pudge's Journal: The Gentleman from Massachusetts

Many of you may have seen Barney Frank not letting Republicans speak on the floor of the House.

Many of my friends on the right think Frank was being unreasonable, a fascist, or whatever. They are wrong. Frank was in the right, totally, 100 percent. He was following the rules, and the Republicans were not. You may question Franks' motivation for strictly enforcing the rules at this time, but that's beside the point: you don't bring a knife to a gunfight. Learn the rules.

Maybe I am biased because, like Frank (my former Congressman, whom I campaigned against), I am from Massachusetts where we had annual town meetings and every year normal citizens would file into the school auditorium with their pet issues and these normal citizens would have Rules fights and the chairman would rule not on the issue, but on the following of the Rules. The Rules matter.

In MA we love the Rules, and no matter what your issue is, if you don't know or can't follow the Rules, that's your problem. Oh sure, for newbies we would bend the Rules a little, give them ample opportunity to do it right, and help them figure it out along the way. And indeed, that's what Frank did. He told them how they were wrong and gave them plenty of chances to do it right. He even told them how they could raise their issue within the Rules, which is the point: it's not about trying to shut anyone up.

If you don't know the Rules, don't blame anyone else but yourself if you can't get anything accomplished. And frankly, I am embarrassed by Rep. McHenry, who has been in Congress for two years now, and should know the Rules a lot better.

Yeah, that was a sad display.

[rholliday]

Trying to bully him into letting them skirt the rules, then getting petty by trying to bring up his past. "Comments about the Speaker's past, while they may be entertaining, are not Points of Order." Classic. :)

House vs Senate

[mwlewis]

I agree. He's an idiot, but the House isn't supposed to be about debating in the same way as the Senate. There's no way it could be--the numbers of the members in the respective houses guarantee that. Sometimes it's hard to separate what's right from what's within the rules. Fortunately, the House doesn't get the final say (in anything).

Of course, maybe Rep McHenry was really trying for a PR stunt, and knew exactly what he was doing. Some kind of act of civil disobedience to bring the attention of the

Re:

[pudge]

But the antics could have been saved for the normal debate time, too.

I NEVER thought I'd say this...

[Timex]

...but I think Barney Frank was actually in the right.

I thought it was funny, when Frank said that the guy who had the hangup about American Samoa being an exemption could find out it if the AS was, indeed, exempted by reading the bill. How dare anyone suggest that a Congressman should actually read a bill?!? :D

You're right about rules, though. MA legislators will spend days arguing about rules, especially if they're trying to get out of taking a vote on a particular issue.