It’s no wonder Congress doesn’t take us seriously.

Controversy has erupted in the District over — of all things — statues. As we have reported in the past, the District has been looking to place two statues in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall, a privilege granted to states with which they can recognize two of their most prominent residents. City officials went as far as to allow residents to choose the two Washingtonians that would represent them in the famed hall, the results of which found (much to our chagrin) Pierre L’Enfant as one of the winners.

Or so we thought. WTOP’s investigative wunderkind Mark Segraves reported on Friday that L’Enfant didn’t actually win enough votes to be one of the two statues for the District, but was instead granted the honor through a shady and secretive maneuver within the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The highest vote-getter was Fredrick Douglass, followed by Duke Ellington, while L’Enfant barely came in tenth place. Douglass was quickly endorsed, while Ellington’s seemingly obvious designation was railroaded by one commissioner. Writes Segraves:

Minutes from a May 2006 meeting reveal the commissioners were unanimous in the first choice of Frederick Douglass, the former slave-turned-newspaper publisher…

But the minutes from the May meeting show the commissioners could not decide on the second choice, and delayed the vote for one month.

Prior to adjourning, commissioner Gail Berry West made a motion to add Pierre L’Enfant to the list of finalists.

L’Enfant came in 10th in the public voting, with 107 votes — well behind Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall and Benjamin Banneker, but 16 votes ahead Mayor Washington…

When the commission reconvened in June, they made a rare move of taking the remaining votes by secret ballot.

Apparently the members of the commission weren’t aware of the screaming irony of their actions. Not only are District residents denied voting rights in Congress, but now they’re also denied a voice in matters as simple as deciding who will represent them in Statuary Hall. Ellington got the votes, and is a fine representative for the District. Let him stand alongside Douglass.