Administration: Watchdogs Gone Wild

ELECTORAL JUSTICE — CONSERVATIVE FILIBUSTER BLOCKS DC VOTING RIGHTS BILL: Yesterday, a majority of senators
voted to give Washington, DC residents a full member of Congress for
the first time in its 206-year-history. Yet the 52-42 vote was not
enough to overcome Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) filibuster. The bill, which was passed by the House on April 19, would also have granted a fourth representative to Utah. “It’s time to end the injustice,
the national embarrassment that citizens of this great capital city
don’t have voting representation in Congress,” said Sen. Joseph
Lieberman (I-CT), a co-sponsor of the bill, before yesterday’s vote.
The Senate’s actions marked the first time the full chamber “had
considered the D.C. voting rights issue since 1978, when it passed a
constitutional amendment that would have given the city voting
representatives in the House and Senate. The amendment died seven years
later after getting approval from only 16 of the 38 states required for
ratification.” Ilir Zherka of DC vote,
an organization that supports DC residents’ right to representation,
stated, “For the first time in 30 years, we secured the vote of a strong majority of Senators in favor of DC voting rights.
We are outraged that a minority of Senators, led by Senators Mitch
McConnell and Trent Lott, prevented the majority from voting on our
bill.”