During a U.S. House committee hearing Tuesday into the constitutionality of voter identification laws enacted in states across the country (including South Carolina), a fired-up 4th District Congressman Trey Gowdy expressed his anger toward claims made by the Department of Justice that those laws were racially discriminatory. 

Trey Gowdy

“South Carolina’s voter ID law was similar if not less restrictive than those DOJ had pre-cleared in New Hampshire, Virginia, and Georgia,” Gowdy insisted during the April 16 hearing. ”Moreover, South Carolina’s plan was similar if not less restrictive to plans approved outside of DOJ pre-clearance in states like Tennessee, Kansas, and Indiana.”

In 2011, the Justice Department blocked South Carolina’s new law that requires voters to show an accepted form of photo identification at the polls. The agency said the law would disproportionately affect minority voters. South Carolina eventually won the case in federal court last year. However, it cost the state $3.5 million in attorney fees to do so.

Gowdy said there are provisions in South Carolina’s voter ID law that allow those without one of the listed forms of ID to still exercise their right to vote.

“In 2011, one-third of South Carolina’s congressional delegation was African American and, as we now know, one of two African American United States senators is from South Carolina. In addition, South Carolina’s governor is of Indian descent,” Gowdy said, adding that the difference between whites and African-Americans with acceptable photo IDs was minimal.

The hearing was organized by House Republicans in response to an Inspector General’s report into the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. That division’s leader, Thomas Perez, is President Obama’s choice to lead the Department of Labor. The report criticized some decisions made in the Civil Rights Division as being done for political reasons, but did not mention South Carolina’s voter ID case.

One of the committee’s Democrats criticized the hearing, accusing Republicans of trying to make political controversy where none exists. ”I would only offer a caveat and suggest that the hearing should be renamed to ‘We lost the presidency and Mr. Tom Perez is at fault’ in quotes, because I see no reason for this hearing,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said.

Former Governor Mark Sanford and businesswoman Elizabeth Colbert-Busch are battling in what amounts to a political sprint to fill the vacant first congressional seat. Weighing into the race, 6th District Congressman Jim Clyburn says he has hope in Colbert-Busch and fund raising will be a key to success.  

Elizabeth Colbert Busch

“It’s going to be a very spirited race. I suspect it’s going to cost a lot of money (to campaign); but I think we (Democrats) are going raise as much as we need to raise to run the race.”Colbert-Busch’s famous brother Comedy Central Political satirist Stephen Colbert will host two high-profile fundraisers for his sister; April 15 in Washington and another on April 23 in New York.

Clyburn says Colbert-Busch does not only have a great chance to win the special election, but she also has what it takes to gain a solid grip on the seat.

“All the speculation is that she has a better chance to win the special election than she has of winning the general election next time out. I don’t buy that at all. I think that we can win this special election and I think we can hold the seat.”  

The special election is May 7.

The push for universal background checks for gun purchases seems to be losing steam in the wake of the NRA’s strong lobby to forestall the efforts in Congress to hammer out gun control legislation. In a meeting with reporters Tuesday in Columbia, 6th District Congressman Jim Clyburn says while it’s highly unlikely, he would like to see stronger legislation that would include banning the sale of high-bullet volume magazines.

Jim Clyburn

“Ban assault weapons; now that’s where I am. Now I’m also intelligent enough about the process to know we’re not going to get all the way there yet. But I do know that the gun culture that has developed in this country does not bode well for the future.”