*update* video added
CSPAN Video: John Culbertson on GOP House protest
A great moment of courage for the Republicans. Talk about trying to energize the Conservative base!
I just heard that the House G.O.P. wrapped up their protest session at 5:05 by singing ‘God Bless America’ and left the chamber with the crowd chanting, ‘USA! USA!’ Unbelievable. Also, I there’s this little tidbit — after the Democrats shut off the microphones, Rep. John Shadegg ran out to turn them on. In an update to the post I linked to earlier, the Politico reports: Apparently, the fiesty Arizona conservative started typing random codes into the chamber’s public address system and accidentally typed the correct code, allowing Republicans brief access to the microphone before it was turned off again. ‘I love this,’ Shadegg told reporters up in the press gallery afterward. ‘Congress can be so boring. … This is a kick.’ It really looks like Congressional Republicans are getting some of their mojo back.
House Dems turn out the lights but GOP keeps talking
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House, turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.
Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi’s refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m., and they are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.
At one point, the lights went off in the House and the microphones were turned off in the chamber, meaning Republicans were talking in the dark. But as Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz..) was speaking, the lights went back on and the microphones were turned on shortly afterward.
But C-SPAN, which has no control over the cameras in the chamber, has stopped broadcasting the House floor, meaning no one was witnessing this except the assembled Republicans, their aides, and one Democrat, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who has now left.
Only about a half-dozen Republicans were on the floor when this began, but the crowd has grown to about 20, according to Patrick O’Connor.
hattip: Flopping Aces




