vital protections for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault, immigrant women, and LGBT women... We've seen Paul Ryan attack women on so many fronts, from slashing programs women rely on to help their families to supporting Scott Walker's repeal of equal pay for women in Wisconsin-- but he's gone too far by ending protections for survivors of domestic abuse." And on behalf of the Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ and Keith Ellison (D-MN) issued this statement:

“The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has a 20-year record of protecting women in the United States. It always receives bipartisan support in Congress and every female Republican Senator voted to approve it again last month. 
 
“Instead of continuing this trend and expanding VAWA’s protections, the House Republican bill rolls back crucial protections, endangering millions of women. This bill removes protections for Native American women, immigrants, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. Domestic violence in the LGBT community is rapidly increasing, and Native American women face the highest rate of domestic violence in the country. The bill also does not address the high rates of dating violence and sexual assault that college students suffer. Our Republican colleagues are using what should be an uncontroversial bill to attack their favorite targets: women, students, minorities, immigrants, and LGBT Americans.
 
“The physical and emotional devastation domestic violence causes is all too real for many women in our districts and nationwide. The House should take up the Senate bill, which passed with 68 votes, instead of reducing domestic and sexual violence to another partisan punching bag. Unfortunately, House Republicans have approached the Violence Against Women Act as another opportunity to advance their war on women.”

The bigots at the Blue Dogs and New Dems never issues statements when their members cross the aisle to vote with the GOP on these kinds of key rolls calls. What could they say? By the way, this is specifically what's wrong with the Republican bill they got Sandy Adams to sponsor for them:

It bill rolls back certain long-standing VAWA protections that help promote the safety of battered immigrant victims:

• Weakens protections for battered immigrant spouses legally here, under the “self-petition” provisions in VAWA since 1994.  For example, even with the manager’s amendment, the bill will delay and deny protection for many spouses, adding new layers of bureaucracy that will slow down their efforts to obtain independent status and potentially make them less safe. 

• Fundamentally weakens the U visa program, which was created in VAWA in 2000 to encourage immigrant victims of crime to report and help prosecute serious criminal activity.  The bill discourages victims from cooperating, fearing that doing so could lead to deportation, by removing the opportunity of most victims to apply to become permanent residents.

The GOP bill fails: 

• to include key provisions, which are included in the Senate-passed bill, to protect the LGBT community.  Recent studies show that LGBT victims of domestic violence face discrimination when accessing services.  The provisions in the Senate bill are responsive to the real needs of real victims and have the support of law enforcement and service providers around the country.

• to include many of the key provisions in the Senate bill to protect Native American women, including provisions providing concurrent tribal jurisdiction over those who assault Indian spouses and dating partners in Indian country. 

• to include provisions in the Senate bill to allow law enforcement to request up to 5,000 additional U visas a year for immigrant victims helping law enforcement prosecute sexual assault, domestic violence and other serious crimes.

 

This is what the extreme fringes of the Replublican Party-- who have captured power in the House, where there is no adult supervision-- now stands for. Today's Republican Party is not about principles, not about values, basically just about hatred, anger and making Trayvon Martin gun range targets. Ayn Rand would approve!

Gun range targets meant to resemble dead Florida teen Trayvon Martin are offensive enough. But what’s more disturbing is that the Florida entrepreneur’s distributor reportedly sold out his entire stock in two days.

Rumors that several hundred were bought by the Dan Webster re-election campaign for a future fundraiser have not been denied or acknowledged.