Posted on 04/25/2011 5:05:54 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
....Now that Republicans are running the House, Democrats have tried to stymie the GOP agenda by relying on the tactic, known as the motion to recommit. But they've failed on every one of their 23 attempts this year.
...the maneuver is aimed at forcing members of the majority into an untenable choice between opposing their party's position or casting a vote that opponents could use against them in election campaigns.
For a recommit motion to work, the minority party must pick off at least some members of the majority. Thus Democrats would need at least a few dozen of the House's 241 Republicans to vote with them this year. Their best showing so far on any motion: two GOP votes.
....Republicans nearly succeeded in derailing the health care act last year with a motion to recommit that contained anti-abortion provisions. Democratic leaders had to appease their own anti-abortion wing to secure their votes against the GOP motion.
...Democrats had to withdraw a bill giving residents in the District of Columbia a vote in the House because of a motion to repeal the city's tough gun laws.
...Republicans succeeded in changing a bill to subsidize people who buy energy-efficient products for their homes. GOP lawmakers made the changes part of a recommit motion barring contractors from hiring child molesters.
A week later they watered down a science and technology bill by attaching their version to a proposal to fire government works who view pornography on the job. Many Democrats, envisioning election-year attack ads claiming they supported pornography, had to go along.
....Republicans used a similar tactic to force Democrats to withdraw temporarily a bill expanding child nutrition programs. By voting against the Republican alternative, a lawmaker could be portrayed as supporting federal food money for institutions that hire convicted sex offenders......
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Cue the HA HA guy...
We had to frog march some in the GOP but they seem to be catching on to the idea of smaller government.
So you think they might be slow but not hopeless? I sure hope so. Sometimes I think they're quite hopeless and only the new Tea Party types can be relied on.
This does not work when the congressman is being honest with the constituents. It works very well with those congressmen that tell one story at home and then vote differently in Washington. So, it works with democrats. Most districts wouldn't elect a democrat who was truthful about what they do in Washington.
I think a lot of them want to survive in their job and so they will do what they’re told. After all, that’s what we’re paying them for. The Tea Party has given a face and a voice to voters.
So, was the problem that they worked for no pay? Were less than a year old? Not really able to perform the job, being they were not very tall or strong?
Yeah...and make a start on all those governmant "workers" or should I say w@nkers who should be fired for watching porn....
Instead of the gobmint computer coming up with "access denied"
I comes up with: YOU'R FIRED ...clean out your desk and your last pay check is in the mail....have a nice day.
Republicans were able to constistantly peel away a fer dozen dems because those dems got elected by posing as normal people that weren’t controlled by the radical wing that runs the party with San Francisco values, and they wanted to keep their jobs.
Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, many Tea Party people will covet reelection. They will then make the deals necessary to keep their seats—their very prestigious, profitable and ego-boosting seats. It takes about five months for decent well-meaning people to become “politicians.” You can start to detect first it in their vacant, phony smiles—then in their hedged, parsed, nuanced, side-stepping non-answers.
I hope for more—but won’t be surpised by less.
Sometimes I think they’re quite hopeless and only the new Tea Party types can be relied on.
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Decades of failure tend to support that view.
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