Posted on 08/04/2007 5:09:06 AM PDT by Kaslin
Last night on the House floor – that sprawling, brawling arena that was like a second home to me during my 22 year career in Congress – it seems pretty clear that a crime was perpetrated against the rule of law and the American people. A combination of arrogance and incompetence on the part of the Democrat leadership left the Rules looking like a prisoner at Abu Ghraib. Not bad for a Thursday night.
Here’s how it went down. The House of Representatives, like all democratic legislatures, provides for what is called a “Motion to Recommit.” It’s one of the many minority rights built into the structure of the legislative process. Basically, a properly led majority party in the House – unlike in the Senate – can pass pretty much any bill it wants to. It can swat down minority amendments, or even disallow their introduction in the first place. In order to give minority members a semblance of dignity in such circumstances, they are usually permitted one more vote, before a major bill’s final passage, to send the bill back to committee. A good example of this would be a budget bill: Republicans don’t want to just vote against the Democrat budget, so they propose their own in the form of the motion to recommit, so at least they can have something they’re for. Now, because majority parties are in control of things and presumably have competent leadership, these procedural votes are typically formalities.
Until this year. In the seven months since the Democrats took control of Congress and, as now appears evident, elected the most incompetent speaker in American history, Republicans have passed one motion to recommit after another. They have cleverly written their motions so as to make it difficult for Democrats to cavalierly vote against them. Such was the case last night. Before the vote on the Agriculture spending bill for the next fiscal year, Republicans offered a nifty little motion to recommit so that illegal immigrants would not receive taxpayer funded government welfare. (My compliments to whoever thought that one up.)
Well, because a few of the Democrats can’t afford to have an ad in their next campaign saying he wanted to give illegal immigrants federal funds, Nancy Pelosi’s duct-taped majority sprung another leak. The motion to recommit, whose passage would scuttle the Democrats’ bill offering taxpayer benefits to illegal immigrants, was on the verge of passage, with 215 votes in favor and 213 votes opposed. Yet another ring was about to run around Pelosi and her bumbling leadership team.
Then it happened.
The presiding officer, the guy in the big chair with the gavel, was Democrat Congressman Michael McNulty, who would apparently make a compelling contestant on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, gaveled the vote closed – repeat, closed – when it was 215 to 213. Republicans win. Except when McNulty got the tally from the Clerk and realized what happened, he and the Democrat leader conspired to “correct” their mistake, after the gavel had fallen.
Angry Republicans started asking questions, primarily one beginning with the words, “what” and “the”. Republican Leader John Boehner stood up and asked the same question, politely, and all McNulty said was that the “voting machine is down.” (The House’s electronic voting machine doesn’t just “go down”, incidentally: it was more likely turned off to hide the evidence of the crime.) A few minutes of strange rustlings over on the Democrat side of the dais ensued until finally Rep. McNulty spoke up again and said, “The Chair prematurely called the vote at 214-214 [a lie], while there were votes being entered [illegal]. After all the cards [whose?] were added, the final [illegal] vote was 212 to 216, nay. Sorry suckers, it’s Schlitz O’Clock!” (Okay, I added the last part.)
Except here’s the thing. The vote was closed. Not open. Not ajar. Closed. The rules don’t allow for McNulty’s personal problem with premature e-gavel-ation. He screwed up and cost the Democrats the vote. But in Nancy Pelosi’s America, votes only count when Democrats win: so she cheated, and bent a once-proud and honorable political party into an instrument of despotism. Jaw-dropping as it may sound, it’s not an exaggeration to say that for a few minutes last night, the United States was not a representative democracy.
Democrats came out to the floor this morning, admitted they made an honest mistake, and suggested we let bygones be bygones. That’s all well and good, except for this: when a motion to recommit passes, no other votes are taken! The Agriculture bill is sent back to the House committee, not to the Senate for further action. And on top of that, the Democrats even tried to expunge the record. They’re hoping the American people don’t notice. In short, they think you’re even less on the ball than Congressman McNulty.
(And for those of you who are trying so desperately to compare it to the Medicare vote that was held open for three hours, I give you this. The House requires a minimum of 15 minutes for a vote; however, the vote can stay open as long as needed, until the strike of the gavel when the vote is properly tallied. That early morning in 2003, we won, fair and square. Democrats had every right to find it annoying – I would have in their shoes –, but what we did was no way illegal or unruly. What’s amazing is that after we took the Democrats to school for 12 years, they’d still rather cheat than learn.)
