For the record on photo ID

Everyone with experience in Wisconsin politics knows that the long-overdue passage of a voter identification law means Democrats will spend the next eighteen months trying to make this defense of honest elections look like an act of tyranny.

So it’s important to spell out a few things that might be lost in the fog of lies, distortions and hallucinations. When somebody starts jabbering about “voter intimidation” and “Jim Crow” and Republicans “cutting off debate,” remember this:

• Not counting Wisconsin, the Wall Street Journal reports 28 states either have a photo ID law or require voters to show some identification and can request a photo ID. Drop us a line if you hear about any of their legislative leaders wailing that they’ve returned to the pre-civil rights South.
• By special rule, Senate Republicans limited debate on final passage to one hour last Thursday, leading to predictable screams about muzzling debate. Democrats somehow forgot they had debated the bill for NINE HOURS just the day before, which they used to elevate the discussion with their malicious tirade about racism and voter intimidation.
•  Far from going out of its way to suppress voter participation, the new law goes out of its way to accommodate voters, for instance, allowing the use of student IDs as a substitute for a driver’s license.

If there’s anything wrong with the photo I-D law, it’s that it’s not even tougher.