Strama: We've gone through the looking glass
Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, just made a personal privilege speech on the House floor, putting into perspective exactly what he was just trying to do from the back mic.
Sly recognized him for the speech "and for no other purpose." I found that amusing.
Anyway, Strama lays out his argument that there is no precedent in either state or Congressional history for the speaker to have absolute power over recognizing any motion that doesn't have to do with actual speech or debate.
These are the things he got Keel/Craddick to say he could use his recognition power to do:
- deny a member privileged motion
- deny their ability to make points of order (I bet some of his buddies who lost their bills wish they knew that months ago - would have been handy on, I dunno, half of their agendas.)
- deny 25 members of the House the ability to second a motion to cut off debate on a bill
"Our rules mean nothing if the power of recognition extends beyond speech and debate."
He then invokes "Humpty Dumpty-ism," a term he's heard before and decided to research using Through the Looking Glass. Here's the section of the book he refers to - and you can find the entire weird chapter here.
(Fantastic literature, by the way. Strama, make sure Victoria gets a copy of this asap)
"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,'" Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course yet you don't -- till I tell you. I meant ' there's a nice knockdown argument for you!'"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."
Comments
GREAT SPEECH! YOU SAID IT ALL.
Posted by: JAMES TAYLOR | May 27, 2007 4:17 PM
Mark Strama has been staying away from the Speaker controversy. The fact that he was moved to make that (very excellent) speech shows just how far the outrage at Craddick's behavior has spread on the House floor.
Posted by: David Siegel | May 27, 2007 11:59 PM