Virginia GOP lawmaker withdraws support for own bill that too many Democrats support

As a counter-protest against Democrat-supported efforts to accommodate cities' removal of Confederate statues from public property in the state of Virginia, Republican lawmaker Wendell Walker submitted a bill calling for the removal from the capitol grounds of a statue of historical Virginia state governor and senator, and at-the-time Democratic Party leader, Harry Byrd.

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With all of the talk about taking down statues, Walker decided to file his bill about Byrd. He acknowledged it was more tit-for-tat rather than about a statue memorializing Byrd, who is well-known for his painful role in Virginia’s history. Byrd is considered the architect of Massive Resistance, a set of policies that aggressively pushed back against racial integration of public schools following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. “If we’re going to do this, then I’m going to request to remove the Harry Byrd statue,” Walker said. “He was a Democrat and advocated for Massive Resistance.”

Although it was clear Walker had (somehow) intended the bill to be as objectionable or offensive to state legislature Democrats as the removal of Confederate icons had been and continues to be to Republicans, the stunt failed when Democrats actually widely supported the bill and announced intentions to vote for it, leading Walker to quickly push to remove his own bill from consideration, a move which was then rejected by the Rules Committee. Although the bill has been temporarily tabled, on an upcoming date Walker is now going to have to make a case before the committee for why the bill should be withdrawn.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2SedERo