can you say bi-partisanship? I mean, is it time for a nap nap children? jesus christ.


Democrats lock Republicans out of committee room
By Susan Crabtree - 10/20/09 05:47 PM ET

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present.

Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over Towns’s failure to launch an investigation into Countrywide Mortgage’s reported sweetheart deals to VIPs.


For months Towns has refused Republican requests to subpoena records in the case. Last Thursday Committee Republicans, led by Issa, were poised to force an open vote on the subpoenas at a Committee mark-up meeting. The mark-up was abruptly canceled. Only Republicans showed up while Democrats chairs remained empty.

Republicans charged that Towns canceled the meeting to avoid the subpoena vote. Democrats first claimed the mark-up was canceled due to a conflict with the Financial Services Committee. Later they said it was abandoned after a disagreement among Democratic members on whether to subpoena records on the mortgage industry’s political contributions to Republicans.

A GOP committee staffer captured video of Democrats leaving their separate meeting in private chambers after the mark-up was supposed to have begun. He spliced the video to other footage of the Democrats’ empty chairs at the hearing room, set it to the tune of “Hit the Road, Jack” and posted it on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s minority webpage, where it remained as of press time.


Democrats lock Republicans out of committee room - TheHill.com

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

we PAY them for this? really?


Both sides are acting like little girls.

not the first time they have done this, not the last.

so much easier than accepting that they were also elected to eplresent other Americans.

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Socialism doesn't create a rising tide that lifts all boats. It drains the lake and teaches the boat riders not to help themselves by rowing.

Jesus loves you, allah wants you dead

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

I read items like this and I am like romes friggin burning and they are fiddling and diddling.

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

Congress is the new middle school....

they need to ALL go.

ALL.

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Socialism doesn't create a rising tide that lifts all boats. It drains the lake and teaches the boat riders not to help themselves by rowing.

Jesus loves you, allah wants you dead

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

...........Barack Obama

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Want government run healthcare? Join the military.

Just to be CLEAR since the headline indicates the dems are the 'bad guys' in this case, from the same article a rundown of history:

So the republicans tried to pass legislation through committee without letting the dems even read it, and when the dems pulled a delay stunt to discuss what was in the republican bill, the republicans pushed it through and called the cops on the Dems who presumably were exercising their right to assembly.

So yes it is infantile, but I'm glad to see democrats at least fighting as dirty as the republicans for once, instead of rolling over like the pansies they usually are.

Also note the hypocrisy of now vs then.

Then: Republicans - "You don't really need to read the bills that are drafted in secret by one party alone".
Now: Republicans - "Slow down, we MUST have time to read the bills and let the public read them too"

Thanks for being honest.

HCR would be the biggest program enacted since the creation of social security, so yes, it does need to be read and understood by politician and citizen alike. It's pretty hard to put a partisan spin on how huge this program would be as well as the future generations that would be affected by the shitty, hurry-up decisions that they want to make today.

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Want government run healthcare? Join the military.

The public backlashed on the Republicans, put a bunch of Dems in charge, and now it's ok for Dems to do this?

It's a fucking travesty.

I stopped voting Republican because of this. Just more proof that the Dems and Republicans are the same party.

What happened to transparency?

well, actions such as these do show them for what they are. thats a kind of transparancy...

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Socialism doesn't create a rising tide that lifts all boats. It drains the lake and teaches the boat riders not to help themselves by rowing.

Jesus loves you, allah wants you dead

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

no one here made a partisan remark till you did, in fact I went to lengths to scrub the title and keep my remark from assigning blame so did others........but alas.....wwwwwaaaaaaaabhhhhhhhh!! Johnny hit me!!!!

just another example of how we got here.

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

That's why I said "Just to be clear".

You did phrase it relatively neutral, but the article itself is titled:
"Democrats lock Republicans out of committee room - TheHill.com"

All I was doing was pointing out to people who might skim the story and see dems as the 'bad guys', to actually take note that BOTH parties do these kinds of stunts.

The Raw Story | Dems locked out of debate on sweeping and controversial REAL ID Act

Maybe if the dems wait until the next natural disaster hits the world, and passes healthcare reform as part of an aid bill, then its acceptable - because that's how the republicans did it for one of their issues.

Yes, I agree the dems and the republicans are both sides of the same plastic coin. My goal was to point out the hypocrisy of republican outrage over this situation, maybe they're just angry they never thought to have the locks changed on their watch.

The whole thing is completely ridiculous, but it's unfortunately politics as usual. As has been pointed out, both parties engage in this silliness. But what hasn't been mentioned is that the folks in DC have never really had a history of acting like grown ups. These sorts of petty politics have plagued Washington almost since the beginning of the country, so this isn't necessarily a 'sign of the times'.

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“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” - Carl Sagan

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It comes down to this.
People who like laws and sausages shouldn't watch either one being made..........

Which brings to mind a truckload of putrefying hides from a slaughterhouse I saw driving under my office window one day, they were headed for a factory where they would be processed with battery acid and Drano.
The final product.
Jello.
You can add that people who like Jello shouldn't watch it being made either.

This is our system of government, there are rules which seem reasonable, but when taken to the extreme look foolish, but that's the rules and the game gets played by the rules.

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“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

I think the true problem stems from Washington having too much power. This makes these government officials overvalue their self worth which in turn creates games like these.

If our local governments were the ones that really controlled how our communities were ran, we would work together in a much more organized fashion because the guy that's raising/lowering taxes, creating new laws (new laws that really affect us), etc. lives right down the street.

Much easier to get things done and for communities to voice their concern (and be heard).

The left doesn't want this because a large portion of their communities suck. They need to leech off of other successful communities because they just can't figure it out for themselves.

The current Republican party doesn't want this because then they cannot take advantage of the increased lobbying powers.