DCDL

DC for Democracy is having a picnic Saturday, May 19, in Rock Creek Park to raise funds to support their efforts, including presidential primary activities, voting rights, and community projects. Special guests include Jim Dean, chair of Democracy for America (and Howard Dean’s brother); Judy Feder, 2006 House candidate in Virginia’s 10th District; and members of the DC council. Suggested donation is $35 for an individual, $50 for a family.

If you’re looking for a local grassroots group focusing on progressive politics, DC for Democracy is the organization for you — and much of the leadership is made up of DCDL regulars (I’m the IT chair), so you should feel at home.

For more information, see the RSVP page (and if you can’t make it but feel moved to donate anyway, you can do it through ActBlue).

As Tom Goldstein mentioned at last week’s DCDL gathering, Barack Obama will be at H2O Restaurant & Lounge, 800 Water Street SW, on Wednesday, May 23, for a fundraiser that verges on affordability for ordinary people ($100, $50 for students). Tickets are going fast, so if you’re interested sign up today.

The next stage in the DC House Voting Rights Act’s passage through the Congress is a hearing Tuesday. If you’re able to come to the Hill that morning, please do, so we can have a crowd to demonstrate that DC residents care about the issue. Here’s the latest message from DC for Democracy:

As our patron Senator on DC Voting Rights and Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Sen. Joe Lieberman has just announced the schedule and witness panels for an important hearing on S. 1257, the DC House Voting Rights Act of 2007, on Tuesday, May 15 at 10:00 AM. All details about the hearing, including the witness list, can be found at http://www.dcvote.org/events/event.cfm?eventID=330.

To demonstrate our overwhelming support for the Senate’s quick response to our demand for full House voting rights, we are calling on all DC For Democracy members who are able to attend the 10:00am hearing, to please do so. We need to make our presence known and pack the room on Tuesday. Please attend the hearing if you are able — and show up early to get a seat! If you cannot make it in person, the hearing will be Web cast live from the Committee’s Web site at http://www.senate.gov/~govt-aff/.

Please RSVP to votingrights{at}dcfordemocracy.org.

Hope to see you all on Tuesday!

Karen Rose
Chair, Voting Rights & Democracy Committee
DC for Democracy

Since my previous post on the subject, two more senators have signed on as cosponsors: Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and John Kerry (D-MA).

If you’re a Virginia resident, please contact Sen. John Warner, who’s a possibly persuadable Republican member of the relevant committee, and ask him to support the bill, S. 1257. For that matter, wherever you are, if you have senators, ask them for their support. One way to send a message is to use the Free and Equal DC site.

I’ve been halfway following online the House Judiciary Committee’s questioning of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Here are a few disorganized thoughts:

• Ranking Republican Lamar Smith of Texas (known to us as the guy who tried to sabotage the DC voting rights bill by adding an amendment repealing DC’s gun laws) lobbed a bunch of softballs to Gonzales, but Gonzales couldn’t even manage those very well. For example, when asked whether the White House had pressured him to fire US attorneys to interfere in ongoing investigations, rather than strongly denying the possibility, he said “Not that I recall.” Shouldn’t that be something he’d absolutely recall if it happened, or are corrupt orders from the White House just so common that he can’t keep track of them all?
• Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said that Gonzales was not under oath. Why on earth are we still having people testify before congressional committees without swearing them in? Shouldn’t that just be a standard part of the process rather than something that needs to be decided anew every time? If it always happens, then no one needs to take offense when they’re asked to swear.
• The Republicans questioning Gonzales, including Howard Coble (R-NC) and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), are obsessed with intellectual property laws (when they’re not obsessed with illegal immigration). Apparently there are networks of people counterfeiting Gucci bags to fund terrorist attacks, so we need to prevent people from using TiVo and listening to Internet radio, or something.
• Later on, another Republican asked a question very similar to Lamar Smith’s, and again Gonzales gave an answer that wasn’t a simple, flat denial.
• Gonzales refused to answer a lot of questions out of concern for “the integrity of an ongoing investigation”. It’s too bad that similar concerns didn’t prevent him from firing US attorneys when they’re in the middle of ongoing investigations of Republicans.
• A frequent theme from the Republicans was that conducting this hearing kept the attorney general away from his job at the Justice Department, where he has important work to do protecting us from terrorists, illegal aliens, child predators, pornographers, and trademark violators. Apparently oversight is just a waste of time. But Gonzales has already established that he isn’t very involved in the running of the department, so how does his spending the day on Capitol Hill really make any difference?
• I’m surprised that at this stage the Republicans are supporting Gonzales and Bush so wholeheartedly. There’s none of the harsh Republican criticism of Gonzales that I remember from the Senate hearing several weeks ago. They’re raising all sorts of long-debunked bogus defenses, including the ever-popular “Clinton did it too!”

On Thursday, May 10 the DC chapter of Drinking Liberally is proud to host washingtonpost.com columnist Dan Froomkin at Timberlake’s, Dupont Circle. Dan is best known for his White House Watch column, a weekday roundup of all the latest on the White House. His column is a critical favorite in the political blogosphere.

