Friday, January 9, 2009

January 7, 2009

 
 
     You've got to feel sorry for those voters in Illinois.  The governor, who once apparently wanted to put Barack Obama's Senate seat up for sale, has now appointed a former state Attorney General, Roland Burris.  The Senate says they won't have him-- except now they say maybe they will, but you can't be certain.  Or feel for those folks in Minnesota with Norm Coleman versus Al Franken.   Franken is supposed to have won the runoff by a couple of hundred votes but Coleman is suing.  Maybe there'll be a recount of the recount.  And, hey, do you suppose they could string this out for the whole six-year term and then have an election in 2014?  Sounds possible.
 
     This hoorawing around makes you feel sorry for those folks in Illinois and Minnesota because they won't have proper representation in the Senate.  It makes you feel sorry for them unless you live in the District of Columbia.  We don't have any senators or any Congressmen either.  Second class citizens?  You bet.
 
     I mention this only because they're talking again--they do this every few years--about giving Washington an actual Congressman, one who can vote.  What we have now is a non-voting delegate.  She's a nice woman, but being in Congress without having a vote is kind of like trying to fly without wings.
 
     Washingtonians are used to it, of course;  it's always been that way.  Taxation without representation, you've heard of that.
 
    They're talking about maybe changing that, giving the District one Congressman with an actual vote. That isn't fair either, of course.  The city has as many people as one or two of the least populated states;   they get senators.  But it would, I suppose, be better than the nothing we have now.  
         
     But who knows?  President-elect Obama was for giving a vote DC in the House at one point, unless he's changed his mind.  But Congress doesn't like it--why let a new guy in the club,  I guess.   I won't hold my breath until it happens.


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