Under The Cover Of Darkness Great article about GOP secrecy

[jbfam4]

Under The Cover Of Darkness http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9587


U.S. Congressman Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, is the ranking member on the Committee on Energy and the Commerce Subcommittee on Health.


Never before has the House of Representatives operated in such secrecy:



Always in the middle of the night. Always after the press had passed their deadlines. Always after the American people had turned off the news and gone to bed.


But what did the public miss? They didn't see the House votes, which normally take no more than 20 minutes, dragging on for as long as an hour as members of the Republican leadership trolled for enough votes to cobble together a majority.

They didn't see GOP leaders stalking the floor for whoever was not in line. They didn't see Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay coerce enough Republican members into switching their votes to produce the desired result.

In other words, they didn't see the subversion of democracy.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Kick

*

I hope the freepers and all those who support Republicans are proud of themselves. This isn't open government, folks.

[Cha]

2. Thanks for this!

This is Huge evidence of why we need more Democrats in Congress and a Democratic President!

[glitch]

3. this article should be passed around the net

very powerful. Thanks for posting.

[jbfam4]

4. I too thought this was powerful,

but would have liked more names listed. Like "One Republican hid in the Democratic cloakroom." Who was it? Who were the two that changed thier vote at the end?

There wasn't a mention of Tommy Tompson being on the floor either.

The spin on TV according to Rep. Drier, was it was the dems at the end who changed their vote that made it pass.

[catzies]

5. A local congresswoman told us that last May.

We heard Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) speak last May, who told us of the difficulties faced by Dems in DC.

Before, she said, when Dems had the majority, they would give a hearing (for form's sake) for bills put forth by the minority, even when there was no hope of passage, but now any bill put up by a Dem doesn't even receive that courtesy and the lawmakers themselves are rebuked. Disgusting. :mad:

[Nadienne]

6. I had no idea...

Those who stick to their guns in the face of that badgering have earned my respect, no matter what party they call themselves.

[LWolf]

7. Thanks for the link.

I did a search on "Under cover of darkness" before I posted to see if it was here somewhere, but the search function didn't turn it up.

[jbfam4]

8. No problem

I don't know how it got moved from Thursday's posting to Sundays.