Constitution Reading Provokes Political Tussling

Constitution reading provokes political tussling
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers took turns reading the Constitution on the House floor Thursday, a nod to tea partiers who put Republicans in power. Even the nation's founding text got caught in political tussling: Democrats questioned omitting amended sections that reflect how the document has changed over time, such as one that classified slaves as three-fifths of a person. Republicans, celebrating their second day as the majority power, saw the event as an affirmation of their campaign promise...

As the U.S. Constitution is Read on the Floor...
It's never been done before. The U.S. Constitution has NEVER been read on the floor of the Congress. And to no one's surprise, the voting records of most Congressmen demonstrate they've never read the document for themselves! So as you know, GOA initiated a campaign early last month to require the incoming Congress to read the Constitution. And our effort paid off yesterday when the House of Representatives read the Constitution on the floor of that chamber. This was quite a historic event. On...

Boehner To CBO: La La La, I Can't Hear You
New House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin Mccarthy enjoy a casual moment on the House floor. I know some of the Democrats are a little wacky, but this? These Republicans are just plain nuts. I'd forgotten what it was like to have the inmates in charge of the asylum. Their ability to communicate such deep denial seems to have paid off for them politically, at least for a while: Rescinding the federal law to overhaul the Health Care system, the first...

By the Skin of Pelosis Clenched Teeth
As if it wasn’t bad enough for Democrats, still licking their wounds from last year’s Elections, the party’s House Caucus leadership still finds itself in a state of obnoxious disarray and factionalism.  The signs of bitter internal fights are still apparent, from anxious Progressives clearly dissatisfied with the current political playing field and bitter moderate Blue Dogs blindly grabbing through the darkness of a Capitol Hill abyss. Months of circular Firing Squads and...

Reading the Constitution: Education or futility?
Republicans and Democrats took turns politely in a historic recitation of the Constitution from the House floor Thursday, but the decorum hardly meant they were in agreement. In a nod to the tea partiers who put the Republicans in power, GOP lawmakers took time out from their campaign to change the way government works to read the document upon which the government was founded. Democrats went along but pointedly questioned the Republicans’ insistence on omitting sections that show how the ...

New General Assembly should abide by Tennessee Constitution
When Beth Harwell became Speaker of the House, there was a lot of crying not only from Tea Party groups but from many Conservatives who feared that Harwell would be too moderate for their taste. Because of the composition of the Tennessee House Republican Caucus, there is simply no way that Harwell could have been elected without conservative support, and judging by Harwell's response not only on Second Amendment matters, but questions such as how the State might handle Immigration-related issue...

HOH's One-Minute Recess: A Night at the Theater
Speaker John Boehner (right) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor arrive on Jan. 6 for their first joint news conference in the Capitol since Republicans took control of the House. They addressed issues such as the National Debt and their plan to Repeal the Health Care overhaul law that was passed last year. Whether you're looking for a new job or looking to hire the perfect Candidate, turn to RCJobs.com — the job board from the Newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955. Receive daily coverag...

Abramoff Banned From Government Work
Speaker John Boehner (right) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor arrive on Jan. 6 for their first joint news conference in the Capitol since Republicans took control of the House. They addressed issues such as the National Debt and their plan to Repeal the Health Care overhaul law that was passed last year. Whether you're looking for a new job or looking to hire the perfect Candidate, turn to RCJobs.com — the job board from the Newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955. Receive daily coverag...

Card: GOP must not block debt limit
You know how John Boehner and some hosts on Fox are trying to convince people that Republicans are serious about blocking an increase in the Debt Limit unless President Obama agrees to the GOP plan to immediately slash Federal spending? Well, as former Bush Chief of Staff Andy Card explained to Fox viewers earlier today, Conservatives shouldn't bet on winning this hostage crisis. Boehner and the GOP aren't going to follow through on their threat because the stakes are too high -- blocking the d...

GOP reps regret skipped oath
In a letter to be distributed Friday night, Reps. Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick apologize to all 433 of their House colleagues for voting after missing out on taking their official oath of office during Wednesday’s opening ceremonies of the 112th Congress. The swearing-in of members of Congress is required by Article 6 of the Constitution, and Republican leaders scrambled to come up with a fix to rectify their invalid votes. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 On Frida...

Steve King Snubbed For Immigration Subcommittee
WASHINGTON -- Iowa Republican and anti-illegal Immigration hardliner Steve King was passed over for the leading position on the House Immigration subcommittee on Friday. Having served as ranking member on the subcommittee since 2007, King was expected to be given the chairmanship this year. Instead, Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) selected Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), another Immigration hawk with a slightly lower media profile. Taking up the mantle of former Rep. Tom Tan...

Birther Interrupts Reading Of Constitution
As New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone read the “natural born citizen” clause of the Constitution, a birther shouted from the gallery, “Except Obama, except Obama, help us Jesus!” He was, in particular, a great source to the late Robert Novak, who outed Daley in his memoir (page 451) as the anonymous Midwestern Democratic source of an incendiary remark on Michael Dukakis’s failed attempt to keep Jesse Jackson’s profile low at the 1988 Democratic convention. &...

