I spent some time last night at the DC Voting Rights Happy Hour at the 18th Street Lounge. It was a great event put together by DC Vote and DCist, there was a lot of engery in the room and anticpation for the march on April 16th.

I met Mike Licht, who told me he wrote a letter to the Panola Watchman in Representative Louie Gohmert’s District thanking him for taking on the job of being the District’s representative. I thought that was a brillant idea, and even better. . . .it got published! The letter is pasted below. If you’d like to send your own letter, email it to: [email protected]

Mike’s letter is as follows, and it’s starting to get some traction on Texas blogs:

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To the People of Carthage:

We who live in the District of Columbia appreciate your generosity in sharing your congressman, Louie Gohmert, with us.

Mr. Gohmert recently said that we, the Federal Income Tax-paying residents of DC, don’t need a vote of our own in the U.S. Congress because “. . . Washington, D.C. is . . . the only city in the entire country that every Senator and every Member of Congress has a vested interest in seeing that it works properly, that water works, sewer works, and no other city in America has that” (Congressional Record-House, March 22, 2007, H2845).

DC residents will now contact Mr. Gohmert about problems with our schools, roads, traffic, sewers, trash services and other local Washington, DC issues.

We are glad that Mr. Gohmert has been able to solve all these urban problems in your fine city. The DC population is 572,059, a bit smaller than the whole population of the 1st Congressional District, but with Mr. Gohmert’s energy and urban expertise, I’m sure your requests to his office will be answered as promptly as ever.

Sincerely,
Mike Licht
Washington, DC

In case you haven’t heard by now, last week a few Republican Congressmen temporarily blocked the progress of the DC Voting Rights Act on the House floor using a rarely implemented parliamentary procedure. Representatives Lamar Smith (R-TX), Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX) attempted to amend the DC Voting Rights Act by adding a section that would eliminate DC’s gun control laws. It was a pathetic attempt to not only deny over a half million people voting representation in Congress, but to also re-write our local laws to their liking.

This is only a minor setback. The bill will return to the House floor!

Can you please take a minute and make two phone calls to help with this effort? I need you to call both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Both have been champions on this issue and we need to thank them for their leadership in this fight. They also need to hear from people that this bill needs to brought back to the House floor this week before the upcoming recess.

Their phone numbers are below:

Speaker Pelosi: (202) 225-0100

Majority Leader Hoyer: (202) 225-3130

Please make the following points on your phone call:

* You are calling in regards to the DC Voting Rights Act
* You are very appreciative of their leadership on this issue
* You are urging the House leadership to bring the bill back to a floor vote this week.

Please take a few minutes and make the call today. These offices need to hear from people like you to get this bill back to the House floor. After you make your calls, please forward this email to others who would be supportive of this effort.

Don’t forget to tell your friends and co-workers about http://www.freeandequaldc.com