GOP finds governing isn't easy

House clears way for health-care repeal vote
House Republicans began Friday the long effort to Repeal President Obama's health-care law by approving a resolution that cleared the way for next week's vote. They also devoted time toward cleaning up an embarrassing situation involving two lawmakers who missed Wednesday's swearing-in of the 112th Congress. This Story House clears way for health-care Repeal vote Your Take: Have you noticed a change in the Job Market? CBO says Health Care Repeal would deepen Deficit Unemployment drops to 9.4 ...

Two Republicans Voted Before They Took Oath
Friday, January 07, 2011 By Larry Margasak, Associated Press Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, attends a meeting of the House Rules Committee on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) Washington (AP) - It only took two days for majority Republicans in the House to suffer their first embarrassment. Two of their members, including the House Republican campaign chairman, voted a half-dozen times in Wednesday's opening session before they were sworn in. Reps. Pete Sessio...

Video: Speaker Boehner swears in Rep. Pete Sessions; "now" he's an official member
At 2:48 pm on Thursday, Speaker John Boehner swore in Reps. Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick, who had missed the en masse House oath of office ceremony a day earlier. With a smirk, he added: "Congratulations, you are now officially members." On the C-Span video, Boehner's part starts at the 4:47 and 18 seconds mark. ...

More Accusations Leveled At Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.)
US Reps. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), left, and Mike Fitzpatrick, (R-Pa.) raise their hands and recite the oath of office on Wednesday as they watch a television broadcast of speaker of the house John Boehner administering the oath from the House floor, during a reception for Fitzpatrick supporters in the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington. (AP photo/The Intelligencer, David Garrett) WASHINGTON, DC (CBS) — A government Watchdog agency is questioning whether Bucks County congressman Michael Fi...

GOP Leadership Cannot Even Do Their Own Gimmicks Properly
Republicans in Congress seem to have a genius for screwing up their own gimmicks. Two House Republicans have cast votes as members of the 112th Congress, but were not sworn in on Wednesday, a violation of the Constitution on the same day that the GOP had the document read from the podium.The Republicans, Incumbent Pete Sessions of Texas and freshman Mike Fitzpatrick, missed the swearing in because they were at a Fundraiser in the Capitol Visitors Center. The pair watched the swearing-in on tele...

GOP Congressmen Apologize For Missing Oath
Reps. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.) have sent out a letter to their GOP colleagues apologizing for the procedural snafu they created by skipping the official swearing-in in favor of a questionable Fundraiser, and then casting some key votes anyways. "[W]e are deeply committed to fulfilling our role in our constitutional Democracy by maintaining the integrity of the People's House. Our absence on the House floor during the oath of office ceremony for the 112th Congress ...

Two GOP Lawmakers Apologize to House Colleagues for Missing Oath
Oops, sorry about that. Two GOP lawmakers are formally apologizing to their House colleagues for casting votes after missing the official oath of office during the opening of the 112th Congress earlier this week. In a letter distributed late Friday, Reps. Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick expressed regret for breaking House rules by voting after inadvertently skipping the swearing-in ceremony. Only a sworn member of Congress can take part in official business. "[W]e are deeply committed to ful...

Apology from GOP Rep. Fitzpatrick for swearing-in gaffe
Two days after they missed their swearing-in on the House floor, Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick of Bucks County and Pete Sessions of Texas apologized Friday for the blunder. In a letter addressed to the newly elected speaker, fellow Republican John Boehner of Ohio, the men said they regretted any inconvenience the misstep caused. "We are deeply committed to fulfilling our role in our constitutional Democracy by maintaining the integrity of the People's House," read their letter, which they mad...

Rep. Pete Sessions' Goof Throws New Congress Into Confusion
Just as it was getting down to work, the 112th Congress was thrown into chaos Thursday night, with members questioning whether the session might have to begin anew. The problem was that Republican Congressman Pete Sessions, (R-Texas) was not officially sworn in during Wednesday's ceremonies. According to the Huffington Post, he was apparently celebrating with fellow Texas Republican Mike Fitzpatrick elsewhere in the building at the Capitol Visitors Center. Once Sessions realized he was missing ...

Dem Rep. Louise Slaughter Tries to Stop ObamaCare Repeal Vote Because Two GOP Members Didnt Take Oath on Floor
Larry7 (prev. just Larry) on New Hampshire GOP Primary Poll Results: Romney Leading… If this is the best the Dems got, then they’re in deep trouble. (RCP)- Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) objects to two GOP members having a committee vote to Repeal Health Care reform because they took the oath in the House Visitor’s center while watching the full House take it on a television. “We really felt, since it takes full House action to make you a full member of the House, what was ...

House Fixes Votes-Without-Oaths Problem
Pete Sessions (Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images) The House officially took action today to right a wrong committed in the first days of the new Republican House of Representatives. On the very first day of the 112th Congress, three members were missing when Speaker John Boehner administered the oath of office to members-elect. One Democrat, Rep. Peter Defazio (D-OR), had an excused absence because of a meeting in his district about a local Veterans Hospital. Two Republicans just flat-out ...

Members Seek to Curtail Their Own Paychecks
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Is Shot in Arizona 1:53 p.m. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Is Shot in Arizona 1:53 p.m. 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, tur...

Boehner, Cantor Condemn Attack on Giffords
Republican House leaders issued statements Saturday condemning the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and members of her staff in Tucson, Ariz. Not a Subscriber? To continue reading, sign up for a free trial. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Is Shot in Arizona 1:53 p.m. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Is Shot in Arizona 1:53 p.m. 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 ...

