Republicans in Congress just haven’t been nice to the District lately — they delayed a vote on the voting rights bill by adding a rider to end D.C.’s handgun ban, and now they’re preventing a free concert from being held near the Capitol on July 7. The concert was to be part of Al Gore’s Live Earth series of concerts to raise environmental awareness and was to feature some combination of acts like the Police, Kelly Clarkson, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Fall Out Boy, Genesis, Kanye West, Akon, Green Day, Bon Jovi, Kylie Mingoue, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and others. So if you like any of those bands, Washingtonians, too bad.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell objected to the bill allowing the concert and a spokesman for Oklahoma Republican Senator James Inhofe said he “objects to having any events on the Capitol grounds that are either highly partisan or politically controversial — and the proposed Gore concert is both.” And he’s right, only die-hard liberals will sit outside and hear people talk about recycling while listening to a bunch of bands. They’re practically overthrowing the government by doing so! Especially if well-known leftist rabble rousers like Toby Keith will be there. Board up the Starbucks and call out the riot police!
But not all Republicans oppose free outdoor fun: Maine Republican Olympia Snowe also sponsored the bill that would have allowed the show to go on at the Capitol, which was proposed by Chili Peppers fan Harry Reid. Concert organizers say they may try to move the show.
As Matthew Yglesias notes, there seems to be a knee-jerk reaction by some conservatives to anything Al Gore does. We get the feeling that Inhofe and McConnell would oppose a concert about how crime is bad, puppies are cute, and people should be nice to their moms if Gore were running it.
We’re going to call our Congressman about this, but seriously Republicans, throw us a bone here. We don’t go to where Inhofe lives and get concerts cancelled there. We just want to sit out on the Mall and listen to a bunch of bands. How about a quid pro quo — dedicated Metro funding?
