Death by filibuster: DC voting rights bill killed in Senate

On Tuesday, the Republicans in the Senate successfully filibustered a resolution that would have granted Washington D.C. voting rights in the House of Representatives, and added one more seat in Utah.  The vote was 57-40, three votes shy of breaking a Republican filibuster:

The bill would have created two new House seats: One for the city of about 600,000 people and one for Utah , which narrowly missed out on a fourth seat after the last census.

The procedural vote effectively killed the best chance in decades towin the District a full-fledged House member. The city has been deniedvoting rights in Congress since 1801, making it the only major capitalcity in the world where citizens are denied a vote in the nation'srepresentative body of government.

Strangely, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) voted alongside the Republicans.  Chuck Hagel (R-NE) voted 'nay' as well, as did Larry Craig (R-MT), who returned to Capitol Hill for the first time following his temporary resignation in the wake of the public bathroom sex scandal.  Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) did not show up for the vote.

What kind of democracy are we, where our own capital has absolutely no say in federal law?  Situations like these explain why Democrats absolutely must pick up more Senate seats in 2008.