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To: onyx

As I read it, nothing changes. Pelosi keeps the same control as Hastert did, and for the same reason...no-one wants to see their House member sleeping during the proceedings.


16 posted on 12/22/2006 10:02:37 PM PST by soupcon
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To: soupcon
no-one wants to see their House member sleeping during the proceedings

Really? I do.

18 posted on 12/22/2006 10:04:39 PM PST by onyx (Phillip Rivers, LT and the San Diego Chargers! WOO-HOO!)
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To: soupcon

I want to see the dems. non-culture of corruption, or just maybe their screaming hissies in the corners.


24 posted on 12/22/2006 10:10:46 PM PST by sissyjane (Don't be stuck on stupid!)
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To: soupcon; onyx
no-one wants to see their House member sleeping during the proceedings.

Having observed House Chamber proceedings a few months ago, I can assure you there was no one sleeping in there. They just weren't there at all. Not more than four or five Congress critters at any one time in the chamber. We noted at the time this must be why C-SPAN cameras are only trained on the podium.

31 posted on 12/22/2006 10:30:20 PM PST by NautiNurse (Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.)
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To: soupcon
As I read it, nothing changes. Pelosi keeps the same control as Hastert did, and for the same reason...no-one wants to see their House member sleeping during the proceedings.

Same as Hastert, and Gingrich before him, and Foley, Wright and O'Neill before them.

The main issue is "special orders." Basically, it's a periiod in which any member can give a one-minute speech on whatever strikes his fancy, with the license to "revise and extend" those remarks. In practice, it's an opportunity for any member to put anything he wants into the Congressional Record. Even bothering to give a spoken address at all is a bit of cermony and protocol. No one watches and no one really cares until it shows up in a press release and folks quote it on talk shows.

In the early days of C-SPAN, under House speaker Tip O'Neill, the camera panned the chamber during special orders, showing a completely empty house chamber. One speaker in the well, a presiding member in the Speaker's chair, a stenographer and a couple of pages, and an otherwise empty room.

It made the whole exercise look silly, which it pretty much is. After that flap, the C-SPAN camera angles have been pretty conservative, conventional, and actually incredibly predictable. There are really only about half a dozen shots.

The "news" in this story is that there is no news, that nothing has changed. The House and Senate maintain control over day-to-day operations. A media pool operates for special occasions like the State of the Union Address or joint sessions of Congress.

43 posted on 12/23/2006 3:55:38 AM PST by ReignOfError
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