MISS McCONNELL STRIKES AGAIN-- REACTIONARY REPUBLICAN OBSTRUCTIONIST BLOCKS EQUAL VOTING RIGHTS FOR DC RESIDENTS

Abraham Lincoln must have rolled over in his grave this morning as Republicans used the threat of a filibuster to kill the legislation passed by the House that would have provided for permanent congressional representation for the 600,000 residents of Washington, DC, who do, it should be noted, pay taxes, and serve in the military and on juries. It's also a majority African-American jurisdiction and that, of course, is why what was once the party of Lincoln and is now the party of the KKK, refused to let the bill go forward for a straight up or down vote. A compromise had been carefully put together by Democrats and mainstream Republican conservatives to guarantee the 60 votes needed to overcome the promised efforts of McConnell and the radical extremists and racists who vowed to kill it. But it still fell 3 votes short.

Republican lawmakers today blocked the Senate from taking up the D.C. voting rights bill, dealing a major blow to the District's most promising effort in years to get a full member of Congress.

The vote was merely on whether to begin action on the bill. But only 57 senators voted in favor, short of the 60 needed to proceed. Without enough support to vault the Senate's procedural hurdles, the bill is expected to stall for this year, and possibly next year as well.

The vote was a crushing disappointment to activists who have worked for years to gain voting representation for the city in Congress. The bill, which passed the House in April, has gone further than any other D.C. voting rights measure in nearly 30 years.

The bill offered something to both parties. It would expand the House of Representatives by two seats: one for the overwhelmingly Democratic District, and the other for the next state in line to add a seat. That state is currently Utah, which is heavily Republican. Utah would also gain an extra electoral vote.

Bush had demanded McConnell block the bill and he threatened to veto it if it passed the Senate. The bill "attracted a wide array of political support. Co-sponsored in the House by Rep. Tom Davis, a prominent Republican, the bill drew a bipartisan lobbying push from former Republican Rep. Jack Kemp and the new and popular D.C. mayor, Adrian M. Fenty, who was allowed on the floor to buttonhole senators. 'Not since segregation has the Senate blocked a voting rights bill, and this is a voting rights bill,' Fenty told a rally the day before the Senate vote."
The only Democrat to join the Republicans on this was arch-reactionary Max Baucus from Montana. Republicans who must face the voters in 2008 who voted against this bill include:
Miss McConnell (R-KY)
Gordon Smith (R-OR)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
John Barrasso (R-WY)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Larry Craig (R-ID-- yes, he's back and in between runs to the Union Station public toilets he drops by the Senate to continue voting for the far, far right that is forcing him to resign in disgrace. It must be so very strange and unnatural to be a Republican.
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)
Pete "Sneaky Pete" Domenici (R-NM)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)- remember this vote next week when people tell you to feel sorry for him
James Inhofe (R-OK)