February 28, 2013 01:29 PM UTC

Well Played, Morons

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Sen. Mark Udall congratulates the House on their belated passage of VAWA, while not letting them off the hook for their lateness (here's looking at you, Mike Coffman):

"In Colorado and across the nation, an unacceptable number of women and other at-risk groups face the threat of violence in their homes, relationships and communities – places where they should feel safest. This is unacceptable," Udall said. "I am disappointed the House left survivors and victims of violence out in the cold while members of Congress quibbled last year and this year over who truly deserves protection, unnecessarily delaying the reauthorization of this bill. Violence against women is not a partisan issue. I am glad the House finally decided to put aside such political games and to support this common-sense and bipartisan law."

Today the House of Representatives voted to approve the "Violence Against Women Act," which now moves on to the White House where it will be quickly signed by President Obama. The House vote is national news, primarily because Republicans inexplicably spent weeks trying to make sure Americans understood their opposition to the measure. As CNN reports, House Republicans are idiots:

Struggling again with an issue important to women and minority groups, House Republicans on Thursday failed to pass their version of a new Violence Against Women Act and then split over a Senate version that won approval with unanimous Democratic support…

…Originally passed in 1994 and reauthorized since, the act provides support for organizations that serve domestic violence victims. Criminal prosecutions of abusers are generally the responsibility of local authorities, but the act stiffened sentences for stalking under federal law. Supporters credit the act with sharply reducing the number of lives lost to domestic violence over the past two decades.

Last year, the House and Senate were unable to compromise on another extension of the act, with Republicans opposing Democratic attempts to specify inclusion of native Americans, undocumented immigrants and lesbian, transgender and bisexual women.

Many House Republicans had opposed the Senate version of the bill, essentially because they thought it would be a good idea to get a few week's worth of media coverage explaining their continued indifference toward homosexuals, lesbians, women and Hispanics. Since there were enough House Republicans with half a brain that the measure passed anyway, the end result is that the GOP picked up a ton of negative press for no actual end result.

The upshot is that Republicans cleared the bill with plenty of time to be blamed for "sequestration." So, there's that.