House of Representatives Holds Yelling Match Over Who Is Working Less

Here's a bit of hilarious congressional procedural warfare we will type about to avoid posting whatever additional lunatic opinions Rick Santorum has expressed in the course of the day: House minority squad captain Nancy Pelosi led a small armyof six kamikaze Democratic representatives in a storming of the chamber floor to stage some kind of performance piece perhaps titled "Yells With a Dash of Screaming" as presiding GOP officer Rep. Jeff Denham madly thumped his gavel and declared the lot of them out of order for trying to get a word in about the payroll tax cut during today's fake House session being held only for the purpose of allowing Republicans to sob about Barack Obama's recess appointments. Denham immediately ended the session and the Republican leadership ordered the C-SPAN cameras to cut out and the House microphones to fall silent as the Democrats continued hollering in vain. Why is everyone so annoyed with Congress again?

OH RIGHT, because they are children. This entire exercise was completed so that each side could whine about how freaking immature the other is with net result "nothing."

From The Hill:  

Afterwards, Denham defended his move, characterizing the Democrats' "theatrics" as "comical."

"We all have a duty to be back in our districts to work on behalf of the people and be representative," he said. "We've already spent way too much time in D.C. in December. We should have been able to pass the [payroll] tax cut for a full year earlier. So now that we have a district work period, that's what we should be doing."

Moments later, Pelosi rejected that argument outright.

"They'll telling us they were here late in December, so they can't be here in January?" Pelosi said at a press briefing in the Capitol. "What is this, one month on, one month off?"

The Republican members of the payroll tax conference panel held a conference call Friday morning.

The Republicans' procedural move also lent Democrats ammunition to hammer GOP leaders who've argued that President Obama's recess appointments this week were illegal because Congress is technically in session. How, the Democrats asked, can Congress be in session but no activity allowed on the floor?

"You can't have it both ways," Pelosi said. "You can't say we're in session but you can't speak in the House chamber."

Worst reality show ever. [ The Hill ]