RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Pathetic partisanship

I can't even joke about this. This is disgusting.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=5&u=/nm/20030718/ts_nm/congress_rowdy_dc

House in Uproar Over Stormy Committee Meeting
Fri Jul 18, 7:46 PM ET

By Donna Smith and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Irate Democrats and Republicans swapped
insults and accusations during a stormy congressional committee meeting
on Friday that saw one member called "a fruitcake" and the chairman
summon police.

The two sides dispute why the police were called to the House Ways and
Means Committee room during a meeting in which the panel was
considering pension legislation.

Republicans said they felt physically threatened, while Democrats said the
Republican chairman had the police called to try to stop them from meeting
separately to discuss the bill in a committee side room.

The committee's top Democrat, Charles Rangel of New York, said he was
upset because Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, a
California Republican, gave little notice of major changes being made to the
bill.

Members of the minority party left the meeting to go to the committee library
to discuss the bill, leaving Rep. Pete Stark of California behind to keep an
eye on committee Republicans.

Things quickly heated up in the committee hearing room when, according to
a transcript, Stark insulted Thomas and challenged another member who
had told him to shut up, calling him a "little wimp" and a "fruitcake."

Stark left the room and the Republicans passed the bill on a voice vote.
Meanwhile, Capitol police appeared in the library and told Democrats that
they had been called to clear them from the room. Police made no effort to
physically remove them, but Democrats were outraged.

"Where does one member get the authority to call the cops on another
member?" said Rep. Jerry Kleczka (news, bio, voting record), a Wisconsin
Democrat who sits on the committee.

RIDING ROUGHSHOD

The fight then moved to the floor of the House of Representatives when
Democrats asked that the committee's approval of the pension bill be
invalidated, saying Republicans had ridden roughshod over proper
procedures. House Republicans successfully blocked the effort.

"I never thought as a member of Congress I would be threatened by arrest
while sitting in the library of the Ways and Means Committee ... It is unreal,
it is unthinkable," said Rep. John Lewis (news, bio, voting record), a Georgia
Democrat and former civil rights protester.

Republicans insisted the police were called not to evict Democrats, but
because Stark had threatened Colorado Republican Scott McInnis.

"We were within moments ... of a physical engagement and I considered
that threat serious," McInnis told the House. "I fully intended to defend
myself."

Democrats scoffed at McInnis' account, pointing out that Stark is 72, while
McInnis is 50.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California accused Republicans
of flouting the democratic process by ramming the legislation through the
committee while calling police on Democrats.

"Is it right for the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee to call the
police to evict Democratic members from their meeting place?" Pelosi said.
She said it fit a pattern of majority Republican efforts to shut out minority
Democrats from the legislative process.

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert's spokesman John Feehery said the
fight detracted from the need to get the pension bill, which enjoyed some
bipartisan support, passed.

"The brouhaha is unfortunate, because it takes away from a good bill,"
said Feehery.

(Additional reporting by Tom Ferraro)

A disgrace.

politics

Focusing on these shenanigans obscures the larger issue of the legislation itself.

One only needs to see what was being rammed thru to see why things became so heated in the 1st place.

quote:

---

The proposed pension legislation would let Americans put more tax-deferred income into their personal retirement accounts and allow corporations to set aside less money for covering their pension obligations to retirees.

Tempers Flare in House Over Pension Bill

---

Still no excuse for such shennigans. Next thing you know, we'll be back to the 1850s where Congressmen were beating each other with canes.

The Congressman should be subject of a resolution of rebuke. Not arrest. Not impeachment. Not censure. Just a slap on the wrist to embarrass him.

You can yell all you want. You can mock the actions of the opposing party. But you cannot commit assault. And regardless of age differences, that 72 year old fulfilled the elements of common law assault.

Age is irrelevant in the law. "Come here and make me" implies violence. You don't have to think they can whup you for it to be assault. You must only have a reasonable belief that the person making the comment has intent to make offensive physical contact.

I think this guy (and my partisan butt keeps picturing Sen. Robert Byrd because I don't know what Rep. Stark looks like;)) crossed a line. I wouldn't have called the cops (Hastert was making fun a bit on MtP this morning), but I think all the elements of assault were present.

Of course, assault is a wussy crime in my view, but there it is... plus the guy was 72.

(A funny side effect of this would be the grey panthers opposing anyone who made fun of the fact that the GOP got upset over an "old" man.) :)

New rule! I don't accept PMs from cop haters.