Political Quotes

“I thank my good friend, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who is managing today's bill to right a wrong, but unfortunately, because D.C. does not have a vote here in the Congress, she won't be able to cast a vote on final passage of her own bill. Today, we are being asked to right a wrong. And you hear the contortions on the other side of the aisle to continue to justify a fundamental right being denied 700,000 fellow Americans who pay taxes, who fight in our wars and serve in government, who have families, who are Americans, but have no votes in the United States Congress. They are bigger than five States. They hide behind the Constitution. The Constitution was written before they even knew where the capital of the United States would be, before a blade of grass was touched to construct Washington, D.C. No one at that time could have envisioned the metropolis of 700,000 Americans, let alone that they would be denied their fundamental American right. Let's cede it to Maryland. Two problems: Maryland doesn't want D.C. and D.C. doesn't want to be in Maryland. The consent of the governed is a fundamental part of the American architecture, which you conveniently overlook. And then there is the right to be represented, another fundamental right denied D.C. Mr. Speaker, it is partisan politics, yes. It is theirs. They want to deny 700,000 people their right to representation in this body and in the other body because of their politics, or likely politics.…”