Curious timing
So what happened in the past week? Michael Jackson and a host of other celebrities died, the controversy over the Iranian elections continued, Mark Sanford got caught sneaking out to Argentina to visit his mistress, the USA nearly won a soccer tournament and oh yeah, a massive climate-change bill passed through the House of Representatives.
Why haven’t we heard about this major piece of legislation as much? Perhaps because Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi arranged for the mostly party-line vote to occur on a Friday evening.
Now, Madam Speaker certainly couldn’t anticipate the death of the King of Pop or the USA actually winning soccer games but the fact that the vote was scheduled for a Friday night raises a big question. Does she not want the American public to look at this bill?
News that is released on Friday nights typically doesn’t get much publicity because it will get lumped in with all of the weekend news for the Monday news cycle. This problem is much worse in the summer, especially the weekend before the Fourth of July.
So it comes as no surprise that Ms. Pelosi would choose a Friday to schedule the vote of a 1200 page pork-laden Waxman-Markey bill that has been criticized from the left for not going far enough to prevent climate change and from the right for being a massive energy tax.
In the future, it would be nice for the American public to get a better look at a bill, especially one that is as important as the Democratic party claims it is.
User Comments
JFK
June, 2009
“… and from the right for being a massive energy tax.”
Not only that, but a tax on people who make less than $250,000!!!! Obama is a lying scumbag.
He’s also saying he’ll sign a bill that taxes health benefits “if he has to”!!!!
Everyone who said “$250,000 and up” and believed it is a total and complete moron.
Russ
June, 2009
This is a silly post that clearly reveals a superficial understanding of congress. Scheduling major legislation before a break is the norm and has been for decades. If you had checked the congressional calendar (very easily google-able), you would have seen that Friday was the last day before a congressional break for the 4th of July / district work period. I apologize for any spelling/gram. errors I’m posting from my phone in the bathtub.
JFK
June, 2009
Lying, cheating and stealing has been the norm in decades for congress!
Thanks for the heads up, Russ!
russ
June, 2009
no problem. just giving you the heads up that targeting speaker pelosi specifically might be a little narrow minded.
Tim Ryder
June, 2009
“Narrow minded”? Deary me, JFK, I would hate for that to be the case! It’s not like the Democratic House leadership controls when bills come up, sheeeeesh…
Certainly, the Dems would never schedule a controversial vote on a Friday before a break, knowing that any bad media might well die down before the House reconvened. After all, voting late Friday after adding 300 pages onto the bill isn’t sketchy at all. I’m sure everybody read it. And knows exactly what’s going on.
russ
July, 2009
it would be one thing if he bemoaned the practice, tim, but he didn’t. he specifically blamed speaker pelosi, as if its her nefarious plot and not the norm, which it is.
also, i’m not sure that you know what narrow minded means, if you go on to imply that i don’t think the dems would “schedule a controversial vote on a Friday before a break.”