Republicans To Washington DC Voters: "We Care- but don't call us, we'll call you."

The residents of D.C want a vote in the U.S. House. There are plenty of people who don’t want to give them that vote. After all, if you give a D.C. mouse a cookie, he will want a seat in the Senate. Since voters in the District of Columbia (which is a large, east coast city after all) tend to have problems like poverty, crime, drugs etc, they tend to vote Democratic. So, the last thing Republicans want is to see these inner-city residents sneaking into Congress bringing a lot of those damn Liberal Democrats in through the back door. (Especially at risk would be a Senate divided by the width of a whisker.)

So, when the U.S. House seemed poised to grant D.C. it’s first full representative, Republicans used a little legislative chicanery to send the bill back to committee, where it will, hopefully, die. The reason Republicans gave was that D.C.’s gun laws were too tight.

The Washington Post has the story.

Besides, according to Texas Republican Louie Gohmert, these inner-city people don’t NEED their own Representative to Congress:

I would submit to you that Washington, D.C. is also the only city in the entire country that every Senator and every Member of Congress has a vested interest in seeing that it works properly, that water works, sewer works, and no other city in America has that. [Hear him for yourself here]

Well, according to the Post, the Washington Blog, DCist, picked up on Congressman Gohmer's….opps: that's Gohmert's….remarks and was delighted to have finally found a representative to whom they could direct complaints.

So delighted in fact, that the blog suggested to it's readers that THEY call up their new congressman and share their concerns…early calls went to the wrong Republican, but no harm done, he also voted against the bill…but soon, Washington's residents were eagerly jamming their new Congressman's phone to complain about crime, garbage removal, and potholes.

As Gohmert's staff struggled to carry out its new duties, reviews on the DCist comment page were mixed. "I just gave a call to ask about garbage collection. And Man, our rep's are not very friendly."

According to the Post, one Republican congressional office was "deluged" with calls.

Now, I know that there is a legitimate debate to be held about why the District of Columbia was excluded from Congressional Representation by the founders.

But I also know that, to men like Gohmert, that is not what this is about. This is about keeping those damn Democrats from getting more votes.

After all, as the Post points out:

Democrats, who recently won control of Congress, have made a priority of giving a vote to the mostly African American city. [emphasis added]In floor speeches yesterday, they described it as an issue of fairness, linking it to laws and court decisions that gave blacks full rights.

Republican's like Gohmert see it differently, and used the same old Republican Compassionate Conservative line of Bush-Wah. But they got busted and embarrassed when Washington's Voters decied to take them at their word

…and I'm having too much fun watching Gohmert and his buddies clean that egg off their faces to worry about the "legitimate debate".

One reader writes in DCist that: Each week, DC residents should pick one member of Congress who opposes giving us voting rights and make him or her our "member of the week."

Meanwhile, the author of the DCist itself remarked that, given thet fact that Republicans based their maneuverings on gun rights, Representative Gohmert should reflect on "what happened the last time a group of Americans were taxed, unrepresented and, thanks to [Gohmert's] efforts, armed to the teeth..."

All I can hope is that Gohmert's Texas constituants have to pay his phone bill.

Footnote:

Gohmert is the same Republican who remarked of Decorated Veteran (and Democrat) John Murtha, that "...thank God he was not here and prevailed after the bloodbaths at Normandy and in the Pacific or we would be here speaking Japanese or German."

This info comes from Wikipedia, which, I notice has been altered to reflect recent events. As of 10:00 am Eastern Time, March 24, Gohmert's entry reads:

In March of 2007 Gohmert unilaterally ended the historical disenfranchisement of Washington the District of Columbia … Since that time Gohmert has become the 'go-to' representative for the District of Columbia and residents are encouraged to contact his office for any constituent services.