WELL, THIS OUGHT TO GET PERRY BACK IN THE GOOD GRACES OF THE GOP BASE

It's possible that the Department of Justice just saved Rick Perry's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination:

DOJ: Rick Perry's Texas Redistricting Plan Purposefully Discriminated Against Minorities

The Justice Department said late Friday that based on their preliminary investigation, a congressional redistricting map signed into law by Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry appears to have been "adopted, at least in part, for the purpose of diminishing the ability of citizens of the United States, on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group, to elect their preferred candidates of choice to Congress."

DOJ's Civil Rights Division is specifically contesting the changes made to Texas Districts 23 and 27, which they say would not provide Hispanic citizens with the ability to elect candidates of their choice.

... the federal agency came out stronger against the state House of Representatives plan, which they flat out said "violates Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in that it was adopted, at least in part, for the purpose of diminishing the ability of citizens of the United States, on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group, to elect their preferred candidates of choice to the Texas House of Representatives." ...

If he really wants to be the Republican nominee, he should milk this for all it's worth. He should denounce the continued existence of the Voting Rights Act and declare that, even though there was a certaindegree of voting unpleasantness a number of decades ago, the law is a tyrannical infringement on the right of a free people. He should make sure every Republican knows he signed off on this redistricting map. Hell, the Framers limited the franchise to white male property owners. Maybe they knew somethin' we don't! Yee-haw!

I believe Rick Perry want to get reelected again in increasingly Hispanic Texas if the runnin'-for-president thing doesn't work out, so I suspect he won't do what I'm suggesting. But it would help him a lot. It would erase the compassionate stench of his support for tuition assistance to undocumented students in his state. It would make him seem like the mean, racist sumbitch the base was hoping he would turn out to be.

(I don't really think he can openly embrace the racism of this. But he can piously swear that he and the legislature don't have a racist bone in their bodies, and that racism was the furthest thing from their minds when they agreed to this plan, and he can nod and wink to the base while angrily denouncing the Justice Department and its liberal, pro-Democrat agenda ... and boom, front-runner status reinstated.)