GOP reps regret skipped oath

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...

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...

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 ...

GOP Capitol event comes under fire
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 for the cost...

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. ...

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...

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...

Members React to Shooting With Twitter Posts
Members of Congress and other prominent political figures took to Twitter on Saturday afternoon to express shock to the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), with several using the social messaging site to condemn the attack. “This attack at Rep. Giffords event is a horrible, despicable assault on good people and our Democracy,” Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) tweeted. “Very unsettling.” Many Members, including Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), used the website to post st...

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...

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 ...

Sessions, Fitzpatrick apologize
GOP aides say Republican Congressmen Pete Sessions (who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee) and Mike Fitzpatrick sent this letter to colleagues late today to apologize for not being sworn in to the 112th Congress, but later participating in votes. They were sworn in later. As Members of Congress, we have no greater honor than the opportunity to serve our country by representing our constituents in the House of Representatives. The solemn trust we are elected to uphold - codif...

Missing Congressmen take oath in Washington
In a follow-up to the embarrassing non-swearing-in of Reps. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., on Wednesday, the House this morning approved a resolution nullifying their votes on six roll call votes, cast when, it turns out, they were still “representative-elect.” Sessions, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and Fitzpatrick, elected in November after losing after one term in 2006, were at a reception off the House floor in the Capitol Visi...

Reps. Sessions and Fitzpatrick Pen Apology For Swearing In Snafu
Perhaps chastened by all the trouble they caused, Reps. Pete Sessions (R-TX) and Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA), who cast invalid votes on the first day of the 112th Congress because they missed the formal swearing in, are sending a written Apology for their gaffe to every member of the House tonight, according to Politico. In excerpts from the letter, which Politico posted this afternoon, the Congressmen write: [W]e are deeply committed to fulfilling our role in our constitutional Democracy by maint...

Congress reacts to shooting of Rep. Giffords
Politicians from both parties reacted with disbelief and sadness to the news of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). "I am horrified by the senseless attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and members of her staff.  An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve," said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in a statement. "Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society....This is a sad day for our country." "My sincere condolences...

Sessions a no-show for Wednesday's House swearing-in
Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions has thrown the House into temporary procedural turmoil, after failing to appear on the House floor for yesterday's swearing-in ceremony. So where was he? At a party for Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Fitzgerald in the Capitol Visitors Center. Fitzgerald's spokesman Darren Smith explained: "Yesterday, at the time the oath of office was administered, Congressman Fitzpatrick was in the Capitol Building meeting with constituents from Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District. He ...

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...

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 ...

CONGRESSWOMAN GABRIELLE GIFFORDS IS IN SURGERY AT UMC: SHOT IN HEAD
According to reporters at the scene in Arizona, a 21 year old male is being held in custody. The scene was a sunny ’street corner Congress,’ held in the shopping center lot in front of the local Safeway Grocery Store about 3 miles outside Tucson. The shooter’s bullets penetrated into the store. There were at least 12 persons shot and they were airlifted by Life Flight helicopters. Mark Kelly is the husband of Congresswoman Giffords. He is an Astronaut, and was this morning on ...

Arizona Rep. Giffords shot, several wounded
FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2011 file photo, House Speaker John Boehner reenacts... People gather at the scene of a shooting involving Rep. Gabrielle Giffords,... TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head Saturday when an assailant opened fire outside a Grocery Store during a meeting with constituents, killing a 9-year-old boy and a Federal Judge and wounding several others in a rampage that rattled the nation. Giffords was among at least 10 people wounded, and the...

Giffords shot; doctor 'very optimistic'
TUCSON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- A surgeon at a Tucson Hospital said he was "very optimistic" about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords recovery after surgery Saturday. Giffords was shot in the head at a public event in Tucson. She underwent surgery at the Hospital Saturday afternoon. At least six others were dead and 18 wounded, including the congresswoman. The Hospital spokesman, a surgeon, told a news conference, "At this Hospital we have 10 patients, of those one died." The fatality was a child, 9. "Five are cri...

Texas Ground Report
We have a race for the Speaker of the Texas House, which is becoming contentious.  The Speaker for the last session is a “Republican” named Joe Straus.  He prevented much of the Republican agenda from seeing the light of day, even though there was a Republican majority in the Texas House.  Tea Party groups and others around Texas want to dump Straus in favor of Ken Paxton, a true conservative, because the election was a clear mandate for conservative principles.  ...

Two watchdog groups call for investigation of GOP Reps over swearing-in debacle
The Republicans have effectively patched over the Constitutional error committed when two of their members failed to swear-in before casting votes.  However, two government Watchdog groups are calling for investigations into the background behind what is now being called “Oathgate.”  The Campaign Legal Center and Sunlight Foundations have both asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to look into the event that caused the absence of Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Pete Ses...

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...

GOP Congressmen Face Criticism From Watchdog Groups For Skipping Oath For Fundraiser
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 we...

Tough Start
It's always good to start the day with a healthy dose of irony. Two Republican members of Congress skipped out on being sworn in.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 ...