Today the U.S. Senate killed the DC voting rights bill. This bill (S. 1257, roll call) would have given the District and Utah one voting member each. It passed the House and had a majority of votes in the Senate, but 42 a-holes Senators, all of whom Republican except Max Baucus ("D"-MT), voted against cloture and thereby defeated the measure. No democracy for you, DC.
Freedom is on the march? I don't think so.
As a strong DC statehood advocate, I am not the biggest fan of this bill. It would have promoted DC residents from third class to second class citizens. It would not have addressed the fundamental injustices whereby unelected representatives (overseers) in Congress determine our budget and laws. That is government without consent of the government and it's illegitimate.
But this bill was a chance for Senators to go on record whether they hate democracy or promote it, whether they wish to end the tyranny of taxation without reprsentation or perpetuate it, whether they believe in the ideals of America or cynically work to win power by denying rights to those who believe differently, whether they trample on or protect basic poltical freedoms in the U.S.
Opponents of freedom the bill, most notably the Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) -- boo, hiss -- claimed it was unconstitutional. Funny, they never made that argument when proposing abortion restrictions.
How did your Senator vote??
P.S. to folks who hate Joe Lieberman, he was a sponsor of this legislation and has always been a strong advocate for DC, so whatever you think of him, give him credit where it's due, even if we did not prevail here.