The level of utter vapidness concerning several issues over the last week is staggering. First, a private citizen of the United States refuses to appear before the House of Representatives after being subpoenaed. Some seem to be buying some story that asserting a privilege doesn’t mean you don’t have to have your ass in the hearing chair. It does not. You must appear and we have someone who can arrest you and frogmarch you into the House to be tried for inherent contempt. We call that person the Sergeant at Arms and in the U.S. House that is Bill Livingood.
And tonight we get this gem from the Corner
This is a really, really stupid stunt, and I’ll tell you why: It can all be over in 15 minutes, unless the anti-war Republicans decide to cooperate — and why should they?
Right now, there are only 50 working Democratic Senators (Tim Johnson D, S.D. hasn’t cast a vote yet this year), and there are only 49 if you don’t include Joe Lieberman (who I hear isn’t really up for this sleepover, whether you want to count him as a Dem or not).
You need 51 senators for a quorum, in the event that someone makes a quorum call — which any senator can make at any time. So all it takes is one Republican to stay in the chamber, object to anything the Democrats try to do, and then note the absence of a quorum. When the quorum is called, and only 50 senators are present, the Senate adjourns (or at least it can’t come out of the quorum call without unanimous consent), and the whole stupid stunt is over before Senator Byrd can even begin his outraged four-hour speech.
Any parliamentarians out there can correct me, but I’ve checked with two Senate sources and I’m pretty sure I’m right about this. I can’t even imagine what Reid is thinking.
We can assume those Senate sources are Dumb and Dumber. Talking Points Memo disappoints me and brings in the very bright and very authoritative Sarah Binder to answer the question that they, above all, should know. It’s not that for hard questions they shouldn’t go to Binder, it’s that this isn’t a hard question. We have faced a very similar situation recently when the Texas House Dems fled to Ardmore, Oklahoma. The Texas Speaker ordered Texas law enforcement to track them down
Attempting to break a quorum is nothing new as Lincoln tried it as well–Rich Miller provided the details during the Texas standoff.
LINCOLN BROKE A QUORUM Back in 1839, the Illinois House was meeting in special session and hatched a plan to vote on a Democratic bill to require the state’s central bank to make payments in gold or silver, rather than paper money. The Whig Party strongly opposed the idea, and, led by Rep. Abraham Lincoln, decided on the spot that the best way to kill the proposal was to deny the majority Democrats a quorum. So, they left the building, the
Second Presbyterian Church in Springfield. But two members were required under law back then to demand that a quorum call be made. Lincoln and another House Whig, Joseph Gillespie, walked into the chambers and made the motion. No quorum was present and a vote couldn’t be taken. The next day, though, Lincoln and the Whigs made the same attempt, but the House Speaker ordered the doors locked behind them and summoned some members who had previously been too ill to attend the session. A quorum was now present.
Lincoln realized the problem and he and the other Whigs jumped out of a window to try to halt the vote, but the quorum was already certified and the Whigs lost. According to Lincoln friend William Herndon, the window jumping had no effect “other than to provide the Democrats with capital material for ridicule.”
I don’t mind that the average person walking down the street doesn’t know much about quorums and how members can be compelled to attend, but people writing for the NRO with supposed sources should. It’s very basic to Congressional procedure and has changed very little over the years.
And of course, the Senate Sergeant at Arms is
Terry Gainer, former head of the Illinois State Police
