Who's the racist party again?

Yesterday we saw this story about how many white Democrat voters are judging the New Soviet Man primarily because of his race in deciding whether or not he'd be a good President.

Today, I read this column by Tony Norman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wherein he pens:

Barely one generation removed from Jim Crow, it's a miracle that the
percentage of white Democrats who can't bring themselves to vote for a black
candidate isn't higher.

In the previous sentence, Mr. Norman references the Voting Rights Act of 1965, so let's check the record (these counts reflect combined House and Senate votes)

Democrats: 266 for, 71 against - 73.3% to 26.7%

Republicans: 141 for, 21 against - 93.3% to 6.7%

So, Democrats voted against the Voting Rights Act of 1965 at a rate 4 times greater than Republicans. Which party is - and has been - the home of racism? Hint: it isn't mine.

It makes no difference to me what race a candidate is (see my 2008 Pennsylvania primary vote). I'd be perfectly happy to have an African-American President, so long as he was more Clarence Thomas or J.C. Watts...

Unlike up to one-third of Democrats, I can decide on the issues. Mr. Norman does get one thing right:

I will concede this much to my Republican friends. If Gen. Colin Powell were
the Republican nominee for president in their party in 2008, I believe a higher
percentage of white Republicans would support him than there are Democrats
supporting Mr. Obama.