They just hibernate until there are enough votes for them. Or so you could conclude from the news that, with their increased strength, the congressional Democrats are hoping to pass a patently unconstitutional bill to give the District of Columbia a full-fledged seat in the House of Representatives (but not statehood, and hence no senators, which is a clear indication of the bill’s impropriety). I’ve blogged about this matter more than a dozen times on this page in the last couple of years (try searching “District of Columbia” in my archive), and first tackled it in an NRO article in September 2006. My most comprehensive stab at it, however, was in a piece last winter for the Federalist Society journal Engage, which also published a contrary view by Richard P. Bress. You can read both of us here. I think I had the better of the exchange (well, I would, wouldn’t I?), and I hope the Republicans in Congress do all they can to prevent this flagrant constitutional violation.