Roby on Lewis

      I have to give Trump credit (yes, write that down) for more or less honestly dealing with his dislike (hatred for?) John Lewis by issuing only the minimal statement of mourning when he died.

     Not so from Lame Duck Republican Congresswoman Martha Roby, who is out with another of her weekly columns....this time 456 words mourning Lewis death.

What one word would  you use to describe the most important issue in Lewis' life's work. What one word explains the reason for his being willing to have his head bashed in by Alabama State Troopers/Klansmen? For what word will he mainly be remembered?

Voting. As in Voting Rights.

And how many times does that word appear in Roby's column?

0

     One of the last votes Lewis cast before his death was legislation sponsored by fellow Democratic Representative Terri Sewell. House Resolution 4 was voted on late last year. It was called the

Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019

...and it was approved in the House by a vote of  to 228 to 187 on December 6th. It would restore the U.S. Justice department oversight of voting changes in Alabama and other states with a history of suppressing voting rights. No matter how the House voted, it was sure to fail in the GOP majority U.S. Senate.

     Just one Republican member voted for it. And no, it was not Roby, who did not know Lewis would be dead in a matter of months. His announcement that he had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer came several weeks after Roby's rejection of the voting rights initiative. 

     When she had the opportunity to get into the "good trouble, necessary trouble" for which she now praises Lewis, she instead followed all but one other Republican U.S. House Member and voted nay.

     She would not vote for the voting rights legislation so dear to him, but stood tall at his funeral: 

"I had the privilege to attend John’s celebration of life service in Atlanta and remember the remarkable life of not only a colleague, but a very dear friend." 

     But not so dear as to convince her to support him on the issue that dominated his years of public service.

(If GOP Nominee Barry Moore, running to fill Roby's seat, issued a statement of mourning about John Lewis' death, I could not find it.)