Taking away Tom DeLay's right to vote

Blogger Dennis York has way too much fun with State Rep. Joe Parisi's proposal to allow felons to vote. I've actually suggested the same thing more than once myself.

York has some funny lines, but misses the mark on this:

First of all, are felons really clamoring for the right to vote? By extending them this right, aren't you doing a favor for the very people that are least likely to cast a ballot? Isn't keeping felons from going to the polls kind of like preventing Pat Robertson from going to a 50 Cent concert? Isn't civic duty is like kryptonite for felons?

In fact, one of the things the right wingers are so incensed about is that 200 felons apparently voted in the last election in Milwaukee. Their solution, of course -- one solution fits all -- is photo ID cards for voters. Never mind that requiring a photo ID would not have prevented those felons from voting, since none of them pretended to be anyone except themselves.

So, yes, they do want to vote. And it's hard to think of a really good reason why they shouldn't. Do we want to take away Tom DeLay's right to vote? Scooter Jensen's? Brian Burke and Chuck Chvala? (Well, yes on those, because they vote "wrong" -- for Democrats).

On the list of things I'm worried about, preventing felons from voting is #8,265 -- just one notch higher than photo IDs, and way above letting people carry concealed weapons, banning gay marriage, stopping abortions, birth control and sex education, and a host of other items that make up the legislative agenda for the wingnuts running our legislature.