April 25, 2007
Norton v. Colbert: 'Watch What You Say'
Last night congressional delegate and all around bad-ass Eleanor Holmes Norton made another appearance on the Colbert Report. Once again she epitomized "in on the joke." While Colbert complained that creating two new seats sets back his ongoing effort to "better know" 434 members of Congress, Norton generously extended the city's good will; "I'm prepared on their behalf, on behalf of the people of the District of Columbia, either your apologies for making fun of them for not having the vote, or your congratulations."
Is it possible that Colbert has drawn more attention to D.C. voting rights than any other media source? We're among the handful of people still tuning into network news on a regular basis, but have seen nary a mention of last week's debate on the House floor. With yesterday's mixed news about Americans' support for the bill passed on Thursday, it's clear that at least a tenth of our fully-enfranchised friends have no opinion on the matter. We can only hope the awesome power of Norton's personality inspires Colbert viewers to join our fight to get her a House seat, even just to spice up C-SPAN.
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You ask: "Is it possible that Colbert has drawn more attention to D.C. voting rights than any other media source?"
Absolutely. Not only that, Eleanor’s appearances with Colbert can help motivate college students to join the DC Vote campaign.
As much as I am excited that Colbert's show and Norton's enthusiasm raise awareness of DC voting rights, it's so frustrating to know that we've gotten this far and will only come up against a wall when Bush vetoes the bill and there won't be enough votes in Congress to overturn the veto. I guess we can only try again when we have a president that actually wants to treat the people of the United States as equal citizens, rather than only caring about the ones who will support his own personal agenda.
Yea, it's frustrating the way democracy leaves decisions up to elected officials instead of television personalities. As an aside, I loved Jon Stewart with a passion, but Colbert I have just found too over-the-top goofball and political. Stewart knew the right line to ride, and this guy just throws it out the window for the least common demoninator of daily show style humor.
After DC gets the vote, I say we should extend the priviledge to Guam! Who's with me?
I SHALL NOT YIELD!
it was a great clip. way to go madame.
@RFE: Any time the folks in Guam want to pay Federal Income Tax like we do in DC, they will have my full support for a House vote.
School yourself, pal.
Ah, I see - so it's less about DC statehood and more about taxes? Just trying to get "schooled".
Guam, CNMI, PR.. give em all the vote.. but it comes along with the taxes and the regulations.
@RFE:
It's not about statehood.
It's about that "Taxation w/o Representation" thing that gets us an 8-hour holiday on July 4th. In DC, that's all we get -- we pay taxes but don't have a vote in Congress.
Most people in the country don't know about this issue either, and might confuse it with statehood, too.
You can catch up with the ‘District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007’’ recently passed by the House, at
dcvote.org/pdfs/congress/hr1905.pdf
I also find this really helpful;
www.dcvote.org/trellis/section.cfm?trellisID=6
"10 Myths about the District of Columbia"
I don’t care. That said ether give me full representation like any other state, which we are by an objective count, or forget about federal income tax.
Since we tax paying citizens in Washington, D.C. are not part of the United States, why isn't gay marriage and numerous other unconstitutional items that apply to the 50 states allowed in the District? That might just change the way how Washington, D.C. is viewed in the eyes of the Feds!