The evening starts with a happy hour 6:30-7:30, followed by Dan’s talk and Q&A. Per tradition on our speaker nights, free appetizers, and drink discounts last until 9:00.
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This week Joe Lieberman introduced S. 1257, the Senate version of the DC voting rights bill (the House version, H.R. 1905, passed last month). So far he’s got seven cosponsors, and it’s good to see that they include two of the Democratic presidential candidates, along with other Democrats from across the political spectrum, and the two senators from Utah (both Republican):

• Robert Bennett (R-UT)
• Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
• Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
• Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
• Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
• Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
• Barack Obama (D-IL)

I’m hoping that Lieberman will be able to reach out to more Republicans to increase support and avoid a filibuster. Of course even if the bill passes the Senate it may still be vetoed by the president, but I’m hoping that if enough Republicans go along Bush won’t feel obliged to use one of his rare vetoes to stand in the way of bringing partial democracy to the residents of the nation’s capital.

If you’re one of those Americans who’s fortunate enough to have senators, please contact them and ask them to support S. 1257. You can use Mike Panetta’s Free and Equal DC site to send a message (and DC residents can use it to send messages to their state-dwelling friends).

The local grassroots group DC for Democracy has its monthly meeting tonight. They’re getting ready to kick off their presidential primary efforts, so they’re seeking input. If you’re looking to get involved in a group, this would be a great time to check out DC4D.

There will also be an update on the status of DC voting rights and some information about the upcoming Picnic in the Park fundraiser (mark your calendar for May 19).

Wednesday, May 2, 7pm
Ben’s Chili Bowl, 1213 U St NW (back room)
(across the street from U Street Metro, Green/Yellow Line)
RSVP

As the Democratic leadership promised after Republicans managed to torpedo an earlier bill last month, the House passed a bill that would give DC a full representative in the House. The bill, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act (HR 1905), has a long way to go still — and even if passed and found constitutional it does nothing about our lack of a voice in the Senate — but it’s an important step.

The vote was 241–177, with 22 Republicans standing against their party and voting for bringing democracy to the nation’s capital:

• Dan Burton (IN)
• Chris Cannon (UT)
• Michael N. Castle (DE)
• Tom Davis (VA) — the bill’s cosponsor
• Charles W. Dent (PA)
• Jo Ann Emerson (MO)
• Phil English (PA)
• Michael Ferguson (NJ)
• Wayne Gilchrest (MD)
• Darrell Issa (CA)
• Ray LaHood (IL)
• Steven C. LaTourette (OH)
• Mike Pence (IN)
• Todd Platts (PA)
• Jon Porter (NV)
• Rick Renzi (AZ)
• Paul Ryan (WI)
• Jim Saxton (NJ)
• Christopher Shays (CT)
• Chris Smith (NJ)
• Fred Upton (MI)
• Frank Wolf (VA)

On the other hand, 6 Democrats voted against the legislation:

• Dan Boren (OK)
• Nancy Boyda (KS)
• Christopher P. Carney (PA)
• Tim Holden (PA)
• Paul E. Kanjorski (PA)
• Gene Taylor (MS)

Republican Rob Bishop (UT) voted present, and 7 Democrats and 7 Republicans, including Virginia Republicans Jo Ann Davis and Eric Cantor (my parents’ congressman), didn’t vote.

Update (10:53pm): What is it with Pennsylvanians? Three Republicans and three Democrats from Pennsylvania voted the opposite of the way the vast majority of members of their parties did. Pennsylvania has 19 House members, so that means almost a third were mavericks on this bill.

On Monday, April 16, DC Emancipation Day, Congress returns from recess, and the people of DC will be greeting them with the biggest demonstration ever for DC voting rights. You can be part of it. If you work for the DC government (including the schools), you won’t even have to take time off work, since Emancipation Day is a city holiday. Otherwise, please consider taking part of the day off and showing that you care about having voting representation in Congress, even if you can attend only the rally at 4 o’clock.

DC Vote is the main organizer of the march, which conveniently ended up being the week that the DC Voting Rights Act is expected to be reintroduced in the House. For details see www.votingrightsmarch.org.

I’ll be marching with DC for Democracy and some other folks from DC Drinking Liberally. If you’d like to join us, RSVP. I hope to see you there!

Tonight’s the last night for Capitol Hill Drinking Liberally, at least until someone starts it up again. CHDL organizer Micha writes:

Come on out Wednesday to the 18th Amendment for what will sadly be the last Capitol Hill Drinking Liberally. The main reason for this is my schedule, which looks to be busy, unstable, or both for the foreseeable future as I finish my degree and try to figure out what comes next. I’d like to thank Rene who has been holding down the fort for the past month, and everyone who has shown up, it’s been lots of fun.

Come out tonight, Wednesday, April 11, 7–9pm, to the 18th Amendment (downstairs), 613 Pennsylvania Ave SE (Eastern Market Metro), and wish Micha good luck in his endeavors. His thesis is on Drinking Liberally!

If you’ve been going to Capitol Hill and need a new chapter, we’ve always got a seat for you at Dupont Circle. See the left sidebar for the latest events, and subscribe to our e-mail announcement list to keep up to date.