John Boehner was dead silent on the Voting Rights Act issue. GOP can't outrun culture wars

The Supreme Court is putting congressional Republicans in a bind — again.

A Republican Party eager to talk about what it considers President Barack Obama’s misguided coal policy, rising energy costs, soon-to-double student loan rates and a spate of scandals both foreign and domestic, will be forced instead to spend its last few days in Washington before the July 4 recess caught in the vortex of historic legal decisions on minority voters and the propriety of same-sex marriage.


The GOP can’t seem to outrun the culture wars.

( Also on POLITICO: Reaction to Voting Rights Act decision)

Last summer, the high court threw Speaker John Boehner’s House onto uncomfortable ground when it ruled that Obama’s health care law was legal in the midst of political campaigns to win back the White House and keep the majority.

When the Supreme Court hands down a ruling on same-sex marriage Wednesday, GOP leaders will be caught between the party’s social conservatives who are loudly anti-gay marriage and lawmakers looking to adapt to a rapidly shifting American electorate that’s more comfortable with gay couples.

Tuesday’s Voting Rights Act ruling showed how discombobulated the party is.

Boehner was dead silent on the issue. Many Republicans privately said that nothing will get done this Congress to rewrite the law. Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), who chairs a committee that oversees election administration, said she respects the decision. The Voting Rights Act was not discussed at a closed meeting of House GOP leadership Tuesday evening. Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, called the Voting Rights Act “pretty technical” and pertinent to only “a limited number of states.”

( Also on POLITICO: SCOTUS strikes down key voting rights provision)

But other top Republicans seemed eager to fix it. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who has spent the 113th Congress trying to appeal to segments of the population that have rejected the Republican Party, said in a statement Tuesday he wants to find a “responsible path forward” for dealing with voting rights.

“My experience with John Lewis in Selma earlier this year was a profound experience that demonstrated the fortitude it took to advance civil rights and ensure equal protection for all,” Cantor said in a statement. “I’m hopeful Congress will put politics aside, as we did on that trip, and find a responsible path forward that ensures that the sacred obligation of voting in this country remains protected.”

Cantor didn’t say if he would author such a plan or how the GOP will proceed.

( PHOTOS: 21 landmark SCOTUS rulings)

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said the law has worked and minority voting is “actually better” in states that have to clear changes in election law with the Justice Department.

Cornyn told reporters that “it does make sense to update [the law] to reflect the current reality.” That’s a message that some lawmakers told POLITICO they’ll privately advocate to GOP leaders in both chambers.

With those developments, a once tightly scripted week for Republicans has turned into a bit of a mess. The beginning of the summer is now muddled. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said “House [members] have to talk about what they’re doing on energy policy, on tax policy. Those issues are more the Supreme Court.”

“The public is going to be talking more about the IRS and tax reform than most of these other issues,” McCarthy told POLITICO. “You always bring it back and we’ll always have the discussion, but they’ll ask what we’re doing on energy, taxes and job growth.”

Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said his party wants to talk about the economy but “liberals are the ones who keep bringing up social issues.

“Yet we’re the ones who get accused of being obsessed with social issues,” Lankford complained. “It’s just funny to me.”

Republicans have some blame. Senate Democrats and Republicans are poised to pass an immigration bill late this week, and the House GOP is deeply split over what it will do.

At the same time, Democrats on Capitol Hill are — mostly — speaking with one voice: The Supreme Court bungled its voting rights decision, and gay marriage is a no-brainer.

“Although I think that the court’s decision is — frankly — disgraceful, it’s not surprising,” Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) told POLITICO. “It isn’t surprising given what we heard through oral arguments. The fact that the court chose to take this case in the first place showed it was willing to do something.”

And this issue won’t go away. Democrats think they have found another issue to jam the GOP with — just like the Violence Against Women Act and payroll tax cut. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont said he would hold hearings this summer.

Republicans will have a bit trickier time Wednesday when the Supreme Court rules on California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. The push for same-sex marriage transcends party lines; GOP campaign committees have supported gay candidates and candidates who support same-sex marriage.

House Republicans, who once supported a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, have subtly shifted their messaging of late. While Boehner and other Republican leaders insist that they are personally against gay marriage, they also say that enforcing DOMA is not Obama’s decision. If the Supreme Court strikes down DOMA or limits its scope, Republican leaders aren’t likely to change their view on gay marriage but, rather, say the appropriate branch of government has now rendered a decision.

Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and their minority counterparts met with Obama on Tuesday, but that session was dominated by foreign policy issues. Obama is headed to Africa on Wednesday for a weeklong trip with his family. Sources familiar with the meeting said the fate of national security leaker Edward Snowden did come up at the meeting.