Insane GOP Logic Could Foil DC Voting Rights Bill

Why let D.C. vote for itself when it could just vote -- in Maryland elections -- for Maryland?

Today is the day, Washington residents! The United States Senate -- the "most powerful" governing body in the world! -- plans to debate the D.C. voting rights bill today and (preliminarily) vote on it tomorrow. If successful, the bill would fulfill the Founding Fathers' constitutional wish that one day, an urban district on the East Coast would be able to add another vote to the Democratic supermajority.

The bill even has a fancy name: The District of Columbia Voting Rights Act of 2009. Oh boy! But you probably already knew that, having received some terrible chain letter about LIBERTY on the Facebook.

If the bill passes the Senate, it will easily pass the House, and then be signed into law by Barack Obama, who co-sponsored the very similar, failed 2007 version of this bill. And then everyone in D.C. will have to get less whiny license plates, or at least license plates that whine about something else. We think D.C. can wrack its brain over a few options.

Anyway, here's how the Republicans will try to ruin everything:

Sen. Lamar Alexander, Tennessee Republican and chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said "the most logical alternative for giving D.C. residents full representation in Congress would be to give the District back to Maryland" or "keep the District as a separate entity, but allow D.C. residents to vote in Maryland."

Well that's extremely constitutional, Sen. Alexander -- have residents of D.C. vote for stuff pertaining to another state! Then D.C. will at least get to vote for something, somewhere, for other people.

Thanks for electing the charitable genius, Tennessee.

Jim Newell argues that D.C. should be able to vote for Alaska in his writings at Wonkette and IvyGate.

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