Congress members read Constitution aloud
WASHINGTON — If you are a House member and you plan to read the text of the Constitution on the floor, it's probably a good idea to have taken the oath to support and defend it first. But one new member, Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican who failed to be officially sworn in Wednesday, proceeded nonetheless to participate in the reading, one of the first official acts of House members in the 112th Congress. At the time of the oath-taking, Fitzpatrick and Rep. Pete Sessions,...

Jon Stewart Roasts The House's Reading Of The Constitution (VIDEO)
Jon Stewart was excited to hear that the Constitution would be read in its entirety on the House floor yesterday, but he ended up being less pleased with the results. "Well, you've done it," Stewart said last night. "You've managed to make the reading of one of our nation's most treasured and sacred founding documents and combined it with the efficiency of the DMV and the dramatic chops of family members who demand to be called to the bima during your bat mitzvah." [TPM SLIDESHOW: Sanest Of Th...

Birther outburst during Pallone's reading of the U.S. Constitution
As designated by the House GOP majority, Thursday morning was set aside for a full reading of the U.S. Constitution. During one part of it, a spectator in the gallery exercised her First Amendment right of Freedom of Speech. What set her off? No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to th...

Members of the House try to sit still for a reading of the Constitution.
Inslee was drowned out by laughter and hoots from the teeming GOP benches, full of freshmen who had queued up for the right to read from the Constitution. Some of them rubbed their eyes as the pre-drama drama went on; more of them looked into the pocket Constitutions they'd brought with them. Inslee wrapped up, saying he also wanted a "Bipartisan success," and sat down, but Rep. Jesse Jackson, D-Ill., was next at bat to explain just how important it was for the House to read the outdated, rotte...

Shouts about Obama interrupt Constitution reading
House Republicans' reading of the Constitution was interrupted Thursday by a woman who shouted "except Obama, except Obama" to the venerable document's words on a U.S. citizen's eligibility to be president. Just as Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., was reading "no person, except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States" is eligible for the presidency, a woman in the visitor's gallery yelled out that it did not apply to President Barack Obama. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, who was presid...

Shouts about Obama interrupt Constitution reading
(01-06) 10:22 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans' reading of the Constitution was interrupted Thursday by a woman who shouted "except Obama, except Obama" to the venerable document's words on a U.S. citizen's eligibility to be president. Just as Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., was reading "no person, except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States" is eligible for the presidency, a woman in the visitor's gallery yelled out that it did not apply to President Barack Obama. Rep...

Nevadans sit out reading of Constitution on House floor
Washington — They promised they’d do it, and on the second day of their tenure in the House, the GOP staged a not-so-dramatic reading of the U.S. Constitution. Despite it being the government’s founding document, it’s the first time it’s been read — every article, signature, and amendment — on the floor of the House of Representatives. The event wasn’t just in homage to the Founding Fathers; it was also a sign of the new influence of the Tea Party, for whom adh

Democrats Embrace Drop in Jobless Rate
Speaker John Boehner (right) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor arrive on Jan. 6 for their first joint news conference in the Capitol since Republicans took control of the House. They addressed issues such as the National Debt and their plan to Repeal the Health Care overhaul law that was passed last year. Whether you're looking for a new job or looking to hire the perfect Candidate, turn to RCJobs.com — the job board from the Newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955. Receive daily coverag...

GOP may lose health care repeal battle, but war will rage on
WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House of Representatives will vote Wednesday to Repeal President Barack Obama's Health Care law — and that will settle nothing. Rather, it will be but one more battle in a long political war that will go on for at least two more years, one which either side may win. The Democrats won the first battle when they enacted the sweeping new law last year. The Republicans won the second, when they rode a backlash against the law to take over the House i...

Administration Speaks Out Against GOP Repeal of Healthcare Law
The White House yesterday released a statement in opposition to H.R. 2, the repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act. The bill, sponsored by Representative Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, would not only Repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but also portions of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 that address health care. In addition, H.R. 2 would put back into effect any laws that were amended or repealed by both Acts at the time of their passage....

The Economy and 2012
Tea Partiers, William Daley and David Plouffe, birthers, John Boehner, Sarah Palin, "the professional left" -- all will play marginal roles in deciding who wins the next Presidential Election. But almost nothing is likely to be as decisive as a single number: the Unemployment Rate. And so today's signs of continued Economic Growth, while superficially encouraging, don't offer much consolation for Barack Obama: “It could take four to five more years for the Job Market to normalize fully,...

Fidelity or enmity
On the floor of the House of Representatives Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011, I was able to witness, firsthand, perhaps one of the more significant historical events in American history. For the first time in our nation’s history the Constitution of the United States of America was read in its entirety on the floor of the House.   The gentleman from Virginia, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), stood on the shoulders of the Virginians that established this Republic and orchestrated the reading of the R

The party of Doh
Back on April 29, 2010, I called this post, “Small, regional party. Hmm“: From Politico, November 4, 2008: Virginia Republican Congressman Tom Davis said Tuesday that the GOP will have to “retool” after the election because it has become “a white, rural, regional party.” “We’ll have to see what happens, but I suspect in urban areas across the country, Democrats will continue to make gains that they’ve made the last decade,” Davis said during an i