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It looks like Congress has once again left District residents without a resolution on voting rights. At the end of March, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he expected the D.C. House Voting Rights Act to come to a vote in some form by the end of May. But the U.S. House left town for its Memorial Day recess last night, making it now impossible for anything to happen until June at the earliest. We're also still waiting to see if the White House is going to get involved, as D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton claimed last week and the Post demanded yesterday. Rumor has it that Attorney General Eric Holder is on the job, but even a big push from him next week wouldn't yield any forward momentum from an absent Congress. We're still hoping for the best, but we're not above feeling like we're stuck in a real-life version of Groundhog Day.
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Why should the Democratic leadership in the House care about a city that votes over 90% Democrat and will continue to vote that way, regardless of what happens on this issue?
But hey, according to the leaders in this city, being a one-party city is a good thing.
The political naivete in the District government is simply astounding.
That's a stupid question. For the same reason Republican leadership is so against the idea of giving DC the vote. It's a guaranteed Democratic voting bloc.
That WaPo editorial is just ridiculous. I'm okay with folks having different opinions, but the outright fabrications are inexcusable.
WE NEED TO MOVE THE BALL FORWARD!
Also, with the vote this week on guns in national parks, doesn't DC realize that they are on the wrong side on this issue? The gun stuff will just be attached to something else. The council needs to act to save this opp.
The council is incomepent, the Mayor is a joke, most of the council staff are even worse. Imagine for a second Marion Barry, Jim Graham, and Adrian Fenty, with a coterie of their assistants, ever being taken seriously by the Speaker of the House. There's your laugh for the day.
DC politics is not even minor leagues, its little league. Congress, up to and including the Speaker of House, doesn't care at all about DC issues. A little lip service here and there, but that is it.
Eleanor is a liability on this issue since she is so toxic on the Republican side of the aisle. Imagine for a second if Patrick Mara had won a seat on the council. That would give DC an actual Republican councilman with real contacts on Capitol Hill who could actually lobby a few Republicans on this issue. Maybe Tommy Wells can ride his bike to the Capitol and try to get someone to listen to him, or recognize him for that matter.
This issue can not be passed without Republican support, or at least, a lack of Republican opposition. Pelosi et al are not going to waste even the smallest amount of political capital on this, so the idea that the majority can ram this through is (and has been proven over the last 2 years) to be ridiculous.
A one-party city that is easily ignored, a transient population that really doesn't care all that much about this issue, and a collection of political leaders who, quite frankly, are smart or talented enough to do anything else, is not exactly a recipe for effective Congressional lobbying.
I really don't understand why retrocession isn't discussed more. I know Maryland doesn't want to take back DC and full retrocession would probably require a constitutional amendment, but the "District of Columbia Voting Rights Restoration Act" (H.R. 3709), would have treated the residents of the District as residents of Maryland for the purposes of Congressional representation was proposed in 2004 and got nowhere. That seems like as elegant solution as possible. And it would only take majorities in Congress. Let's bring it back up for a vote!
It would be tough to do when it is opposed by both Maryland and DC. Maryland would fight it tooth and nail (and remember, they can actually vote). The main reason is that it would create a massive power shift. The political power of Baltimore and rural areas. Add to that the fact that Hoyer is the Majority leader.
Its a non starter
You know, something just occurred to me. I think I've just found the perfect place to house the detainees when they shut down Guantanamo. It's a place filled with residents who don't have any alternative but to put up with Congress' $h!t. Where every Congressman can get away with saying, "See? I kept these dangerous terrorists out of your backyard."
And it isn't Guam.
Oh, Congress. You pricktease whore. Hold on while I get my Old Spice Soap-on-a-Rope. And DON'T YOU F**KING LOOK AT ME!
(turns on gas, inhales deeply)
Mommy! Mommy! Baby wants blue velvet!
already checked out for the long weekend have we?
Shut up! It's "Daddy," you $h!thead! Where's my bourbon? Can't you f**king remember anything?
Get on with it already! A .22 is calling my name.
Im thinking an AR7. Pretty much a plinker but its got that whole james bond thing going for it.
Given the gun nonsense, I'm glad the bill is stalled. The gun amendment represents an interference in DC's local autonomy that no other jurisdiction has to put up with. It's too high a price to pay for a marginal increase in our Delegate's powers. Since the House leadership cannot prevent the gun amendment from getting attached to the VR bill, it's better that it die in the House. We can then move on to our real goal: statehood.
You're absolutely right. We don't need that stupid baby OR it's stinking bathwater.
Now where the hell's my bourbon?
option 1: We let the VRA die and the gun amendment is attached to something else. No vote, no control over gun laws.
option 2: We suck up the gun amend. and get the vote. Vote, no control over gun laws.
option 3: The Council corrects the errors in the gun laws and amendment is dropped/weakened. Vote, keep control of gun laws.
#3 is the best
#2 is a compromis
#1 unfotunately is most likely
Dont you understand that the repubs are banking on #1? You are just playing into their hands