Wishful thinking

Congressman Tom Davis says his fellow Rs can reach out to African Americans by supporting voting rights for DC. (Snicker.) He's right of course. Fat chance that'll happen. This from a recent editorial he wrote on the subject:

What if there was a way for Republicans to take the lead in advancing voting rights that would serve not only as a gesture of good faith to the African-American community, but would meaningfully franchise hundreds of thousands of people? In fact, there is -- by supporting my proposal to give the citizens of the District of Columbia a full voting representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Legislation I have introduced this year, the D.C. Fairness in Representation Act, would correct the anomaly that exists today, in which the 550,000 (mostly African-American) residents of the nation's capital pay federal taxes, fight and die in the armed forces, yet have no direct representation in Congress. We are fighting for democracy in Baghdad and Kabul, but have seemingly forgotten the disenfranchised citizens of our own capital.

The Republican leadership won't even let DC residents choose what to name their own streets, what makes anyone think they'll give the city an actual vote? Jackass John Cornyn has even stopped answering my letters about this issue. After Florida and Ohio and the new voter ID law in Texas, the Texas re-redistricting what makes anyone think this group gives a shit about voting rights?

Even the brave Davis's proposal wouldn't give DC Senators. So, if you don't live in DC and are lucky enough in this shining city on a hill of a "democracy" we have, please go to DC Vote, and send a letter to your members of Congress asking them to let DC residents finally become full citizens. Hell, maybe they'll work a compromise and DC residents will each get 3/5 of a vote.