We have to hand it to the House Republicans. After a number of them spent August kvetching about adjournment and demanding that Speaker Pelosi reconvene Congress, today they're back to their old trick of offering procedural motions to adjourn in order to gum up the works.
Two of the initial leaders of the publicity stunt in the dark last month, Tom Price and Mike Pence (see clerk's entries here at 11:54 a.m. and 1:13 p.m.) made the motions. The existence of the maneuver as mere partisan game playing is illustrated by the fact that neither man voted for his own motion, according to roll call votes no. 592 and 594.
Here's a good example of roll call votes (200-299) from mid-April through early May that includes a number of time-wasting votes prompted by procedural motions to adjourn. We took note of them last spring in a post written after we'd heard Congressman Walz mention them as a form of partisan gaming playing he disdains.
Is this the same Mike Pence that on Monday was on the House Floor bemoaning that Pelosi’s recess motion and extolling the virtues of the loyal Republicans who kept flying from their home districts to DC to speak in the dark ?
Yep.
Posted by: MinnesotaCentral | September 17, 2008 at 08:58 AM