Hey, Maybe Republicans Are Serious About This Constitution Thing

While all of the attention today has been on the passing of gavel from disgraced and ostracized former speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi to John Boehner, the Republicans held their first vote with a big tip of the hat towards the constitution. They voted to strip full floor voting rights from the delegates which represent our territories and the District of Columbia.

Republicans have long argued that the Constitution, which says the House should be made up of representatives chosen by the "several states," rules out voting by non-state delegates. The office of new House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday said Boehner "continues to believe . that delegates should not vote in the Committee of the Whole because they constitutionally cannot vote on the House floor."

"It's very apparent to me that we need to focus on the Constitution and (under the Constitution) states are to be represented in the House of Representatives," said House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif.

There is a lot rules surrounding just what powers these delegates have and what this measure basically boils down to is they can no longer vote on amendments to bills on the floor of the house. They could never vote on the final bills and this simply limits their participation to committees.

Predictably the delegate from DC is taking this extremely hard especially since the Democrats tried in vain to make them a full representative when they controlled congress, which if history is any sort of a teacher will be about 40 years from now before they get their next chance.