It seems like City Paper's Will Sommer is none too impressed with James Bopp (R-Ind.), the Republican who convinced his colleagues to keep D.C. statehood (or any form of autonomy) off the official GOP slate in advance of the convention.
Sure, Sommer calls Bopp a "cool Republican" and "a neat guy," but something about Bopp being "definitely a serious thinker on statehood" makes me think he's being sarcastic. That, and the fact that the City Paper Twitter account called this picture "today's most infuriating gif."
Yep, that's Bopp doing a little celebratory fist-pump after opposing all forms of expanded D.C. autonomy, voting rights, and statehood.
In 2008, Democrats added D.C. voting rights to their national platform, while Republicans called on the District's "city council" to relax gun controls. (Come on, guys, it's the D.C. Council!)
UPDATE: "It's a disappointment," Nick Jeffress, the D.C. GOP's executive director told me. "That's really the simplest way to put it."
Jeffress said the D.C. Republican Committee sent its pro-voting-rights language to the national committee.
"We realized we would never get everything we asked for," he added.
But with Virginia's Rep. Eric Cantor and Gov. Bob McDonnell's recent statements of support of D.C. budget autonomy, "We were hopeful some form of autonomy would make its way into the platform," Jeffress said. "It's upsetting that with the progress we've made, it didn't make it."
