If you thought the already-acrimonious partisan environment in Congress couldn’t get any worse, then consider what happened Friday afternoon in the House of Representatives. Partisan viciousness reached depths not seen for quite a while.
First, a little history. For the last several months, Democrats in the House have seen their frustration bubble up to near-rage. It’s not simply because they’re in the minority, nor is it because they’re disgusted by the Republican’s right-wing agenda, though both of these elements are certainly maddening.
The real source of Democratic dissatisfaction is the way the Republican majority fails to treat them with any kind of dignity. I’m not talking about petty stuff; I don’t think Dems care about not getting invited to cool-kid parties. The problems are systemic: Republicans refuse to bring up votes on bills sponsored by Dems, they deny consideration of Dems’ legislative amendments, regardless of their merit, and they even deny Democratic requests for meeting space in the Capitol.
The New Republic did a fascinating story in June about the “misery of being a House Democrat.” The article quoted several House members and staffers who described Republicans with words such as “corrupt” and described Dems’ morale as “demoralized.” Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said, “We’re talking about not just fundamental issues but whether we can even debate fundamental issues.” A Democratic leadership aide was even more candid: “We’re basically getting bitch-slapped around by these guys because they control everything.”
Even House Democrats can get pushed to a level they find intolerable. Apparently, they reached that level Friday afternoon. You can decide for yourself whether or not their anger was justified.
It started in a fairly predictable way. The House Ways and Means Committee, led by the notoriously caustic Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), was preparing to debate and vote on legislation on overhauling federal pension plans. After weeks of hearings and deliberation on the pension issue, Thomas announced that he was substituting the previously-considered bill for a new 90-page bill that he released the night before.
Democrats requested time to read the new bill before the vote. Thomas refused.
To help delay a vote on the bill, committee Dems moved for the bill to be read line-by-line, a common parliamentary trick used to buy some time. While it was being read, Dems adjourned to an adjacent library to protest Thomas’ scheme and to discuss strategy. One committee Dem, Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), stayed in the room so the remaining GOP members couldn’t vote unanimously to stop the reading of the bill.
Once the Dems were in the other room, however, Thomas asked committee members for unanimous consent to stop the reading and banged his chairman’s gavel. Stark said he had objected, but Thomas replied, “You’re too late.”
While the bill was being read, however, Thomas also decided to dispatch the Capitol Police to remove Dems from the adjacent library. When the officers arrived, they quickly realized they had no authority to remove members of Congress from a congressional library. So the police called the Sergeant-at-Arms. When he showed up, he also concluded that he couldn’t remove the Democratic lawmakers and concluded this was a partisan matter that he wanted no part of.
The idea that Republicans would call the cops to evict Democrats from the room so outraged the Dems that they took to the floor of the House to decry the incident and condemn the majority for running the House as a “police state.”
The most contentious part of this mess for Republicans, meanwhile, came during the committee meeting, when Dems were in the library and Pete Stark stayed behind to represent the Dems. At one point, during a complaint raised by Stark, committee transcripts show that Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.) told Stark to “shut up.” Stark replied by calling McInnis “a little wimp” and said, “Come on, come over here and make me, I dare you….. You little fruitcake. You little fruitcake. I said you are a fruitcake.”
Stark’s insults led Republicans to also scurry to the House floor to give impassioned speeches about Stark’s allegedly reprehensible conduct. In fact, McInnis, the subject of the “fruitcake” remark, said Stark “threatened me with physical harm.”
“I considered that a bodily threat and I fully intended to defend myself,” McInnis said.
This is your classic comedy of errors. It’s terrific to see the results of Bush’s successful efforts to “change the tone” in Washington.
The entire fiasco was pathetic, but there are two things I wanted to point out.
One, it’s odd that McInnis would be so concerned about “physical harm” from Stark. McInnis is a 50-year-old former police officer and firefighter. Stark turns 72 this fall. Stark may have called McInnis a “fruitcake,” but it’s kind of sad to think McInnis would seriously be afraid of Stark opening a can of whoop-ass on him.
And two, I can’t help but wonder how the Republicans would have responded if a Democratic committee chairman called the Capitol Police to evict GOP lawmakers from a congressional library. I shudder to think of how they’d retaliate.
Lastly, just as an aside, I saw that Eschaton had a funny suggestion for those who want to drive McInnis completely crazy: send him an actual fruitcake.
And for you history buffs out there, later (maybe tomorrow) I’ll tell you how this debacle ranks against some of the more infamous congressional squabbles.