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GOP Walks Out After Vote Stolen In The House

From a shameless DNC stooges at the Washington Post:


House Forms Special Panel Over Alleged Stolen Vote

GOP Assails Decision on Food Aid for Immigrants

By Jonathan Weisman and Elizabeth Williamson
Saturday, August 4, 2007; A02

The House last night unanimously agreed to create a special select committee, with subpoena powers, to investigate Republican allegations that Democratic leaders had stolen a victory from the House GOP on a parliamentary vote late Thursday night.

The move capped a remarkable day that started with Republicans marching out of the House in protest near midnight Thursday, was punctuated by partisan bickering, and ended with Democratic hopes for a final legislative rush fading. Even a temporary blackout of the House chamber’s vote tally board led to suspicions and accusations of skullduggery…

“I don’t know when something like this has happened before,” said House deputy historian Fred W. Beuttler. He called the decision “incredible.”

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) accepted GOP calls for an investigation. “I do not believe there was any wrongdoing by any member of the House. I do believe a mistake was made,” he said. “And I regret it.”

“We are not irrelevant here,” said House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). “Just because we are in the minority doesn’t mean we’re irrelevant.”

GOP lawmakers had marched out of the House chamber about 11 p.m. Thursday, shouting “shame, shame” and saying that Democrats had “stolen” a vote on a parliamentary motion to pull an agriculture spending bill off the floor until it incorporated an explicit denial of federal benefits to illegal immigrants. The bill already would deny such benefits to illegal immigrants, and Democrats stressed that they won the vote fair and square. But a campaign has been launched, and the House has not fully recovered.

“Last night sent a clear message to the American people that there are people in this town who are willing to break rules and utilize extraordinary maneuvers just so that illegal immigrants can receive taxpayer-funded benefits,” said Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Calif.).

Anger-driven delaying tactics threw into uncertainty an agenda that was to include important votes on a huge energy bill, a defense spending bill and a terrorism surveillance measure before Congress’s departure for its month-long summer recess.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused Republicans of blatant obstructionism. “They’ve just been deluged by the success of the Democrats on behalf of the American people,” she said.

After Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) violated House rules by calling Democrats “cheaters” on the floor, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.), a freshman and relative political neophyte, warned her colleagues that their mothers might be watching.

Even the House hardware contributed to the disarray. Republicans had at last been coaxed back to the House floor yesterday afternoon, when a lawmaker moved to adjourn the House, a favorite GOP delaying tactic. As the votes were coming in, the electronic tally board suddenly went blank, leading to a new round of recriminations and another House recess.

“I understand that everybody’s sensibilities are taut,” Hoyer pleaded, as Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) hinted darkly that perhaps the House had just voted to adjourn. “I regret what happened last night, but we do have business to do,” Hoyer said.

It started late Thursday, when GOP lawmakers moved to send the 2008 agriculture spending bill back to the House Appropriations Committee for members to add an explicit prohibition on illegal immigrants receiving food stamps. With so much on their plate, Democratic leaders were in no mood to comply.

Democrats appeared to have won the vote, but with the voting time apparently having expired, GOP leaders persuaded three Latino Republicans who had voted with the Democrats to change their votes. At the same time, Democrats say, five Democratic lawmakers who had voted with Republicans were scrambling to change their votes as well. With two of the GOP votes changed, Democrats gaveled the vote shut, 214 to 214, and declared that they had won. But the public tally showed that the Republicans had won, 215 to 213, just as the vote was declared for the Democrats. The official final tally was 216 to 212 in the Democrats’ favor.

But House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said there were no Democrats seeking to change their votes at the time. Moreover, he charged, Hoyer had told a protesting parliamentarian, “We control, not the parliamentarians.” And, he said, electronic records on the vote disappeared from the House’s voting system and on the House clerk’s Web site.

“Many of my colleagues and I feel as though the vote was taken from us,” Boehner said.

In a raucous protest, Republicans walked out of the House en masse.

Hoyer conceded that the gavel had fallen too quickly, but he said it had been an error. When he put the issue to a new vote, Republicans boycotted, demanding that their victorious tally stand.

Pelosi was unsympathetic.

“There was no mistake made last night,” she said. “Apologies were made for the early announcement of the vote,” but the early announcement would not have changed the outcome, she added.

The select committee, to be made up of three Democrats and three Republicans, will deliver an interim report by Sept. 30, with the final report due by Sept. 15, 2008.

