As Rachel Maddow noted, even though the Democrats drew a line in the sand with funding for Planned Parenthood during the budget negotiations with Republicans, they threw the residents of the District of Columbia and poor women there seeking abortion services under the bus. As The Hill reported this week, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton was furious at the decision and didn't hold back expressing her anger over the deal.
Delegate: DC residents should tell Congress to 'go straight to hell':
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) unleashed on Congress Thursday for veering toward a government shutdown, saying her constituents in Washington, D.C., are "being treated as colonists of the Congress."
Norton appeared visibly angry during an television interview, during which she lobbed attacks at the legislature and Republicans for their behavior in the budget talks. “District residents are being treated as colonists of the Congress of the United States. We are absolutely outraged. This is the functional equivalent of bombing innocent civilians,” she said on WTTG-TV. [...]
Norton chastised Republicans for pushing for a policy rider to be included in a proposed stopgap spending measure that would prevent taxpayer funds from paying for abortions in D.C.
"It’s time that the District of Columbia told the Congress to go straight to hell," she said. Read on...
And Mayor Vincent Gray among others were arrested protesting the budget deal today -- Capitol Police arrest DC mayor at rally against budget deal:
Capitol Police arrested dozens of protesters conducting a rally on Capitol Hill against Washington, D.C.-related riders in the new 2011 budget deal.
Washington Mayor Vincent Gray, Council Chairman Kwame Brown, Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser and Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells were among the 41 people who were arrested after protesters blocked Constitution Avenue. [...]
Organized by the voting-rights group DC Vote, the rally aimed to send a message to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and President Obama: Don’t “sacrifice” the rights of D.C. residents to get a deal on the budget.
“Clearly, both our opponents and friends think D.C. is weak,” the group said in a statement Monday. “Neither thinks we are strong enough to fight back against oppression.”
“We may not have legislative power, but we have the power of the people, and D.C. residents refuse to be treated like second-class citizens,” it added. “D.C. is not weak. Tonight, we are going to fight back.”
