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Morning Roundup: After the Snowfall Edition
Today's Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the D.C. Voting Rights Act is couched within the committee's regular business meeting, but Chairman Joe Lieberman is speaking about the bill right now. You can stream the hearing live here. Lieberman was one of the bill's main sponsors in the Senate last time around, so he's making some predictably pro-voting rights remarks about the historic injustice of the status of the District. Earlier, Lieberman acknowledged Mayor Adrian Fenty as being present, along with someone who is apparently dressed up in some sort of colonial era costume— they were off camera, but we're going to speculate wildly that it might be DC Vote's Eli Zigas, who is better known for dressing as Abe Lincoln.
UPDATE 10:25 a.m.: Big names talking D.C. voting rights! First, freshly minted Illinois Sen. Roland Burris made a point of voicing his support for the bill. Now, Sen. John McCain, another new member of the committee, is coming out against the bill, saying it's unconstitutional, and making the point that the Utah compromise is a bad deal because every state is unhappy with its number of representatives due to the inherent flaws of the U.S. Census.
10:35 a.m. The committee votes to support the bill by a vote of 11-1 of those members present. The single present committee member who voted against was McCain, though by my count three other members voted against by proxy, including one of our favorite senators, Tom Coburn.
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Yes, Eli does do colonial costume, but quite a few others have as well, including Aviva Kempner.
so is this a new right-wing hobbyhorse? are they gonna rag on the census non-stop for the next few years?
john mccain: "oh, and get off my lawn!"
I personally like a lot of the initiatives that were taken out of the stimulus bill, but at the same time recognized they had no place in a stimulus package.
If something is a worthy expenditure, then it is a worthy expenditure regardless of the exact legislation used to effect it.
The "X isn't stimulus" line of argument is a manufactured controversy designed to distract.
How is examaning what is in the package and determining the effectiveness of specific programs to alleviate the current economic situation a distraction? This is the same talk from Obama - we can either do nothing, or we can do this package. I just don't buy that logic.
No, the stimulus bill is being rushed through and not getting the normal oversight regular bills are. While I don't like that, I'm can deal with it if everything in the bill will have an immediate impact. Anything that doesn't fit that category should be allowed more time for debate/fine-tuning.
I think the Census needs some work, but if we're going to do it, I want it done right. I'd prefer it take 2 months to be passed separately, instead of a rushed (probably less effective/efficient) version now.
I don't even want Joe "traitor douchebag fishlips" Lieberman on our side. He can go home, as far as I'm concerned.
I, for one, will not rest until Marion Barry is sworn in as the first Senator of the Great State of New Colombia. Four more years of the full crack pipe! Two hookers in every garage and tax-exempt status for every one who needs a kidney.
Really, at 10:35PM this happened?
Sommer, Lieberman was referring to me. I shook his hand before the start of the hearing. Here's a photo from 2006 for reference.
Also, my colonial outfit was also mentioned the other week in the Washington Post's article on House hearing.
Mary Beth Sheridan wrote:
I would've voted against it, too. I have no doubt that the strict constructionist in the USSC would strike this down in a heartbeat, too. I'm not a constructionist but I recognize that the intent of having a seat for the federal government that was not a part of any state is a cornerstone of state rights.
If Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe were alive today they would laugh in the face of this bill, or the mere idea of it.
DC is not a state. Mccain is right on this one.
ducksauceextreme: i'll ask you the same question i ask everyone else then—the supreme court ruled that DC is a "state" for way of carrying out things like interstate commerce.
so you're saying that the interstate commerce clause doesn't apply to DC then, right?