Congressional Conservatives Acting Like Soviet Politburo
In September, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) had noticed Republicans House lawmakers intentionally forgetting or losing their voting cards in order to delay votes. Starting late in the summer, Grayson said he saw 60-70 GOP congressmen engaging in this tactic:
GRAYSON: They’d all walk to the front of the House and, laughingly and jokingly, put their arms around each other’s shoulder like it was some kind of clownish fun. And they did this over and over to make sure every vote took half an hour. That’s how low things have gotten. I could give you countless examples just like that. They’re simply obstructionists and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Yesterday at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) delivered an address on unprecedented minority obstruction of reform. ThinkProgress spoke to him afterwards, and the Majority Leader confirmed that even the House parliamentarian had criticized Republicans for this very tactic. Hoyer admonished what he called “such a transparent effort at solely delay”:
HOYER: Well we’ve seen a couple of instances of that. Not so much forgetting their cards, but not using their cards and voting by the cards that are available at the desk. You have to write in and stand in a long line. And very frankly, the parliamentarian himself criticized that as delaying tactics which are not countenance by the rules. Obviously, every member has the right to vote. I thought they were unfortunate because it was such a transparent effort at solely delay as supposed to giving opportunity, fair opportunity to voting to every member.
*In a democracy the people's representatives should be allowed to vote with out dealing with the childish tactics of a party that has lost two election cycles in a row. Conservatives do not think elections - the people's opinions expressed at the ballot box - have consequences and have made it clear that have no desire to work for the common good of the American people.
