They're going kicking and screaming. But this is probably the funniest opening paragraph of any AP wire story in recent memory:

WASHINGTON - Having quieted dissenting conservatives, House Republicans are trying again to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act in an election-year effort to win support from minority voters.

Yeah, like, if you want minority voters to vote for you, you probably ought to help make sure that they are allowed to vote.

The bill's progress through Congress is considered by Republican leaders as one way to stem the damage to the party's "big-tent" image among minorities watching the contentious debate over whether to grant most of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship.

When it came to immigration, the politicians opposed claimed it was just xenophobia, not racism.

But what can they say now, when it comes to voting rights of Americans with the ostensible right to vote?

Back in the House, the amendments' authors — who hail from Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Florida and Alabama — say the renewal as written would unfairly single out their states for another quarter of a century.

Well, if they didn't have such problems enabling minority voters, then they wouldn't be singled out, would they? I mean, isn't that the logic these same folks throw at us about things like illegal surveillance of American citizens?

The amendment with the most appeal, sponsored by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, would renew the law for a decade, rather than 25 years.

Yeah, because maybe in 10 more years they can roust enough fears in Americans to defeat the Voting Rights Act.

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