Bill Maher was back after a hiatus this Friday night and took on the issue of voter ID laws and voter suppression during his New Rules segment.

MAHER: And finally Republicans must finally quit pretending that their new voter ID laws have anything to do with fraudulent voting and instead start passing laws where if poor black people want to vote, they must first jump through an actual hoop. And this week a judge in Pennsylvania upheld that state's new law requiring picture ID if you want to exercise your right to cast a ballot in November, affirming the efforts of Republican legislatures in many states, who have decided that there's one big problem with our democratic process – too much voting. I know it sounds counter-intuitive. Election time used to mean get out the vote. Now it means, you're here to vote, get out. Now I know it doesn't seem like showing picture ID should be such a big deal, but it turns out one in ten Americans who used to be able to vote, could not this time under these new laws. See, Republicans love America and cherish its ideals, so they ask themselves, what is it we have that many Democratic leaning inner city voters don't have? I know. We have photo ID, our drivers licenses and many of them don't because they're too poor to own a car. It reminds me of the drug war where conservatives said, let's find something minorities do a lot, like smoke weed and make it illegal and one of the punishments is you lose your vote.

I could have done without the stupid Asian driving joke that followed, but he went on to make some great points about Republicans pretending to fix a problem what doesn't exist.

Maher wrapped up his segment by suggesting that if Republicans want to make it harder for minorities to vote, then the left "should make it harder for teabaggers to vote, by bringing back the literacy test."

I'm fairly sure anyone who is part of the Republican re-branding effort that calls themselves a "tea partier" will not be thrilled with Maher's remarks tonight to say the least. I'm pretty sure if asked, Maher might respond with something along the line of what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, in the words of one Rmoney, or in other words, get over it. Maher has never been too terribly concerned about "political correctness" or who he insults and tonight was no exception.

I was glad to see him bring attention to the voter suppression tactics going on across the country, which are no laughing matter.