GOP Gets Special Committee to Investigate Dem Vote Snatch

The floor of the House came close to physical combat late Thursday night as the Dems appeared to openly violate House rules by changing the outcome of a vote after voting had been officially closed. More info on that here.

As a result, irate GOP members demanded, and have gotten, a special committee to investigate just what happened:

The House last night unanimously agreed to create a special select committee, with subpoena powers, to investigate Republican allegations that Democratic leaders had stolen a victory from the House GOP on a parliamentary vote late Thursday night.

The move capped a remarkable day that started with Republicans marching out of the House in protest near midnight Thursday, was punctuated by partisan bickering, and ended with Democratic hopes for a final legislative rush fading. Even a temporary blackout of the House chamber's vote tally board led to suspicions and accusations of skullduggery.

While Democratic leaders hoped to leave for their August recess on a wave of legislative successes, the House instead slowed to an acrimonious crawl that threatened to stretch the legislative session into next week.

The agreement to form a special committee was extraordinary. Such powerful investigative committees are usually reserved for issues such as the Watergate scandal and the funneling of profits from Iranian arms sales to the Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s.

"I don't know when something like this has happened before," said House deputy historian Fred W. Beuttler. He called the decision "incredible."

What's especially amazing is that the Dems chose to play this dangerous game on a bill designed to give illegal aliens taxpayer-funded benefits. They actually chose to cheat to make sure illegals got that taxpayer money. Talk about handing the GOP a campaign issue...

The GOP slowdown that has resulted from Thursday's kerfuffle creates some big problems for the Dems. The House was supposed to end its summer session yesterday, but instead is in session today and will likely continue next week. The president has threatened to keep Congress in session until an acceptable FISA bill is completed, so if the Dems want their summer vacation, they can't be playing heavy-handed with the GOP. The conflict even messed up San Fran Nan's victory press conference in which she had hoped to tout the achievement(s) of the Dem Congress, which I believe involved passing a couple of weak bills but hasn't yet offered a real solution for homeland security or any of the appropriations bills that must be passed before the end of the fiscal year. With presidential vetoes threatened on eight of them, a government shutdown of certain function could be in the offing (not a bad thing, in my view).

There are three Republicans and three Democrats on the committee with a final report due in September. Look for a split decision.

By the way, Friday night wasn't any better with another shouting match on the floor of the House. It's nice to see the GOP showing some gumption.