It’s easy to just laugh at all of these antics. But that would be a mistake.

The Democrats who now control Congress do not believe in rules. And they are willing to say and apparently do anything to get their way.

This is a very dangerous development for our country. 

After Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) violated House rules by calling Democrats “cheaters” on the floor…

Yes, it’s okay to steal votes. But it’s against the rules to mention it.

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 10:23 am. You can leave a response.

17 Responses to “GOP Walks Out After Vote Stolen In The House”

  1. Warmonger Infidel
    August 4th, 2007 at 10:52 am

    Ya know what pisses me off? No matter the publication, media outlet, newspaper, no matter conservative or liberal, whenever you read about what goes on it Washington these days, it’s Republicans win or lose, or, Democrats win or lose. It’s all about political parties instead of about the American people. Just once I would love to see a story that says the American people won or lost after some significant vote in congress. I guess I’ve been drinking too much kool-aid to believe that could ever happen again.

  2. Sharps Rifle
    August 4th, 2007 at 11:08 am

    Okay, now we know the RATs are fascists! These are the SAME tactics used by Mussolini and Hitler to seize and hold power!

    Lock and load, folks…it’s gonna get ugly real soon!

  3. BigOil
    August 4th, 2007 at 11:21 am

    “They’ve just been deluged by the success of the Democrats on behalf of the American people,” she said.

    I assume Piglosi is referring to the 18% approval rating for Congress. Or maybe it is the 3% approval rating on their handling of the Iraq war.

  4. DGA
    August 4th, 2007 at 11:28 am

    Here’s Tom Delay’s story on this http://www.townhall.com/column.....ocracy_101

  5. RightWinger
    August 4th, 2007 at 11:37 am

    BigOil - I think that stretch Pelosi meant to say “They’ve just been deluged by the success of the Democrats on behalf of George Soros and the DailyKrotch”.

  6. wardmama4
    August 4th, 2007 at 12:18 pm

    What is getting to Pelosi, Reid and the DNC (and Soros and Kos) is that the American people are seeing through their stealth attempts to make universal healthcare and shamnesty the law of the land - and it is undoing all that they hope to accomplish - which is to turn America into a socialist state.

    I hope they keep this garbage up as they will bottom out at single digit ‘favorable’ ratings but more importantly in 2008 the DNC will see a loss unlike anything in it’s history even greater than after Jimmah Carter and Bubba Clinton soiled the WH.

  7. SG
    August 4th, 2007 at 12:32 pm

    “Ya know what pisses me off? No matter the publication, media outlet, newspaper, no matter conservative or liberal, whenever you read about what goes on it Washington these days, it’s Republicans win or lose, or, Democrats win or lose. It’s all about political parties instead of about the American people.”

    That’s a good point. It seems that long ago the media decided to turn everything into a game.

    Which wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t clearly on the side of one the teams.

  8. wardmama4
    August 4th, 2007 at 12:38 pm

    WI - but that is the point with the 110th Congress, the msm, and the left in America today - it is about their ‘WIN’ - it is not about America, what is best for America, it is not about the World, what is best for the World - it not about Truth. It is about winning - at all costs.

    And I agree SG - it wouldn’t be so bad, if the msm was so clearly on the side of one of the teams.

    And the one to me that is about the Win, the Party - and not about what is best for America.

  9. SG
    August 4th, 2007 at 1:25 pm

    Thanks for the link, DGA. It’s such an informative piece, I will post it here (and I don’t think Mr. Delay would object):

    House Democrats Fail Democracy 101

    By Tom DeLay
    Friday, August 3, 2007

    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.)

    http://tinyurl.com/23hhhe

  10. 1sttofight
    August 4th, 2007 at 3:38 pm

    Nancy was probably changing one of her grandkids diapers and was not paying attention. Either that or she was getting her face retightened. Who the hell knows what she was doing? Apparently she don’t.

  11. sheehanjihad
    August 4th, 2007 at 3:51 pm

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused Republicans of blatant obstructionism. “They’ve just been deluged by the success of the Democrats on behalf of the American people,” she said.

    She doesnt represent the American People. I am sick of her using the American People as her excuse for this God awful posturing and posing…..The American People, a full 86% of her vaunted American People….hate her disgusting guts.

    Pelosi is doing it for the democrats. And for herself. And for everything BUT the American People. This fascist predator is guilty of violently raping the American People, and she will continue to get away with it because the American People are not being informed with the truth. Only the DNC controlled media’s version.

