You’ve got to love this. And forgive us, if we get a little carried away with song lyrics and such.
The House Republican leadership is in a bit of a revolt, dancing in the dark at times, if you will.
It seems that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the Democratic majority in her chamber, channeled a little Donna Summer as they walked out the door for the summer recess.
“Dim all the lights sweet darling, because tonight it’s all the way,” to quote Ms. Summer. We’d add — all the way home to face that election music, high gas prices at the pump and all that.
Well, the G.O.P. didn’t want it that way; they wanted to stay and talk about rising gas prices. So for the last few hours, they’ve been busy on a dark floor, using Twitter and random keyboarding to find the codes to turn the lights back on in the chamber. And doing a little P.R. to broadcast their fight for lifting the ban on offshore drilling. It’s as though the House Republicans decided to call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on his dare Tuesday to G.O.P. members of the the upper chamber by to stay over the break to resolve these issues.
From the office of Representative John Boehner, Republican of Cincinnati:
In a dramatic revolt against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) refusal to allow Congress to vote on legislation to increase American-made energy and lower gas prices, House Republicans today refused to leave the House floor after Speaker Pelosi adjourned the House for the five-week August break, staying in the chamber to speak directly to Americans watching the historic event unfold above the floor in the House gallery.
Even after lights, cameras, and microphones in the chamber were turned off, House Republicans were undeterred, continuing to make speech after speech demanding that Speaker Pelosi listen to the calls of the American people – including those coming from whistling, applauding, and cheering Americans sitting in the gallery – for more environmentally responsible drilling for oil and gas here at home to reduce the price at the pump. Representative John Culberson, Republican of Texas, defied the Democratic majority by providing live updates on the protest via Twitter directly from the House floor.
Members participating in the spontaneous uprising included Reps. Roy Blunt, John Boehner, Michael Burgess, John Campbell, Eric Cantor, Shelly Moore Capito, John Carter, Mike Conaway, John Culberson, Charlie Dent, Jeff Fortenberry, Virginia Foxx, Louie Gohmert, Pete Hoekstra, Duncan Hunter, Thaddeus McCotter, Mike Pence, Tom Price, Ted Poe, Adam Putnam, Bill Sali, John Shadegg, John Shimkus, Tim Walberg, and Lynn Westmoreland.
The protest came just minutes after House Republican leaders delivered a letter to Speaker Pelosi demanding that she call the House back into emergency session this month to deal with America’s ever-worsening energy crisis.
So who says the Republicans are technologically still in the 1980’s? Word is, besides Congressman Culberson’s tweets, The Politico reports that Representative Shadegg was mining the keyboard randomly to access codes to turn those lights back on. But of course, C-Span was no longer on the air, since it doesn’t broadcast when Congress is not officially in session, so the House Republicans have really been dancing in the dark.
In some key battleground states, (like Florida) voters are shifting toward support of offshore drilling to reduce dependence on foreign oil and to ease those bug-eyed shocks at the pumps as the numbers keep moving upward, but Democrats counter that the benefits of offshore drilling are about 10 years away. And are casting Republicans as hostage to the big oil companies, in ads across the country against Republicans in Congress.
More to come.
