If you’re easily disgusted by the legislative process, you probably won’t want to read about the Republicans’ behind-the-scenes wrangling on the recent vote on the GOP Medicare bill. It wasn’t pretty and the party leadership had to break just about every rule in the book to secure a victory.
As Bob Novak reported in the Chicago Sun-Times, “Republicans voting against the bill were told they were endangering their political futures. Major contributors warned Rep. Jim DeMint (R) they would cut off funding for his Senate race in South Carolina. A Missouri state legislator called Rep. Todd Akin to threaten a primary challenge against him.
“Intense pressure, including a call from the president, was put on freshman Rep. Tom Feeney. As speaker of the Florida House, he was a stalwart for Bush in his state’s 2000 vote recount. He is the Class of 2002’s contact with the House leadership, marking him as a future party leader. But now, in those early morning hours, Feeney was told a ‘no’ vote would delay his ascent into leadership by three years — maybe more.”
Once a bill is prepared for a floor vote, the House traditionally sets a 15-minute limit for voting. When it came time for the floor vote for the Medicare bill, the Dems initially won — 216 members had voted for the bill, while 218 had voted against it.
But instead of banging the gavel and marking the end of voting, Republican leaders ignored traditional House procedures and extended the voting window to three hours, leaving plenty of time to strong-arm GOP members who were inclined to vote against it and force Republicans who had voted with the Dems to change their votes. (In 1987, when then-House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) kept a floor vote open an extra 15 minutes in a similar stunt, Republicans acted as if he had shredded the Constitution. At the time, a Republican congressman named Dick Cheney denounced the move as “the most arrogant, heavy-handed abuse of power I’ve ever seen in the 10 years that I’ve been here.”)
Making matters slightly worse, House rules limit access to the floor, especially during a vote, limiting access to lawmakers and their staff to protect the integrity of the process. During the Medicare vote, however, GOP leaders allowed Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to act as Bush’s chief lobbyist and prowl the House floor to pressure wavering Republicans.
While all of this was understandably viewed as outrageous by congressional Democrats, there was one other incident that may have been illegal, in addition to being despicable.
Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.) doesn’t appear to be one of the lawmakers susceptible to party pressure. After all, Smith, who turns 70 next year, is planning to retire at the end of his term in order to honor a self-imposed term limit pledge.
GOP leaders know, however, that Smith’s son is one of five Republicans planning a run for his dad’s seat. Smith claims that his fellow Republicans threatened to support one of his son’s rivals if he voted against the Medicare bill, and conversely, his son would receive “substantial support” from the GOP if he voted for it.
To his credit, Smith, who called the GOP lobbying “the most intense and strongest pressure to change my vote that I’ve ever experienced,” ultimately voted against the bill.
How intense did the pressure of Smith become? Bob Novak explained, “On the House floor, Nick Smith was told business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for his father’s vote. When he still declined, fellow Republican House members told him they would make sure Brad Smith never came to Congress. After Nick Smith voted no and the bill passed, Duke Cunningham of California and other Republicans taunted him that his son was dead meat.”
Putting aside the classless GOP taunting of a man about his son, there’s that $100,000 that warrants additional discussion.
Slate’s Tim Noah described the $100,000 promised for his son’s campaign for what it was — bribery on the floor of Congress.
Noting the federal standards for bribery of public officials, Noah said, “Promising to direct $100,000 to Rep. Smith’s son’s campaign clearly meets the legal definition of bribery. The only question, then, is who to prosecute.”
Without knowing the actual culprit — Smith has vaguely described the pressure as coming from “House GOP leaders” — I think Noah’s absolutely right. A crime has been committed and Smith should start talking.
“Obviously Smith doesn’t want to alienate the GOP establishment by hurling criminal accusations at whoever this phantom bribe-giver may be,” Noah said. “But it’s a little late for that. If Smith witnessed an attempted bribery, he has an obligation as a citizen — and even more so, as member of Congress — to make that person’s identity known to law enforcement officials. Marc Miller, a Washington attorney who advises clients on ethics issues, told [Slate] that what Novak described not only looked like ‘a slam-dunk violation of the bribery law’ but probably also included ‘a smorgasbord of other criminal violations.’ Rep. Smith, Miller said, ‘should really be sharing the specifics with the Justice Department.'”
Noah concludes, “So, Congressman. Enough with the guessing games. Who tried to bribe you?”
Congress is out of session, but I think the DNC and whatever House leaders can be rounded up should go after this with a vengeance. Demand a Justice investigation, call the FBI, hold a few press conferences, the works. This incident not only shows the depths the GOP leadership will go to in order to strong-arm their own members, it demonstrates that they’re even willing to break the law in the process.
It’s a slow news week in DC, guys. Why not get some headlines out of this?