Dittos.
They play “rip the throat out and worry about the body later.”
Our side plays: “wanna be friends? :-))”
The Speaker did not wait for the clerk to hand him the tally prior to announcing the results of the vote.
There, fixed.
I’v known Mike McNulty for a few years - he is a bit of a pest...
But think what you may about the Democrats. All credit for their shenanigans and traitorous activities goes directly to the "American" voter.I used quotatin marks around American because I do not believe that any true American, knowing what the Democrat Party stands for, would vote for a Democrat. Without the fools and idiots that vote for and elect them, the Demcrats could do nothing. In closing, the Democrats are what they are. They cannot help being that. That is all they are. It is the fools and idiots that elect and re elect them that are the problem.>
Yes, but what happens when they break them? There has to be an objective enforcement procedure or else you'd never know if a a bill passed.
You cannot say according to the rule the vote was 215-213 but it wasn't.
Decisions (Senate deliberations for instance) have to be made in accordance to what is on record.
These House Dems made a mess for themselves and the Pubs ought to run with it in every venue they can. As far as I can see, the only solution for the Dems is to bring the bill back for another vote in accordance to what the procedures are for doing so.
I guess they can ship it to the Senate as is and try to get what they want in committee but that would give the Pubs in the Senate a chance to have some fun.
Agreed. The GOP has a propensity that we can win fair and square. Unfortunately the RATS never bother themselves with the law or fairness. 08 is going to suck unless the GOP goes gloves off.
the no cajones republicans should try to get in front of every lib/dem msm camera and shout out what the lib/dems did in the house and what the vote entailed.....
appropriation of welfare funding to reduce costs for illegals housing and living expenses!!!!
this is what the lib/dems are fighting for.....
selling out american taxpayers and fighting for illegals!!!!!
Did Howie also promise to make the trains run on time?
“selling out american taxpayers and fighting for illegals.”
they are not fighting for illegals. they are obnoxious, psychotic, communist revolutionaries who are fighting for any and all maneuvers that will coalesce power for them in any way, shape or form and the “american electorate” will willingly watch them wrest power in any way possible.
(democrat/communist indcotrination and propaganda have been very successful.)
Bears repeating, bttp, and some righteous wrath. If the shoe were on the other foot this would be the Second Coming of Watergate.
TR7, thanks for the link. I didn’t see that story. It is good to see and I will go and follow the thread but it is a bigger issue partywide.
Your assessment is correct, but if the shoe were on the other foot, multiple lawsuits would be flying around by now.
When Democrats are losing, their solution is to change the rules. Just like in the 2000 Presidential election. They almost got away with that one.
Every time almost they get away with another one, Democrats become more emboldened. They hope for precedent rulings in their favor. All it takes is one favorable ruling. Only the Supreme Court stands in their way. And given the opportunity, Democrats will stack the court in their favor.
How can we resore order when the electorate is so blind to the re-election of those DemoRat degenerates?
Damaging info against the rats is irrelevant. Without MSM friends, facts are never considered. Only the repeated lies gain momentum.
These are some things we have to work on aggressively and without haste if we want to preserve our republic and our freedom.
This is the most clear explanation I’ve heard or read on the matter.
The Democratic Party is a criminal enterprise.
What happened in the House is abominable and illegal. It appears that the vote demonstrated that we are not living in under the rule of law, but a dictatorship of the congressional leadership. It appears that the Democrats tried to pull a fast one by gaveling the vote shut to prevent the Republicans from winning, but the vote tally changed a second before a he gavelled the meeting to a close. Thus when he closed the voting the Republicans had won, and no further vote counting was allowed. The Democrats appear to have gone through some shady dealings by erasing the computer record of the vote. It is ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS and justice needs to be given here.
However as for the enforcing of the rules of the House, only a majority of each chamber of Congress can judge the validity of its own votes or its rules for that matter. It is a feature of our constitution which guarantees the independence of each branch of government (separation of powers) from an outside entity. The bottom line is that whatever a majority of either chamber says is the LAW of the chamber is the LAW of the chamber. If a majority of Congress challenged this illegal, and egregious violation of rules and democratic process which we saw last night, then the decision of the majority overrides the decision of the chair. However, the vote is so close that the Democrats can probably strong arm enough of it majority to prevent that from happening unless there is a huge outcry from the public at large.
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