An Eyewitness Report from the "Guerrilla Congress"

The more I hear about the GOP energy protest on the House floor yesterday, the more I wish there was video (and the more relieved the Dems are that there isn't):

It's too bad they've turned off the cameras and microphones in the House of Representatives because the Republicans are orchestrating an excellent political scene. As I was making my way over to the House chamber, I could hear the crowds inside chanting, "Drill! Drill! Drill!" Families, staff members and press were sitting in the gallery space above the floor listening to one speech after another - there were even some families and staff members sitting down on the floor - when one of the members came to the floor and said,

"The Capitol Police are going to be closing the Chamber in a few minutes, which means all of you are going to have to leave. But we're not going to let that happen. Instead, we want everyone in the gallery - yes, everyone - to come down to the floor so they can't kick you out of the Capitol. Members will be coming up to escort you downstairs right now."

And sure enough, one member after another starting bringing groups of us down to the floor. The place was packed and people continue to come into the chamber as members were speaking without microphones from the central pit in front of the dais. The atmosphere reminded me of a session of Prime Ministers Questions in the House of Commons. People were shouting out from the crowd that they wanted to Democrats to come back to debate this issue, members were requesting the President to exercise his constitutional right to request the House to come back from recess to debate gas prices, and when I left the floor five or six Congressmen were hosting a press conference outside the chamber.

According to one speaker, forty-eight members had come to the floor to speak for a total of more than five hours.

Let's hope the GOP learned something from this and will become even more bold and audacious in the future.