"They just replayed the whole mess from the House last night on C-Span. I spoke
to Novak and he doesn't remember anything quite like this happening before. Pretty outrageous, really. It is about as blatant an abuse of power as you can have in a
legislative body, to cheat on a vote total.
Republicans were playing a game that the minority usually plays — you have your guys vote with the other side, then have them change at the last minute. This forces the majority to come up with votes quickly. Although on close issues they would rather spare their endangered members in swing districts and give them a free vote, the majority leadership then has to tell their endangered members to bite their tongues and vote the party line.
Two Democrats changed their votes to ensure that the measure would fail, but then three Republicans did the same. The vote total was 215-213 in favor of the Republican motion to recommit. At that moment, Rep. Mike McNulty ( D-N.Y.), who was in the Speaker's chair, gavelled out the vote, thinking that it was a tie and the motion had failed. But he had miscounted — the motion had actually passed. The Democrats were only able to change this by cheating and changing more votes after the gavel.
Although they did not do so for hours, the House clerk's office finally did put a record of the vote online this morning, with the measure failing by a vote of 216-212."
I know that a lot of you might be reading this and thinking - BORING... but read it Click on the link and read more about it, you should attempt to understand it. I am not taking a side on this issue, it seems murky to me. I am posting it here because this is what John McCain would call a Seminole moment, and it is going to factor importantly into the campaign season for 2008 and perhaps beyond. It is also instructive to see how the gears of our government turn.
No comments:
Post a Comment