Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Florida over Ohio; Raw over Drudge
Contrary to an Internet report, Republicans in the House of Representatives appear to have asked for a day off less than one week into the 110th Congress, RAW STORY has learned. The Democratic leadership consented, and no action is scheduled on the House floor today.
Congress will not meet today to begin the official "100 hours" agenda of the Democratic Members due to a request put in to the Democratic Leadership by Rep. John Boehner, the Republican Minority Leader in the House of Representatives.
"Mr. Boehner made this request, and in the interest of comity, Democrats granted it," a senior Democratic aide told RAW STORY.
Late Sunday afternoon, news portal operator Matt Drudge displayed a large banner headline on his Website set in capital letters which claimed, "DEM VOW ALREADY BROKEN: HOUSE SETS 4-DAY WORK WEEK." Drudge accused the Democrats of shutting down the House because of the College Football National Championship being played tonight between top teams Ohio State University and the University of Florida in Arizona.
....But Hoyer's office didn't agree with Drudge's characterization of his pledge to clean up Congress's act in the 110th. "Mr. Hoyer made it clear from the beginning that not every week would be a five-day work week and Congress was never scheduled to be voting today," Stacey Bernards, Press Secretary in Hoyer's office, told RAW STORY.
"This week the House will vote to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations, raise the minimum wage, lower drug prices for seniors and expand stem cell research," Bernards added. "I believe most Americans would agree that is a full week of work."
Despite RAW STORY's Michael Roston's best efforts, "Multiple phone calls and e-mails to Rep. Boehner's office by RAW STORY to confirm whether or not the House Minority Leader had asked for the day off were not returned."
Hours after our report, CNN later reported that Boehner went to Glendale, Arizona to see his team get crushed by #2 Florida Monday night 41-7.
Kevin Smith, spokesman for Minority Leader Boehner confirmed Rep. Boehner would be attending the NCAA championship game, 'He will be in Arizona rooting on his home-state Buckeyes, and back to work on Tuesday," CNN reported. "Smith confirms Boehner is paying his own way for travel and tickets."
I love the way CNN frames this:
But it is not just Republican lawmakers who will be in Glendale Monday night. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-Ohio, will also attend the game. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Florida, whose Gainesville district includes the University of Florida, will be in Arizona cheering on the Gators. Rep. Dave Hobson, R-Ohio, Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, and Rep Paul Gillmor, R- Ohio, are also traveling to Glendale to cheer on the Buckeyes.
How many Democrats did CNN mention? Try "mostly Republicans" or "CNN could only confirm one Democrat but the GOP would have a whole cheerleading squad."
Is Glenn Beck editing for CNN now, also?
Brave and intrepid Beck watcher Chris Achorn directed me to some words from the CNN gabber who recently suggested that were a hurricane to hit the city he works in and lives near, it "might not be bad":
Last month, the new House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, caused a lot of controversy on Capitol Hill when he announced that the new Congress would be working for five whole days every week. I know. I know. Insane. That`s what I thought.
He said to reporters, quote, "I have bad news for you. Those trips you had planned in January, forget about them. We`ll be working almost every day in January, starting with the 4th."
Well, wow. I guess "almost" was the key word there, because the real story is the House already has taken a day off. That`s right. After thousands of grueling seconds spent shaking hands last week, taking photos, and hardly voting on anything, the House reportedly is taking the day off - - I am not kidding you -- for the college football national championship game. Yes. Yes.
But I'll agree with this Beck passage (and said something similiar to Roston when I first read Drudge's "flash"):
Now, please don`t burden yourself, you know, bringing up meaningless points like, "Gee, Glenn, no company in the world lets employees take the day off for a football game," or, you know, "Well, the game doesn`t even start until 8:15 tonight. What do they need the whole day off for?"
But it wasn't just CNN and Drudge slanting this as a Democratic flip-flip. Minutes after CNN's article hit the Web I heard an MSNBC commentator frame it in exactly the same manner.
And check out the Grey Lady's blog:
But the House work won’t begin until Tuesday. The House is not in session Monday; with the official explanation being that freshmen lawmakers need time to return from a retreat in Williamsburg. The unofficial explanation is that some lawmakers also wanted to take in the Ohio State – Florida championship game in Arizona.
The fact that Democrats are taking off the first Monday they are in charge drew a protest from Representative Tom Price, Republican of Georgia, who accused Democrats of delay of game, considering they made a big show of pledging to work five-day weeks. “Telling the American people one thing in front of the television cameras and then backpedaling less than one week into the 110th Congress is a symptom of a greater problem,” said Mr. Price, who apparently has designated himself Republican in charge of keeping track of broken Democratic pledges about how they operate the House.
Maybe Congressman Price is just upset because he couldn't score a ticket to see Georgia beat Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on the last Saturday of 2006.
One final question: Has anyone at CNN, MSNBC or The New York Times ever listened to George Carlin?
If they had, then they'd probably know full well the difference between football and baseball, and would be able to tell which political party would be more interested in a pigskin championship:
Baseball is a 19th century pastoral game.
Football is a 20th century new world order paramilitary power struggle
....In football, the object is for the quarterback, sometimes called the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use the shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack which may consist of power plays designed to punch holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.
In baseball, the object is to get home . . . safe.
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