August 26, 2008
Norton Calls on Senate to Pass D.C. Voting Rights Act
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton delivered a speech calling for passage of the D.C. Voting Rights Act, which would grant full voting rights for the District's elected representative in the U.S. House.
With delegations from most other states yet to take their seats in the Pepsi Center, the District of Columbia's delegation did their best to make up for the relatively empty house during D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton's speech by cheering loudly and chanting, "We want the vote!"
Norton was the first speaker of this second day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
"The nation's founders staked everything on creating a country where there would be 'no taxation without representation' anywhere in America. In that tradition, Democrats proudly support the vote in Congress for the 600,000 citizens of our nation's capital," Norton said.
Invoking Martin Luther King Jr., Norton energetically called for the Democratic Party to to follow the principle that all Americans should have equal rights — including full voting rights for the citizens of the U.S. capital.
Norton also spoke to one of the D.C. voting rights movement's main arguments, that D.C. residents serve and die in the U.S. military, yet lack a vote in Congress.
"We will keep the promise made to the unknown soldier who was the first to die from the District in the war against taxation without representation, and we will keep that promise for 21-year-old D.C. National Guard Specialist Darryl Dent, the first D.C. resident to die for his country in Iraq," she said.
Norton called on members of the U.S. Senate, especially Republican members, to pass the D.C. Voting Rights Act, which cleared the U.S. House last year.
"If George Bush won't sign the D.C. Voting Rights Act, its most prominent co-sponsor, our next president, Barack Obama, will," Norton said.
The D.C. delegation immediately broke out in to chants of "We want the vote! We want the vote!" as Norton finished her remarks. D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) got even more specific.
"We want statehood! I wanna be a state!", he shouted to anyone who could hear.
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was there anyone in the stadium when she addressed it?
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it's a damn shame that the democratic party is only paying lip service to the whole voting rights issue. if they really wanted to make a big deal about this, they'd make sure there were more than 500 people in the seats, and they'd talk about this in prime time...
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Is it just me, or did she sound crazy? I mean batsh#t crazy. Not so much the idea, I'm down with that, but the delivery? KooKoo!
Par for the course I guess.
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Having her title as "Representative" on the screen doesn't help things...
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"Having her title as "Representative" on the screen doesn't help things..."
As opposed to...what, exactly? She's a non-voting representative. Or perhaps that what you were getting at...
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well, her title is really "delegate", isn't it. maybe they should highlight that and point out that she isn't really a full representative.
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Delegate would be appropriate perhaps. Or 'shadow delegate' if that's who Joe L. Da Vessel was refering to in the video intro (well done, by the way). Agree with you IMGoph, 5pm or whenever she spoke was too early to do the cause justice.
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Let's be honest. If the DNC had put this on at 9pm, the networks would've used the time to cut to commercials.
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Call me cynical, but DC has got a lot of "issues" that it would need to resolve before anyone takes the statehood thing seriously.
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And even if DC did deal with crime, poverty, crappy schools, etc., they'd still say, "Well, you keep electing that crack smoking mayor. You don't deserve a vote."
As if we've never had a leader in the White House who did coke.
I'm looking at you, Warren G. Harding. Mr. Normalcy indeed! Go back to bloviating.
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My contention is that if South Carolina got Strom Thurmond, and North Carolina got Jesse Helms for SO DAMN LONG in Congress, Marion Barry is not really that bad, right?
I say if we did get a vote, send him to Congress. Paybacks are hell, kids. That man essentially filibusters for 7 solid hours in Council meetings when no one can stop him. Just imagine what he'd do when someone wanted to interrupt his diatribes!
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"Delegate would be appropriate perhaps."
Or "Congresswoman", as that is what her official designation is.
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Did anyone notice in Hillary's speech that she mentioned the primaries "in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the territories." Really? Puerto Rico and the territories get a mention and no D.C.? We actually have electoral votes.
Don't offend those Guamanians or American Samoans, but screw the district.
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she's had her moment in the sun now. she's yesterday's news. everyone snubs us, just time to deal with that and live with it.
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Now you're cooking, Sommers.
Seth
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"Or "Congresswoman", as that is what her official designation is."
By law, her official title is "Delegate to the House of Representatives from the District of Columbia". (2 USC 25a) The law also specifically separates "members" and "delegates".
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She is also, by definition, a Congresswoman. Also, using the term "delegate" would likely have been confusing, in order to differentiate her status as a delegate to the House and a delegate at the Convention. Perhaps "Representative" was not the technically correct term, but she does represent the citizens of D.C. in Congress, so the technicality faux pas is likely an acceptable deviation.
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I don't think she is a Congresswoman by definition, that's what I'm getting at. The whole reason I mentioned it was that using "Representative" doesn't highlight the lack of voting status for DC like "Delegate" or some other title might have, not just because it was incorrect.
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"I wanna be a state"? What a fucking moron.