Groups, Dems criticize GOP event in Capitol
WASHINGTON—Democrats and congressional Watchdog groups accused Republicans on Friday of illegally holding a campaign Fundraiser in the Capitol complex during this week's swearing-in ceremonies for lawmakers. One group said it would ask House ethics officials to investigate, but there were no immediate indications that they would take formal action. A spokesman for the GOP congressman who sponsored the event denied that he had used it to raise campaign money, and said funds collected were ...

Happy Hour Roundup
* Takedown of the day: Rick Brookhiser on the fantasy that Rudy Giuliani has any chance of becoming the 2012 GOP nominee. Short, but brutal. * Jonathan Cohn is optimstic that Dems are finally showing some fight on Health Care. * But Gallup finds Americans favor Repeal 46-40, though with 14 percent Undecided, there's still plenty of room for either side to make real gains. Settle in for a long fight. * Reality check of the day: Ezra Klein on the real reasons health reform may be in trouble. Als...

House Cleans Up After Swearing-In Snafu
As they try to establish their ability to run the House smoothly, the new Republican leadership team obviously could have done without the snafu of two Republican lawmakers missing their swearing in on Wednesday but taking part in floor and committee proceedings anyway. As a result, the House had to vote Friday morning to expunge a series of votes taken Wednesday by Representatives Pete Sessions of Texas and Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a bit of embarrassing parliamentary cleanup that drew...

House floor update
Currently, the House is debating the rule for the Repeal of health-care reform. We expect the vote to happen around this morning. This is a procedural vote and will pass. It will clear the way for debate to start on the health-care Repeal bill on Tuesday. The debate will conclude on Wednesday, which is when we expect the final vote on Repeal to happen. Once the rule passes, the House will take up four minutes -- yes, four minutes -- of debate on a resolution to deal with the fact that Rep. Pete ...

Friday Morning Coffee: It's A Snow Day.
Good Friday Morning, Fellow Seekers. Well, it took her a while, but Mother Nature finally got around to dumping a light coating snow on our Commonwealth's seat of government. Schools were delayed. Traffic was snarled. But undeterred, we called upon our New England upbringing, threw a couple of extra copies of "Going Rogue" on the wood stove, strapped on our mukluks, hitched up the dogsled and set out for Capitol Ideas World HQ with nary a backwards glance. And just like a certa...

All Forgiven
By a vote of 257 to 159, the GOP-controlled House has voted to wipe clean the ultra vires votes cast by the not-yet-sworn Reps. Pete Sessions (R-TX) and Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) -- who apparently thought raising their right hands in front of a TV monitor off the House floor was good enough. But there's still the issue of whether the event that Sessions and Fitzpatrick were attending instead of getting sworn in was a Fundraiser, which are prohibited in the Capitol itself. More on that to come ...

Its ON!
From American Spectator Rule for Repealing ObamaCare Passes House   The House just passed the rules for the Republican bill to Repeal ObamaCare, by a vote of 236 to 181, with two Republicans voting present. The rules call for seven hours of debate, no amendments and one Democratic motion to recommit the bill to committee, which typically allows the minority party to force the majority to cast an unpopular vote. [snip] UPDATE: Roll call is here. The four Democrats voting for it were: Larry Kis...

Four Democrats vote yes for Obama repeal test vote, two Republicans vote present
Four Democrats vote yes for Obama Repeal test vote, two Republicans vote present Again, don’t be fooled by the so called “conservative” Democrats. There is no such thing anymore. There are over 20 Democrats left in the 112th Congress that voted NO on the original ObamaCare bill, yet only four of them voted yes during today’s test vote. Two Republicans,  pulled an Obama and voted “present.” The two “Republicans” voting present were Rep. Pete Sess...

Leftovers - January 7, 2011
House Republicans had a rough first week in the majority. The Economy added more jobs in 2010 than it did during the entire Bush Administration. After his 2008 debacle, Rudy Giuliani is reportedly considering a run for the White House. Rep. Steve King loses out on the chairmanship of the Immigration subcommittee. In related news, King appears not to know what "mendacity" means. GOP Budget Chairman Paul Ryan knows that Congress has to raise the Debt ceiling. Reps. Pete Sessions and Mike Fit...

Was Mike Fitzpatrick Holding An Illegal Fundraiser While He Missed His Swearing-In? Inquiring Minds Want To Know
Yes, the moneychangers are back! And by the way, Mike Fitzpatrick isn't a "freshman" -- he was the Incumbent Bucks County PA congressman who was ousted by Patrick Murphy, and then beat him again in the mid-terms. So no, this isn't a little mistake made by a newbie: News broke today that two House members, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and freshman Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), may not have actually been properly sworn in to the House yesterday. They were at the Capitol Visitors Center--and just ...

Same party that continually feeds the Constitution into a shredder suddenly worried about two representatives voting before taki
Does it get any more hypocritical than the miscreant known as Anthony's Wiener? Yesterday, Reps. Pete Sessions (R-TX) and Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) failed to take the oath of office on the House floor along with the other 433 members of Congress which caused the GOP Caucus to scurry, worrying that some of the congressional actions Sessions and Fitzpatrick took yesterday may not have been valid. This morning, the House passed a resolution to fix this problem by a vote of 257-159 — with 27 Dem...

House Rewrites History for AWOL Members
(Wall Street Journal) - The House has the power to rewrite history -- at least its own. Members voted Friday to wipe the record clean of votes that Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Pete Sessions of Texas cast this week without being properly sworn in as members of the 112th Congress. Both Republicans missed the official swearing in ceremony Wednesday because they were attending a reception in the Capitol Visitor Center for Fitzpatrick’s constituents from Bucks County, Pa. The gui...