'Nuttier than a bag of squirrels': Tom Cotton ripped for 'obvious dogwhistles' in Senate speech

On Thursday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) rose on the Senate floor to attack the proposal for D.C. statehood, saying, "Would you trust Mayor Bowser to keep Washington safe?" and "Wyoming is smaller than Washington by population, but it has three times as many workers in mining, logging and construction, and ten times as many workers in manufacturing ... What vital industries would the new state of Washington represent? Lobbying? Bureaucracy? Give me a break."

Writing for Esquire, Charles P. Pierce ripped into Cotton's speech, calling him "nuttier than a bag of squirrels."

"Cotton blew through the customary bargain-bin of historical references — Jacobins! The Philadelphia Mutiny! — and he trotted out the name of Marion Barry, of whom I had not thought in a decade, as a demonstration that DC can’t be a state because the residents can’t be trusted to govern themselves," wrote Pierce. "There was some lengthy mendacity on the subject of, if Washington can be a state, why can’t Jacksonville or New York? And, of course, the cat peeped from the bag; this is all about two additional Democratic senators elected by a population to whom the Republicans would rather not appeal."

In particular, Pierce found Cotton's argument about Wyoming absurd.

"What the fck is this?" he wrote. "I mean, besides the obvious dogwhistles that can be heard beyond the orbit of Neptune. Miners and loggers and hardhats apparently count for more as 'workers' than do street-cleaners, and hotel maids, and cops, and cabbies, and sanitation workers, and bodega clerks who make Washington a better place for Tom Cotton to live than back home in Bugtussle is."

With the populations of states growing more imbalanced and concern about the lopsided representation of various populations within the Senate, the subject of D.C. statehood has been subject to increasing debate. Republicans have generally staked out opposition to the idea, with President Donald Trump's administration taking the lead against it.

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