In the Washington Post this morning, Dana Milbank highlights the GOP's ridiculous display on the U.S. House floor in recent days:
House Republicans can't seem to make up their minds.
Eighteen times over the past 90 days, the minority tried, unsuccessfully, to force the House to adjourn. Now the House has finally adjourned -- for a five-week recess, no less -- and Republicans are demanding that the chamber be called back into session.
On Friday and again yesterday, they opened the doors to the darkened House chamber and invited tourists wearing shorts and sandals to sit in the members' chairs. The microphones, lights and cameras were off. The speaker's chair was empty. But, hour after hour, the Republican lawmakers stood in the well and cursed the darkness.
So what were the Republican members cursing about? They complained that Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to bring their pro-drilling energy legislation up for a vote before the August recess. The Republican ensemble included several congressmen from Illinois. For instance, 18th District Rep. Don Manzullo said on Friday: "Tell your congressman -- we don’t want you back home. We want you in Washington. This could be America’s greatest hour. Insist that we come back to vote.” Apparently, the opportunity to vote on legislation that would have no short-term affect on gas prices while padding the pockets of the oil industry qualifies as "America's greatest hour" in Manzullo's book.
The Rockford Republican took his rhetoric a step further yesterday, as Politico reported:
Rep. Donald A. Manzullo (R-Ill.), one of the stars of Friday’s session, launched into a long soliloquy on John Quincy Adams, likening his fight against slavery to the controversy over an offshore drilling vote. In an interview afterwards, Manzullo referred to the Middle Ages and the rise of the West as justification for a floor vote on offshore drilling. But he played well with the crowd.
Of course, it's not clear who the slaves would be in this scenario. The drills? The oil companies? Or is it the GOP members of Congress themselves, purportedly shackled by the Democratic leadership? If that's what Manzullo is arguing, he might want to remember how, prior to the 2006 turnover, the Republican majority in the House scuttled Democratic legislative efforts left and right.
GOP Rep. Mark Kirk of the 10th District also got in on the act:
As they did on Friday, GOP members repeatedly encouraged the stray tourists brought onto the House floor to call Pelosi and demand a vote.
“The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) told the crowd. “It is time for you all to squeak.”
Rep. Peter Roskam turned the family car around and headed back to Washington to take part in this bit of political theater. We'll have more on his questionable, energy-related arguments a bit later today. In the meantime, here's a word from his Democratic challenger, Jill Morgenthaler:
I see that my opponent in Illinois 6th District, Congressman Peter Roskam, is in Washington today doing typical election year grandstanding. He claims to be at work lowering gas prices. However, he has spent the past two months delivering Big Oil’s message to the House floor instead of protecting 6th District consumers. He voted against preventing price gouging, he voted against requiring oil companies to drill on land they already lease and he continues to be the spokesman for his Big Oil contributors, who have given him in excess of $100,000. [...]
I’ve watched Roskam repeatedly vote against bills designed to help the consumer, and now he’s backing legislation which gives Big Oil even bigger profits, without providing the real relief at the pump that consumers need. I worry that this ploy is designed to work in Roskam’s best interest, but not in the best interest of the people in Illinois 6th District.
UPDATE: 10th District Democratic candidate Dan Seals also posted a response to the House Republicans' antics on The Hill's blog.
