TPM Reader RF steps back to look at the big picture on the Mississippi runoff and doesn’t like what he sees …
I read the pieces on the Cochran/McDaniel runoff in Mississippi. The punches and counter-punches we see thrown in this race are laying bare what the GOP really thinks about the intersection of voting and race. As soon as Cochran announced he was hiring someone to focus on getting African American Dems to vote in the run-off, the McDaniel Campaign and it’s allies have been beating the voter fraud drum.
Top Tea Party lawyer, J. Christian Adams, says he’ll review election observer reports before deciding on whether to pursue legal action.
Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, New York City, September 1947.
1. You break into the courthouse with the ballots the night you’re losing not the night you’re winning (classic rookie mistake).
Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) ahead in Democratic primary but with absentee ballots still outstanding the race is too close to call.
Ed Kilgore on why Cochran’s runoff win was the product of unique set of only-in-Mississippi circumstances.
Matt Kibbe, Freedom Works: “If the only way the K Street wing of the GOP establishment can win is by courting Democrats to vote in GOP primaries, then we’ve already won.”
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has just struck down Utah’s gay marriage ban. That’s the first federal appeals court to do so. A huge development.
The news came just moments after a federal judge separately struck down Indiana’s gay marriage ban.
Note that there’s a separate case before the 10th Circuit on Oklahoma’s gay marriage ban. Today’s decision suggests Oklahoma’s ban may be tossed soon as well. The Utah case was argued before the court in April, just a week before the Oklahoma case came up for arguments.
Sahil Kapur reached Roberta Kaplan, the lawyer who successfully fought DOMA, for her reaction to today’s 10th Circuit decision on gay marriage. Great stuff.
As Roberta Kaplan reminded us earlier, the anniversary of the Supreme Court striking down the Defense of Marriage Act in the Windsor case is tomorrow. What a year it’s been. From the federal court ruling today lifting Indiana’s gay marriage ban:
The court has never witnessed a phenomenon throughout the federal court system as is presented with this issue. In less than a year, every federal district court to consider the issue has reached the same conclusion in thoughtful and thorough opinions – laws prohibiting the celebration and recognition of same-sex marriages are unconstitutional. It is clear that the fundamental right to marry shall not be deprived to some individuals based solely on the person they choose to love. In time, Americans will look at the marriage of couples such as Plaintiffs, and refer to it simply as a marriage – not a same-sex marriage. These couples, when gender and sexual orientation are taken away, are in all respects like the family down the street. The Constitution demands that we treat them as such.