If this is true it is a really shameful thing for the Democratic Party

[n2doc]

A Step Backward for D.C. Voting Rights
People who don't watch the sad saga of D.C. voting rights closely get all excited when the Democrats are in power because they think the Dems are the natural allies of District residents and will surely move to give Washingtonians their birthright and let them elect a member of Congress.

But that's not how it works, and House Democrats showed once again last week what they really think of the District. In a move calculated to make it appear as if the Dems really do care about D.C. voting rights, the House voted to let the non-voting delegate from D.C. cast a vote anytime it doesn't matter. That is, the delegate will be permitted to vote on amendments to bills--if and only if the margin of victory in the vote is large enough so that the D.C. vote would not alter the outcome. In other words, if and only if the D.C. vote is utterly meaningless.

As symbolic gestures go, this one would be harmless enough if it didn't also make it vastly more difficult for any real voting rights reform to come out of the House. But it does. Washington is now lumped together with Guam, American Samoa and Puerto Rico in the "here, have some nice bread crumbs" cluster of colonies that Congress treats like second-class citizens. But District residents don't belong to that neither here nor there crew of territories; rather, D.C. residents pay their full share of taxes and bear all of the responsibilities of citizenship, yet have no voice in making the laws that govern them.

And the silly sop Washingtonians were tossed last week makes it far less likely that Rep. Tom Davis's initiative to grant the District a voting seat in the House will now pass. Davis, a Republican from Fairfax, last week implored the House not to lump Washington with those colonial vestiges:

"To the cynic in me, this resolution smacks of obfuscation. What the majority is doing today threatens to delay action on the real injustice that has plagued the District for more than two centuries.... This resolution mixes the interests of D.C. -- the Federal District, the capital of the free world -- with those of the territories. This mushy thinking is what has led to nearly 200 years of no representation for District residents.
"It's confusing. It allows Members to "check a box" that in reality is not being checked.

"Still, it's tempting to support this, if only to get more members of Congress acclimated to voting to expand representation for District residents. But this is a sham, Mr. Speaker, and I won't be part of it. I can't condone grandstanding and symbolism when real reform is so easily within our grasp."

Davis's pleas went unheeded. And now House Democrats can pat themselves on the back and tell us all that they've done something to boost D.C. voting rights. They haven't.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2007/01/a_step_backward_for_dc_voting.html

Am I missing some bigger context here? I have never understood why DC residents have been stuck with this second class status. It is a relict of a previous time when no one was expected to live full time in the District.

[illinoisprogressive]

1. what is sad is that the DC not voting thing was only suppose to be temporary

During the building of Washington, the dc people were residents of Maryland and Virginia. They decided to make it a temporary thing of not voting while the building was going on.
It was never restored but, by all rights, the DC people should have had that restored almost 200 years ago.

[SaveElmer]

2. Davis is wrong...

This was merely restoring the votes of members in committee and on the committee of the whole that was taken away in 1995 by the Republicans...

He is the one grandstanding, trying to suck up to the RW of his party...while looking like a champion of DC voting rights