D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has made no secret of her desire to see the D.C. voting rights issue move, and move quickly. The Post’s Mary Beth Sheridan writes today that Norton will introduce legislation granting both the District and Utah additional seats in the House (the same proposal passed the House in April 2007, though it failed in the Senate in September), while Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.) will present the same measure to the Senate. In Norton’s ideal world, all the debates and voting would be wrapped up by February 12, the bicentennial anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

While the votes are definitely there—the House just needs a simple majority and Democrats in the Senate picked up enough seats to surpass the 60-vote threshold—the timing might not be. Congress will now begin immediately working on an economic stimulus plan, and we’d be hard-pressed to make the argument that D.C. voting rights needs to be muscled through before legislation that could help dig the country out of this recession. Then again, Congress has already debated this measure and we all know where the votes will fall. Why not just quickly pass the bill so we can get on with the business of sorting through the inevitable court challenges that will surely follow?

As much as we’d like to play the optimist and say that 2009 will be the year for voting rights, we’re also used to being let down on this issue. Getting the legislation out of Congress will likely be the easiest part of this year’s battles, and even if it gets passed early on in the 111th Congressional session, and then survives an initial court challenge, that’s still no guarantee Norton will be in possession of a floor vote by year’s end.

Photo by Joe Newman