    Nancy Pelosi is a liar. And a cheater. She is a rotten filthy shitty excuse for an American People. I cannot stand her, nor her vision of power at any cost. She is spending, we are paying. She doesnt have to ask the price, it isnt her money. She just spends our country’s consciousness, squanders our pride, and has literally no interest in the 90% who think she is a reprehensible anus.

    She only enjoys that scant 10% of morons who dribble on about what a great job she is doing. Those are also the people who would say what a great job a cardboard box was doing if they were told to. She needs to step down. She actually needs to go to prison for her appalling deception of her “American People”. That “take America back” slogan was chilling, wasnt it? She took it alright. Now I know why. And it wasnt for “us”.

  12. AmericanIPA
    August 4th, 2007 at 4:39 pm

    …”deluged with the success of the Democrats on behalf of the American people,”

    Yeah, Nancy. We’re all a little deluged with your “success”. And soon we’ll be further deluged with more sponges to suck up the money we taxpayers actually EARN.

    Can you believe we actually pay these people to think of new ways to rob us? Why do they even lie about it any more? It’s not like we could do anything about it anyway.

  13. Zeusshiloh
    August 4th, 2007 at 5:32 pm

    No wonder Congress has a lower approval rating than the President. Americans are sick and tired of the petty political games that are played with our tax monies. Congress fiddles while the country burns.

    People use to say that the President needed to change his policies due to his low poll ratings. Wonder if the same premise holds true for Congress? After all, if the latest polls are correct, The President has twice the approval rating as Congress. Maybe Congress needs to change? I do know it could not get much worse. However, thinking about it, it could.

  14. doingwhatican
    August 4th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

    The dems are getting even bolder in their lying, cheating and stealing. It’s astounding and yet they believe they can have their way no matter how the house votes.

    This was not an insignificant vote. The dems were sneaking in the legalization of welfare for illegal aliens and the Republicans were trying to block it.

  15. sheehanjihad
    August 4th, 2007 at 9:13 pm

    To counter this, start calling your local federal offices to report illegals……and demand they get their asses down to the local Home Depot and arrest them, or you are going to the local television station with the news that Immigration and Naturalization are planning on using every illegal who applies for welfare as minefield clearers in Iraq.

    Democrats are under the impression that all of us are like the Kos screwballs. They are going to keep this crap up, and all of the sudden find themselves out of a job. The silent majority is beginning to stir….and they are too involved in kissing their own asses to realize it.

  16. Gila Monster
    August 5th, 2007 at 3:12 pm

    If you think WashPo’s coverage of the Dhimmi’s vote stealing is slanted, the NYSlimes goes over the top and blames the ongoing corruption on …wait for it…. the House Republicans..!! WTF..??

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08.....sFISt9jiyA

    House Republicans have chafed for months under the new Democratic regime, and the unrest reached a boil over the last few days as they accused Democrats of running roughshod over them in their race to post some legislative victories before leaving. Republicans ended up walking out of the House en masse Thursday after Democrats abruptly gaveled a roll-call vote to a close when Republicans appeared to be pulling ahead on a plan to revise the agricultural bill.

    “Our members felt that a victory was taken away from us on live television in front of everyone,” said Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the No. 2 Republican.

    Democrats said the cut-off of the vote was an accident and apologized. But Republican rage boiled throughout the day Friday about the rights of the minority party being violated and called for a formal House ethics investigation into the matter.

    “A misunderstanding occurred, an apology for that inconvenience was given, and now we’re moving on to what’s next,” said Ms. Pelosi, who dismissed criticism from Republicans that they were being unfairly treated. Later, she added, “They’ve had plenty of minority rights.”

    And this outright BS from Piglosi..!!

    Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said the resistance was emblematic of the Republican strategy to block legislation in order to paint Democrats as incompetent. “They have nothing else to talk about,” Ms. Pelosi said in an interview. “Their party has been hijacked by people who don’t really have an agenda but to stop progress.”

    Absolutely unbelieveable..!! Piglosi and her political hacks, accusing the Repub’s of stopping progress when the Dhimmi’s change the rules to steal a vote..??
    What’s next? Taking voting rights away from members of the House whom dissent from the Dhimmi party line? Talk about usurping the Constitution.

  17. texaspsue
    August 6th, 2007 at 11:16 pm

    Bravo for the Republicans…….this was as exciting as watching the British Parliament in action. And “shame, shame, shame” for the Dems.


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