Actually, that title is misleading. To be perfectly accurate, it should read "House Votes To Not Deny Themselves A Raise," but then you get into the whole annoy-English-teachers-with-a-double-negative thing.

Last night, the House voted 244-181 to allow their automatic Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) to go through this year. You can read the details of the story in this AP wire report. Last year, Democrats successfully blocked this raise in protest over the Republicans' refusal to raise the minimum wage. But now that they have successfully raised the minimum wage, the House wants another $4,400 a year each (approximately), which would raise their salaries to around $170,000.

I've written about this subject before, in a vain attempt to get Democratic leaders to raise the minimum wage yearly, using the same COLA formula that they use for their own salaries. But, sadly, to no avail.

While I'm not against the concept of lawmakers raising their own pay in general, I do wonder at the political implications of such a move now, when Congress is at an all-time low in opinion polls (I've seen more than one poll which puts their approval rating at below 20 percent, although that's mostly due to the Iraq situation).

What I am against is doing so unconstitutionally. Here is the text of the twenty-seventh Amendement to the Constitution:

"No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened."

This amendment has a fascinating history, and even though the Supreme Court has ruled that an automatic COLA somehow doesn't apply, anyone with an ounce of sense can see that the language is quite clear: COLA raises, without an intervening election, are forbidden.

I realize I'm tilting at windmills here, but since that's how this amendment got passed in the first place, I must admit that I feel justified in doing so.

[There's a funny take on this over at the Capitol Briefing blog at the Washington Post, which notes that most of the Democratic freshmen in the House voted against the raise. It asks the question, if these freshmen denied themselves the raise, what should they use the money (about $150,000 total) for?]