Know how you always wake up from a dream just when you most want it to be real? That happened to me last night when I slipped into Sleepyland while thinking about the House Democrats’ threat to throw out the Motion to Recommit.
Yeah, yeah, I know, only in Washington, D.C. do otherwise sane people go to bed at night thinking about stuff like the Motion to Recommit. So, think of it as a concept for a new reality show, okay?
Anyway, the Motion to Recommit is the parliamentary rule that’s been around since 1822 that guarantees the minority the right to force votes on big issues. It’s an especially useful legislative weapon when a majority would rather pass something without being bothered by the necessity of an open debate and recorded vote on the House floor.
So I’m reading Drudge and without warning suddenly there’s one of those screaming sirens with a headline shouting “House Rebels Vow to Stop Proceedings, Demand ‘An Honest Budget.'” I rubbed my eyes to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing and sure enough the first line confirmed it.
“A rump caucus of the conservative Republican Study Committee vowed yesterday “to use every parliamentary manuever and trick we can find to force Congress to get honest with the American people about spending and taxes.”
Drudge went on to describe how Rep. Mike Pence claimed to have commitments from 50 or so colleagues, all self-described conservatives and including a couple of Democrats, to do whatever is necessary to send the proposed 2008 budget back to committee with instructions “to take out all the lies.”
Another of the rebels, Rep. John Shadegg, vowed that “whatever necessary includes bringing Congress to a standstill if that’s what it takes. We’re tired of being nice and looking the other way while people in both parties are spending this nation into bankruptcy while telling bald-faced lies about it.”
The conservatives’ rebellion was sparked, Drudge said, when House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, presumably acting at the behest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, threatened to throw out the House procedures book written nearly two centuries ago by Thomas Jefferson when he was Vice President and presided over the Senate.
Hoyer specifically said the Motion to Recommit “is going to be history because some of these Republicans keep abusing it to extend debate too long.” Hoyer was referring to Pence and other House conservatives who had forced nearly a dozen votes on controversial issues Pelosi and Hoyer wanted “to expedite.”
House Minority Leader John Boehner told Drudge he “sympathizes with their goals – after all, we all want truth in spending – but I can’t approve of their unconventional methods. I’m meeting with Majority Leader Hoyer later today to reassure him that we Republicans want to work together with our Democratic colleagues to maintain the dignity and proper decorum in the House while we work for the people.”
Any doubts about their rebellion were allayed when the rump caucus got their hands on an actual copy of the bill and found that it included a “Reserve Fund,” Drudge said. That was a promise to find new revenues at a later date to cover $50 billion in new social welfare spending.
“We all know this reserve fund is just another accounting gimmick, like the Social Security lockbox, and we’ve had it with this stuff,” Pence explained, according to Drudge. “Something just snapped in all of us and we all said spontaneously, ‘so what if we don’t get re-elected, we gotta do what’s right for a change.'”
Wierd things often happen in dreams, you know, and so it was with this one. Suddenly a second revolving siren appeared on Drudge announcing that “Democrats cave to conservative demands — Developing.”
It was just then, of course, that I thought Pelosi was physically assaulting me, until I woke up and realized it was actually Abby, my chocolate lab, licking my face and demanding to be let out for her morning stroll around the yard.
So out we went and there sat the morning Examiner in the driveway in the exact same spot the delivery guy puts it every single day. “Ah geez, I knew it couldn’t be true,” I muttered as the real headline came into focus – “Dems claim victory, pass $2.9 Trillion Budget, Reserve Fund Included”
UPDATE: They should call the GOP the ‘stupid party’
That’s the assessment of Right Wing News blogger and Townhall columnist John Hawkins. He has a devastating analysis of the current state of the GOP that he says is generating more email reaction than anything elsehe’s ever written. Go here and you will see why.
John does not concur with my view that the GOP has do damaged itself that it is incapable of being a winning vessel for conservative principles. He explains why in this post on Right Wing News. Note that he is a consultant for Rep. Duncan Hunter in his quest for the GOP presidential nomination.
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