Meet the new GOP bugaboo in Pennsylvania: Voters who are just too lazy to deserve the right to vote. Pennsylvania State Rep. Daryl Metcalf, a Republican, said he agrees with Mitt Romney’s controversial 47% remarks, and is excusing criticisms of his state’s voter ID laws by blaming voter laziness.
He told KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh that low-income earners are “living off the public dole” and described as indolent those who cannot obtain the ID required to vote under Pennsylvania’s voter ID laws.
“We have a lot of people out there that are too lazy to get up and get out there and get the ID they need. If individuals are too lazy, the state can’t fix that,” said Metcalf.
“What a generalization” said msnbc host Chris Matthews on Thursday’s Hardball. He pointed out that the elderly, those with disabilities, and men and women serving in the military may also find it difficult to get an ID before Election Day.
“It shows how far, Chris, the Republican party has fallen,” Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chair Jim Burns told Matthews. He noted Metcalf authored his state’s voter ID legislation, which says the state government has an obligation to get identification to residents who don’t have them.
Metcalf is now “saying these folks are lazy and the government has to do nothing,” said Burns. Ron Reagan, the son of former president Ronald Reagan, said the Democrats can use the GOP’s “laziness” dodge as an opportunity. The left can say, he said, “I’ll see your bogus voter fraud issue and your voter ID, but I’ll raise you this: By the next presidential election every eligible voter in America is registered to vote and has a voter ID. We will make it impossible not to register to vote. Everywhere you go — schools, hospitals, the DMVs. … What do you think the Republicans will think about that?” Pennsylvania’s voter ID legislation is the subject of a lengthy court battle, and opponents of the law say they are optimistic it won’t survive through Election Day. Recently, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court asked the state’s lower Commonwealth Court to revisit the law with a higher standard for what would constitute voter suppression.
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