Tea Party sues for "right" to redraw legislative boundaries themselves

Just because Republicans in the Kentucky legislature keep rejecting every redistricting map that comes out doesn't mean you get to redraw the map yourself. Unless of course you're the Tea Party, which thinks it has a birthright to do anything it wants.

The Tea Party has filed a federal lawsuit asking the court to let them draw the map themselves because lawmakers haven't done so yet. Notice that they skipped the state courts and went plumb to federal. At least if they win their case, it's not Kentucky's doing.

Also, it's hard to see how some of the defendants - such as the governor, attorney general, and secretary of state - have anything to do with the legislature's sloth. I think the Tea Party knows this, but they just don't care.

Why does the Tea Party think it should be allowed to gerrymander our districts? Who elected the Tea Party to anything? And let's ponder exactly what they're asking the court to do. They want a federal court to tell a state it has to let them draw the map. So much for the Tea Party being champions of states' rights, huh?

Actually they support states' rights as long as it benefits them. The Tea Party thinks the federal government shouldn't be allowed to enforce the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act on states that are covered by them, but they think a federal judge should stomp along and tell Kentucky what to do, even though Kentucky isn't among the states covered. The court needs to be clear: It is Kentucky that draws Kentucky legislative maps. Not the Tea Party.

In Kentucky, this could make the difference between freedom and fascism - always a precarious balance. Nobody except the Tea Party wants to log on to the Courier-Journal website in early 2015 and see the headline, "Right-to-work bill approved." This is also an issue of federalism. And I will not fight with my hands tied behind my back.

DO NOT fuck with me. Clear?