Tea Party-Backed Freshman Tapped to Lead D.C. Subcommittee

Of the two House subcommittees tasked with overseeing the District, one will be led by a moderate Republican with local roots -- and the other by a freshman Tea Party member from South Carolina. This should be interesting.

The Post reported this morning that Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) has been tapped to chair the newly created Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and the National Archives. Gowdy, who defeated incumbent Rep. Bob Inglis in the Republican primary last year, will join Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) as part of the one-two congressional punch that governs all things D.C.

But while we somewhat know what to expect from Emerson -- and her local connections make her someone that D.C. voting rights advocates will likely be able to talk to -- Gowdy is something of a blank slate, albeit one with heavy Tea Party leanings. That can be good, or it can be bad. If Gowdy, like many Tea Party activists, believes that taxation without representation is truly unjust, then maybe he'll take a little sympathy on the District's plight. And maybe he's the type of conservative that sees same-sex marriage less as an attack on "tradition" than a private decision between two consenting adults and leave our marriage equality law alone.

Then again, if Gowdy's as strict a constitutional interpreter as he's hinted, he may well see his lordship over the District as a constitutional imperative. At the least, we'll get another member of Congress who will really hates the city's gun laws, and likely use his legislative powers to do something about them. Or, quite possibly, Gowdy may follow the path of many Republicans before him and use the District as a means to score points with interest groups -- in that case, same-sex marriage will come under attack, as will medical marijuana.

There's also a chance that he'll be too busy with his other responsibilities -- his subcommittee will deal with health care, after all -- to really involve himself in the minutiae of governing a city like ours.

Regardless, that Gowdy is now in charge of D.C. issues in the House brings up the inevitable historical comparisons to the last time a South Carolinian was so involved in our business. Rep. John McMillan, a South Carolina Democrat, chaired the House District Committee from 1955 to 1972, during which he aggressively fought any manner of D.C. voting rights or self-determination. It was only with his defeat in 1972 -- helped along by many a District activists who traveled to his district to campaign against him -- that the city achieved a small measure of equality with the 1973 Home Rule Act.

If Gowdy is as bad as some fear, maybe he'll be bad enough to motivate D.C. residents the way McMillan did.

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http://dcist.com/2011/01/freshman_tea_party_member_tapped_to .php

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