According to today's Kansas City Star [1], Missouri Senate Republicans maneuvered to repeal straight-party ticket voting as "punishment" for Senate Democrats who had the unmitigated gall to --gasp-- spend some time debating the merits of a bill that would keep thousands of elderly and disabled Missourians from voting.

Bespectacled prig Delbert Scott apparently thinks that the Missouri Senate is like a schoolyard game of marbles, susceptible to being stopped at a moment's notice by the childish tactics of a bully who wants to scoop up his cateyes and run home...

Republicans said they would follow through on a threat to repeal “straight-ticket” voting. Republicans said they were punishing Senate Democrats who used a filibuster to delay passage of a bill that would require voters to present photo identification at the polls.

“I don’t like the idea of doing away with straight-ticket voting,” said Sen. Delbert Scott, a Lowry City Republican. But he added: “The deal’s done. They (Democrats) kept talking.”

Ahh, what a big man Delbert is. So statesmanlike that he's willing to implement policy with which he doesn't even agree simply to do the important work of sending a message to Democrats that they ought not engage in the legislative process. Such regard for principle ought to land Delbert in the Hall of Famous Missourians some day, right next to Lobbyist John Ashcroft.

But I digress.

Given the great respect with which Delbert views acts undertaken for punitive purposes, he'll probably want to slap his endorsement on what I like to call the "Thank Delbert E-Day Tour".

"What's that?" you understandably ask.

It's like this: if the Photo ID bill passes, on Election Day 2006 a team of "Thank Delbert" volunteers descends on every polling place within Delbert's home county of St. Clair. Once there, they make sure that everyone who comes in to vote has the privilege of producing their Photo ID's to vote, even though most of them probably know the election judge personally! It wouldn't be right to let these folks miss out on the Photo ID fun, would it?

The Thank Delbert volunteers would also make sure that folks know --as they walk back to their cars to go home and retrieve their ID's-- that without Delbert none of this ID fun would have been possible. And if any of the election judges try to infringe the rights of these voters to produce their Photo ID by letting them vote without, the Thank Delbert volunteers will be ready to spring into legal action at the courthouse to make sure that their right to produce Photo ID is protected. Thank Delbert Team to the rescue!

After all, a couple [2] of clerks [3] in rural counties have already indicated that the Photo ID law probably wouldn't be followed in their precincts. I'm sure that Delbert would be devastated if that were taking place in his hometown, so the Thank Delbert team will protect against just that sort of thing.

We don't relish having to do it, Delbert, but the deal's done. You kept talking.