“I do not know if the National Museum of African American History and Culture would have happened without him.”

Over at Huffington Post, Andrea Batista Schlesinger of the Drum Major Institute has a nice roundup of what she thinks are the best public policy initiatives of 2007. Number six on her list is the D.C. Voting Rights Act, and she has a solid grasp on why congressional representation for the District is so important:Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C’s indomitable delegate, can debate with the best of them, but without the D.C. Voting Rights Act, neither…

After waiting all summer, and oh, nearly 30 years since the last time a D.C. voting rights bill made it to the Senate floor, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has scheduled the cloture vote on S. 1257, the DC House Voting Rights Act of 2007, for Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. But whether the bill has the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster is still unclear, so voting rights activists are asking supporters to rally…

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters yesterday that he would definitely not bring the D.C. Voting Rights Act to the floor before September. This is pretty much what we’ve been expecting for the last week or so, but it’s now officially confirmed. It’s a little bit disappointing to have to continue to wait, but considering Reid also described the bill’s status as being “close” to having 60 votes, which would be enough votes…

For all you liberal/progressive internet/Netroots types in town who are heading to Chicago later this week for the behemoth 2nd annual YearlyKos Convention — and we know there are more than just a few of you — allow us to recommend some programming. On Friday, August 3 from 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m., the panel you’ll want to make sure not to miss is Taxation Without Representation: Alive and Well in the Nation’s Capital, which…

Another classic installment of the 434-part Better Know a District series from the Colbert Report last night saw host Stephen Colbert question whether Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) realized that when he voted for the D.C. Voting Rights Act, it applied to Washington, D.C., and not his home state of Washington. Just another example of how Colbert is doing his part to keep our disenfranchisement in the public eye. Smith was also willing to admit…

It looks like Senate Republicans really don’t want today’s scheduled Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to happen as planned. DCVote spokesperson Kevin Kiger tells us that Republicans have tried to invoke the 2-hour Rule, which would cut off committee action two hours after the Senate started work for the day. We’ve got our browsers set to the live webcast of the hearing, set to begin at 1:30 p.m., at which point we’ll know whether Sen. Russ…

After passing the House and getting a hearing in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee last week, The D.C. Voting Rights Act moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow. The committee has scheduled a full hearing on Wednesday called “Ending Taxation Without Representation: The Constitutionality of S.1257,” which will address, natch, the constitutionality of the bill. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, is a supporter of…

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big — really freaking big — so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city’s San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA…

Via Free Ride, which is running a photo we’re totally envious of depicting Mayor Adrian Fenty with a mile-wide grin and D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton with what can only be described as a growl-like expression at Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the D.C. Voting Rights Act, it’s worth clarifying a change to the Senate version of bill for the sake of the ongoing conversation we’ve been having about its constitutionality. According to this morning’s Roll…