|
|
"A collaborative political resource." |
A House in chaos
|
| Parent(s) |
Container
-
|
| Contributor | Scott³ |
| Last Edited | Scott³ Feb 26, 2010 06:19pm |
| Category | Analysis |
| News Date | Feb 25, 2010 06:00pm |
| Description | "For a few hours Thursday night, the House of Representatives was in chaos.
Shortly after dinnertime, New York Democrat Charlie Rangel emerged from his private hideaway after news broke that he would be admonished by the House ethics committee.
But reporters in the Capitol rushed right past Rangel to ask House Democratic leaders about a critical intelligence bill that had just been pulled over a torture provision. The language had been inserted in defiance of leadership by House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.).
At the same time, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was slated to meet with leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus to try to salvage a routine $15 billion jobs bill that had turned into a piñata for progressives, the moderate Blue Dog Coalition and members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Any of these three issues — a floundering jobs bill, a hastily scotched intelligence authorization or an ethics committee admonishment of the powerful chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee — would qualify as a midlevel crises.
Together, these incidents illustrated a chamber in a minimeltdown near week's end.
“It’s a mystery how that language got in there,” Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) said of the controversial intelligence bill provision backed by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.). “I think there are a lot of issues about the drafting of the McDermott amendment.”
House leaders huddled on the floor to figure out what to do next when they realized that the language — adopted by Slaughter’s panel the day before — could kill the bill. The spot they chose was only 15 feet or so from the one in the well of the House where Rangel had just lit into ethics Chairman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) in full view of their colleagues and the galleries above the chamber." |
| Article | Read Article |
|
|
