Democrats in the District of Columbia have long blamed Republicans in Congress for the repeated failure of their quixotic attempts to gain full statehood and their more reasonable demand for a vote in Congress. It’s time to put this urban legend to rest. The election of the nation’s first black president, along with a Democratic majority in Congress, raised high hopes that the city would be rewarded for its 93 percent support of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential contest. But it hasn’t quite worked out that way. Political commentator Mark Plotkin summed up D.C’s growing frustration with the president, who won’t even display “Taxation Without Representation” license plates on his presidential limousine: “He went to Cairo to talk about democracy. He won’t go to Brentwood or Deanwood.” Meanwhile, the latest antics of Mayor Vincent Gray — who ridiculously got himself arrested in a street-theater protest on Capitol Hill — and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton — who told her congressional colleagues to “go straight to hell” for not supporting her unsuccessful efforts to amend the final compromise budget bill — did the city no favors. On the contrary, they only managed to highlight their real priorities: More abortions for low-income women and less scholarship money for low-income children.
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