It’s the kind of thing that's supposed to be bang-bang: local congressperson gets congress to vote on the naming of local post office after local hero and congress votes yes because nobody really cares what a post office is named. It happens so frequently and so easily that nobody can remember when anybody last raised a stink. So congresswoman Barbara Lee tried to get the Berkeley Post office named after long-time councilwoman, activist, and Berkeley icon Maudelle Shirek, only to see it get denied. The reason? Because that Maudelle? She hates America.

First, some background. Maudelle, who is 94 and still very much alive, was a Berkeley councilwoman for over 20 years having won her first election at the tender young age of 71. Before then, she was a union organizer, an office manager of the Co-opt Credit Union, and helped found two Berkeley senior centers. She was also a bit of the activist with a resume chock full o’ lefty-ness, including once having dinner with Fidel Castro. In otherwords, she's as Berkeley as You could Be. But it was her association with the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library that got her in the most trouble. It’s the reason why noted Berkeley authority, Congressman Steve King (R) of Iowa objected to the vote and fought the not-so-good fight to the measure's defeat.

The measure has been controversial from the get-go but it was King, a big fan of Joseph McCarthy, who spearheaded the defeat. The Republicans are all fired up now and are doing the timewarp by accusing those who supported the naming of the post office as being soft on communism. Supporters, especially in Berkeley are going to continue the fight. If the post office can't be named after her, they'll try and find another building. Or put her in a mural.

Either way, which party is the party of small government and local control again?