City Council petitions Obama on license plates

Washington, D.C.’s City Council is asking President-elect
Obama to outfit the presidential limo with the city’s license plate bearing the
“Taxation Without Representation” slogan.

President Clinton had the plates on his limo. However,
President Bush, who opposes giving D.C.’s representative in Congress a vote,
replaced them in one of his first acts as president with plates that do not
include the taxation slogan.

{mosads}The council members joined D.C. voting rights advocates
in their confidence that one of Obama’s first reversals of Bush’s policies will
be to return the “Taxation Without Representation” plates to the presidential
limo.

“As you ride down Pennsylvania Avenue, during the inaugural
parade after being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on
January 20, 2009, displaying the license plates would send a clear message to
the entire nation and the world about your support for this issue and remedying
this injustice,” the council members’ letter reads.

A bill granting the District the right to have a
representational vote in Congress almost became law in 2007. The measure gained
the support of eight Senate Republicans, who signed on to a deal that would
grant an additional member of Congress to GOP-leaning Utah. The result would
likely have been another Democratic vote in Congress from D.C., and a
Republican vote from Utah.

The bill was approved by the House but fell short in the
Senate. 

Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden both voted for
the measure, which Bush had threatened to veto.

Advocates believe that they have a better shot in the
next Congress, given gains by Democrats in the Senate.

“As a senator who has supported voting rights for the
District of Columbia, and having voted in favor of the bill in committee that
would provide representation in the U.S. House of Representatives for the
District of Columbia, we ask you to affix these licenses plates to the
presidential limousine as your first executive action as President of the
United States,” the council letter says.