http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=August_2007_House_voting_controversy
I'll quote you a pithy summary from a Daily Show forum [link now dead; it takes you to TDS's stupid FB page now - J] about what caused this silly vote in the first place, the facts herein totally agree with the link above:
Basically what happened was the there was a very close vote on a republican amendment to deny benefits to illegal immigrants 214-214...and a couple of republicans changed their vote at the last minute..to make it 215-213 ..when the democrats saw that they were going to lose, they rallied a few more votes to make it 212-216. But apparently it was after the bell had rung, so the republicans whined that it was the first vote that should have counted.
So they said...Okay..let's have another vote..but the republicans stomped out and refused to have another vote.
The next day.....when they had a temporary majority, Republicans attempted to protest the previous night's vote with the daily routine of verifying the previous day's congressional record, but Murtha, as presiding officer, overruled a GOP request for a recorded vote on the approval procedure. Murtha apparently ignored that Republicans at the time had a majority of members then in the House chamber, which enables them to force a record vote. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) called on Murtha to explain his ruling, and Murtha responded by saying, "It is up to the chair. Let me tell you this, the vote will show that the approval would be approved by the House, as it has been."
So there was the first vote, which the Democrats plainly had the votes for but allegedly didn't get them in on time..then there was the 2nd vote, which was to protest the 1st vote..and Murtha was heavy handidly using his power, to actually fight a previous abuse of power. The video was chopped up to confuse the issue....
Anyway it was controversial enough to make yet ANOTHER investigation...arghh
So, far from being "Nazi Germany," (I think poor old Nazi Germany is very tired of being compared to every government under the sun, just an aside) or "Treason!" (does anybody know what that word means anymore?) this was just one act in a days-long match of parliamentary gamesmanship, which was so esoteric that it should not concern us, only bore us to death. Congress's rules of order when revealed are -- surprise! -- overly legalistic and petty. Nevertheless, if you read the entire saga, you'll see the Dems made a few attempts to meet the GOP halfway, but the Republicans preferred to make a big scene for the PR effect. GOP Minority Leader John Beohner even insisted on hiring an outside investigator at a cost of $1 million to investigate a vote that the GOP would have lost anyway if anybody cared.
So if nobody should care, why am I bothering to respond? Because it's 2 years after the fact and today I'm getting this forwarded to me, just like I know I will receive it again, so I would like to clear the air once and for all. (But I bet you somebody will forward it to me again. There is never "once and for all" with these things.)
This will 'frost' you......even if you're a Democrat!!!
So much for our two party system.
Murtha should be drummed out of Congress!!!!!
1 comment:
Thank you. I was just trying to put this into context as well since I received the email today as well.
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