Photo by TDLphoto

Some of the everyday Tea Party protesters who descended on Washington last week may well be in favor of D.C. getting full voting rights in Congress, but bigger names associated with the movement are much less supportive. Newly minted Washington Post blogger (and occasional DCist contributor) Dave Weigel was following the Tea Partiers all over town, and he asked former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, lately of FreedomWorks, whether he thought the District of Columbia deserved a voting rep in the House.

“How do you buy the wrong thing by giving up the wrong thing?” asked Dick Armey of FreedomWorks. “The D.C. gun control laws are in violation of the Second Amendment, and they say we will less violate your constitutional rights if you give us what is unconstitutional? This is a city. It’s a district. It’s not a state. If they really have this concern, let this city return to being part of Maryland. In the marketplace you always trade away what you value less for what you value more.”

Not exactly a shocker that Armey isn’t on our side, nor that he hasn’t a clue that retrocession isn’t really a practical solution. Maryland hasn’t exactly expressed a lot of interest in folding the District into itself.