When I came to Georgetown, I wanted an internship on the Hill. But I soon became lazy, and the prospect of a long metro ride was too daunting for me to leave my room. Therefore I blog.
Today, to make up for my past sloth, I did take the Capitol tour. And you know what? I wasn't impressed. Government kinda sucks.
Though the statues of dead Americans are rather impressive (especially look for the statue of King Kameamea, seen at right, who is, one might remark, quite gilded), all anyone goes to see is the House in session. And in session it was. Ish.
Today was supposed to be the last day before August recess (think 3rd-grade Ted Kennedy being beaten at tetherball by a demonic pre-pubescent Hillary), disputes in the House over a malfunctional voting machine caused the session to spill over until tomorrow. When my tour group finally entered the Gallery of the House, we were witness to a fight nearly as spectacular as the fabled Lincoln-Douglass or The Devil and Daniel Webster conflicts.
Instead though, a Republican "gentleman from Michigan" sought to end the frivolity that is our representative republic and go home. Upon his motion, many bald Democrats (and several haired ones) strongly voiced their "Nays."
And then it was time to go home. For me at least; Congress has at best another day.
2 comments:
do i understand what happened in congress? i think not.
perhaps i should have paid more attention to one eric langenbacher and his government cronies. perhaps.
According to a House insider:
Late Thursday night the House was voting on an Agriculture appropriations bill ammendment. The bill originally stipulated a tax increase to give food stamps to illegal immigrants. The Republicans were pushing the ammendment to remove the tax increase and not give food stamps to illegals. The Speaker at the time, Mike McNulty, called the vote a tie at 214-214 and gavelled the vote closed. However, the board showed the Repubicans ahead at 215-213 when the vote was closed.
Needless to say, mayhem ensued. On Friday morning, when the Republicans tried to go through the Congressional record, tapes were missing and the record had been changed.
And now everyone gets to go home for a month and simmer their anger. It's going to be a long fall with 13 Appropriations bills to pass before October 1.
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