Time Was GOP's Ally on the Vote (Medicare)

[kskiska]

By David S. Broder
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 23, 2003; Page A01

At exactly 3 a.m. yesterday, Rep. Richard "Doc" Hastings (R-Wash.), presiding over the House of Representatives, announced that time for debate on President Bush's Medicare reform and prescription drug bill had expired. "Members will have 15 minutes to record their votes," he said.

The forecast turned out to be wildly off the mark. It was nearly 6 a.m. when the longest roll call in House history ended, with Republicans cheering a 220 to 215 victory and embittered Democrats denouncing it as a travesty.

The 2-hour-and-51-minute ordeal -- more than double the previous record -- saw Democrats savoring the possibility of their biggest victory of the Bush years -- an apparent 216 to 218 rejection of the $400 billion plan -- for almost an hour. But in that final hour, the president, jet-lagged from his flight home from Britain, phoned recalcitrant Republicans from the White House, and his secretary of health and human services, defying custom, jawboned members on the floor.

(snip)

Several times, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and his lieutenants were on the verge of conceding defeat and moving to reconsider the issue later, only to pull back and give their lobbying another try. In the end, they switched two of the conservatives by telling them of a Democratic legislative plot that may have been either fictional or real.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7290-2003Nov22.html

[xray s]

1. Some questions

Was this extention of time legal? Could the vote results be challenged in court?

Were congresspeople allowed to switch their vote from Y to N before time eventually expired, or just N to Y?

What was the exact moment we become a despotic banana republic?

[JackSwift]

5. Each chamber enforces its own rules

all they have done is set precedents for them to exceed later.

[mac56]

2. Typical.

The bastards have to circumvent the rules and make up scare stories in order to get their way. They know they can't win a fair fight, so they make sure there won't be one.

[J B]

3. The President's personal plea wasn't enough, but the lie was.

And note that they had no way of knowing for sure what they claimed about a Democratic ploy (plot?) was true, they just felt it um, well, it could be true, so therefore it was good enough for them to use as a threat, and that got them their votes. So they lied. Blatantly. To their own people. (Yes, one was a Buchannanite, but hey, the Kurds were Saddam's own people.)

[Just Me]

4. Their Ass is Grass,...

,...let them feel "victorious". The Repukes are disenfranchising "the people" and are over-confident in their ability to control the masses of a country that are NOT STUPID. They are consuming what feeds them,...and they will starve.

[uhhuh]

6. Check the vote.

This is a total lie. The vote had 25 republicans voting against the bill and 12 Dems voting for. That showed the vote at 216-218 against with 1 non vote.
The final tally, posted in anothe trhead shows 25 republicans still voting nay and 16 Dems voting yea. If anyone got lobbied, it was the Dems. This story of the chimp or Hastert converting repubs at the last minute is a total lie, and it was a four vote swing, not two.

[Maudlin]

9. Naw,

It's correct, after the 2 repubs gave in a couple of Dems changed their vote too, presumably so they'd get a cookie from DeLay too.

[wabeewoman]

7. When will the Congress wise up to this hurry hurry tactic?

The whole purpose is so noone can get a good look at the consequences of these bills.

"THE SECOND BIGGEST SCAM IN WASHINGTON: And another thing about that Medicare "reform" bill: Since CBO didn't officially score the bill until yesterday afternoon, the negotiators who wrote the bill didn't publish final language until yesterday. Nevertheless, Republican congressional leaders are pushing to hold votes before Thanksgiving. House leaders are trying to hold their votes today. (The only reason they haven't yet brought the measure to the floor is that they don't yet have the numbers to pass it."


"So much so that, according to this same source, White House officials have spent the entire day on the phone trying to coax votes out of Democrats."
http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml?pid=999

AAAgghhhh! I can't believe Democrats would vote for ANYTHING this white house wants.

[ClintonTyree]

8. They're more worried.......

about their jobs than the will of the people. They want to get re-elected, and being looked upon as one of those "obstructionist" Democrats scares the hell out of them. They may have to do an honest day's work if not re-elected. Disgusting.