rssStraight Talk, My Friends
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 12:02 pm
- 17 Comments
At this morning’s Senate hearing on the D.C. Voting Rights Act, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) were the only Republicans in attendance and asking questions. McCain was the only one of them who voted nay, and he gave two reasons. The first was that the proposed compromise that would give D.C. voting rights while giving Utah a fourth seat in Congress was unfair to other fast-growing states. The second was that McCain didn’t want to pass a bill that constitutional scholars are still tussling over “and then have the Supreme Court decide whether or not it’s constitutional.”
This is a problem. What would happen if — a totally random example here — a senator introduced a campaign finance law that, according to many constitutional scholars and the president of the United States, violated the First Amendment? What if the Supreme Court had to decide whether or not the law was constitutional? That would be crazy. A Republican who wrote a law like that probably couldn’t even win Indiana.
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17 Comments
Comment posted February 11, 2009 @ 2:36 pm
But DC voting rights in the House by statute seems like it's almost certainly unconstitutional.
Here's the constitution on the composition of the House of Representatives:
“The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature…Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers…The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative.”
It seems fairly clear that representatives have to represent states. How could this not be unconstitutional?
Pingback posted February 11, 2009 @ 3:03 pm
[...] today was the only member of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee to vote against giving Washington DC a vote in Congress because he is a maverick my friends. The full hypocrisy of this vote, however, can only be [...]
Comment posted February 11, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
Do Representatives represent States or do they represent constituents? Somehow I thought that Senators were there to represent the States as constituents of the Union.
Pingback posted February 11, 2009 @ 3:54 pm
[...] Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) cast the lone “no” vote. Dave Weigel at the Washington Independent explains McCain’s opposition — and hypocrisy: McCain was the only one of them who voted nay, and he gave two reasons. The [...]
Pingback posted February 11, 2009 @ 4:28 pm
[...] Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) cast the lone “no” vote. Dave Weigel at the Washington Independent explains McCain’s opposition — and hypocrisy: McCain was the only one of them who voted nay, and he gave two reasons. The [...]
Pingback posted February 11, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
[...] Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) cast the lone “no” vote. Dave Weigel at the Washington Independent explains McCain’s opposition — and hypocrisy: McCain was the only one of them who voted nay, and he gave two reasons. The [...]
Pingback posted February 11, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
[...] If he cared, he wouldn’t let himself do things like this: [...]
Pingback posted February 11, 2009 @ 11:04 pm
[...] John McCain (R-AZ) cast the lone “no” vote. Dave Weigel at the Washington Independent explains McCain’s opposition — and hypocrisy: McCain was the only one of them who voted nay, and he gave two reasons. The [...]
Pingback posted February 12, 2009 @ 9:55 am
[...] Talk, My Friends . By David Weigel 2/11/09 12:02 PM More var varsarray=[]; varsarray[0]=’10649′; if(!token) {var token=’0′} else {var [...]
Comment posted February 19, 2009 @ 4:49 pm
hu….. Today ourschool had a basketball game and the boys did amasing like they were so suprised.
Comment posted February 19, 2009 @ 4:52 pm
and…….. yeesterday the girls played and won alot of games good job
Comment posted February 19, 2009 @ 5:24 pm
if you are loooking for somthing to laugh about go to google and put images and then pcture content and then put in stupid person and theres a penguin and I thoughtit was just LOL
Pingback posted February 26, 2009 @ 6:13 am
[...] Spakovsky goes beyond the traditional constitutionality claim made by opponents, such as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). He claims that D.C. residents don’t need a full voting member in Congress because [...]
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