[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. reports on a bizarre incident last night wherein [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. stormed out of the House of Representatives after a shouting match with the Democrats.

The flap represents a complete breakdown in parliamentary procedure and an unprecedented low for the sometimes bitterly divided chamber.
The rancor erupted shortly before 11 p.m. as Rep. Michael R. McNulty (D-N.Y.) gaveled close the vote on a standard procedural measure with the outcome still in doubt.
Details remain fuzzy, but numerous Republicans argued afterward that they had secured a 215-213 win on their motion to bar undocumented immigrants from receiving any federal funds apportioned in the agricultural spending bill for employment or rental assistance. [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. , however, argued the measure was deadlocked at 214-214 and failed, members and aides on both sides of the aisle said afterward.
[…]
Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) eventually offered a motion to reconsider, according to floor staff on either side, ostensibly giving members a chance to recast their votes. But the maneuver sparked a chorus of angry protests from the [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. , yelling “shame” on Democrats, while they returned fire with angry volleys of their own.
When Democrats finally moved to consider the spending bill as the last vote of the night, furious Republicans left the chamber en masse to protest the maneuver. The House eventually recessed at 11:18 p.m. But Republicans quickly discovered that there was no longer any record of the controversial vote and immediately charged Democrats with erasing the bad result.

An outraged source wrote [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. about this, terming the Democrats’ actions “an insult to our democracy, something that Stalin would recognize.” [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. blogged, “An outrage. Is this a democracy or a dictatorship?”
The Republicans would certainly be in a better position to take the moral high ground on this one had they not done [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. when they had the majority. It happened two years ago on the Central America Free Trade Area bill:

The 217 to 215 vote came just after midnight, in a dramatic finish that highlighted the intensity brought by both sides to the battle. When the usual 15-minute voting period expired at 11:17 p.m., the no votes outnumbered the yes votes by 180 to 175, with dozens of members undeclared. House Republican leaders kept the voting open for another 47 minutes, furiously rounding up holdouts in their own party until they had secured just enough to ensure approval.
[…]
The last-minute negotiations for Republican votes resembled the wheeling and dealing on a car lot. Republicans who were opposed or undecided were courted during hurried meetings in Capitol hallways, on the House floor and at the White House. GOP leaders told their rank and file that if they wanted anything, now was the time to ask, lawmakers said, and members took advantage of the opportunity by requesting such things as fundraising appearances by Cheney and the restoration of money the White House has tried to cut from agriculture programs. Lawmakers also said many of the favors bestowed in exchange for votes will be tucked into the huge energy and highway bills that [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. is scheduled to pass this week before leaving for the August recess

Cantor didn’t seem to mind:

Rep. Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.), the chief deputy majority whip, said as members left the Capitol that trade votes are always hard but that this one was especially so for Republicans because “the other side really ramped this up and made this a political vote.”

Regardless, though, one wonders what the Majority Whip and his staff were doing? In the House, the majority can simply ram controversial measures down the opposition’s throat, given that they control the rules. Why even put it up for vote if the outcome was in question?
UPDATE: [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. says we can “blame the Democrats for learning from DeLay.” He also muses, “have you noticed these things seem to happen late at night? It seems like calmer heads always lose out in these extended sessions.”
[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. , who maintains that last night’s action was far worse than what Hastert and Co. did on the CAFTA vote, provides this video of last night’s controversy:

[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link.

From what I've been hearing today the Dems were clearly in the wrong and have proven that Nancy Pelosi lied before the election, lied during the election, and continues to lie when she mentions how ethical and uncorrupt the Dem party is. LIAR LIAR.


I told you guys and any body else that would listen before the election that the dems were lying thru their teeth in an effort to win the election by the gullible. And now I get to sit back and continue to say I TOLD YOU SO. I hope the Rs stick to their guns and continue to raise a big ruckus.

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I agree. This was done because the democrats were trying to get welfare money for illegals. The Repubs had every right to walk out. Or "Cut N Run" . I just wonder, because all the news about the bridge in MN, just how many people didn't hear about this. Especially, the ones who put so much effort into calling their congressmen about the immigration bill.
And why in the heck was welfare for immigrants put into a agri bill?

My opinion on why it was put into an ag bill was an effort to HIDE it from the folks that they (congress) knew were up in arms about amnesty. I hope that talk radio does its job so well that the main vein media HAS TO take up the issue or look irrelevant. My hope is that by the time that congress ends its summer screw off season that the senators will have heard from pissed off folks at home and come back and have to change their votes.

I could email my congress critters but all of the WY reps are solidly on the right side of this issue. I don't even have to look to see how they voted. But I still check up on them occasionally just to make sure.

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Looks like she took a page straight out of Bush politics.

You don't get it do you? You and your party thing Bush was doing it so wrong and that they were the saviors of America coming in to clean house and run off the R crooks. The crooked actions stayed the same, the only thing that changed was the D from R.

Nice try at passing the buck, but it won't float this time. The Dems campaigned and were elected by the gullible.

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I am not passing any buck.. Dems say what they want to get elected, pubs do also.. So your saintly pubs running on a religion based party is a farce also...

Just wait. If it hits Bush's desk, then you can blame Bush. He can veto it, and it goes back to fail. But if he signs it. Then it rest solely on him. But then again, I didn't vote for him. I just wonder why the Repblicans are not jumping on the band wagon for Impeachment.
Allowing another country to invade ours.And punishing the border patrol for doing their job.

Which country has invaded? And who has punished the Border Patrol for doing their job?

We did, by sending the two guys to prison for doing their job.