Increasing the Dem Majority By Allowing Non-Congressmen to Vote

Would you like to cast votes in the House of Representatives? If Nancy Pelosi has her way, even non-members will be allowed to cast votes in the committee of the whole:

AMERICAN SAMOA, GUAM, PUERTO RICO, AND U.S.V.I. MAY GET A VOTE: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her House Democrats plan to push through legislation Wednesday that would increase the size of the 435-member House on most matters by giving votes to delegates from four U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. Republicans are outraged by the plan, referring to it as a "greedy power grab" in a statement from the office of Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio. But they are probably powerless to stop it. The proposal would allow the elected members from Washington, D.C., American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands a vote when the House sits in the "committee of the whole," a parliamentary device used during most of the debate, amending and voting on legislation. Four of the members involved are Democrats, and one, the so-called resident commissioner from Puerto Rico, is a Republican.

You have to wonder if this is a payback to American Samoa for excluding their citizens from the minimum wage legislation. If Pelosi gets her way, the Dem majority will increase by about three as four of the five non-member voters are Dems.

Next thing you know tourists from blue districts will be allowed to cast votes while they're touring the Capitol building.