Thom Hartmann: Okay, so in the House of Representatives, welcome back to the program by the way. You know, in the, and we’re going to play it, in the Senate it’s really simple. They’ve got this thing called the filibuster, you’ve got to have 60, there’s 100 senators, each state has 2, there’s 100 senators, you would think that we have majority rule, after all that’s what the constitution says. But the Senate gets to write its own rules and one of the rules they wrote is that in order to end debate, in other words to bring something to the floor for a vote that you have to have 6/10, you have to have 60 out of 100 votes. And the Republicans have 40 so they can block, actually they’ve got 41. So they can block anything that they want and they’ve been doing it.
But most people don’t realize that there are procedures in the House of Representatives that can be similarly used to block votes. And yesterday there was this bill brought forward by Anthony Weiner who is the Democrat representing one of the, part of New York City, I think Queens as I recall, but I’m not sure [New York's 9th District - ed.]. Anyway in that area. And congressman Peter King who also represents New York State, or a part of New York state, I think it’s more of an upstate part of New York State [New York's 3rd District - ed.]. Congressman Nikita King, the Republican was leading a procedural effort to stop the vote.
So Anthony Weiner, the Democrat, goes on the House floor and just absolutely raises hell with Peter King, the Republican, about why Peter King is using this slimy technique to try to stop this thing. And every time this guy stands up and says basically stop talking, Anthony Weiner shoves it down his throat. Watch this.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D), New York: ”Mr. Speaker, I yield one minute to the distinguished gentleman from New York, Mr. Weiner.”
Speaker: The gentleman is recognized.
Anthony Weiner: Great courage to wait until all members have already spoken and then stand up and wrap your arms around procedure. We see it in the United States Senate every single day, where members say, "We want amendments," "We want debate," "We want amendments, but we're still a no."
And then we stand up and say, "oh, if only we had a different process we'd vote yes". You vote yes if you believe yes. You vote in favor of something if you believe it's the right thing. If you believe it's the wrong thing, you vote no.
We are following our procedure --
Peter King: Will the gentleman yield?
Anthony Weiner: I will not yield to the gentleman, and the gentleman will observe regular order! The gentleman will observe regular order!
Thom Hartmann: He’s nailing him!
Anthony Weiner: The gentleman thinks if he gets up and yells he's going to intimidate people into believing he is right. He is wrong! The gentleman is wrong!
The gentleman is providing cover for his colleagues rather than doing the right thing! It's Republicans wrapping their arms around Republicans rather than doing the right thing on behalf of the heroes!
It is a shame! A shame! If you believe this is a bad idea to provide health care, then vote no, but don't give me the cowardly view that, oh, if it was a different procedure -- the gentleman will observe regular order and sit down! I will not! The gentleman will sit! The gentleman is correct in sitting!
I will not…”
Peter King: “He is quite obviously not in order.
Speaker: The gentleman will suspend, the gentleman will suspend. The gentleman is recognized.
Anthony Weiner: I will not stand here and listen to my colleagues say oh if only I had a different procedure that allows us to stall, stall and then vote no. Instead of standing up and defending your colleagues in voting no on this humane bill, you should urge them to vote yes. Something the gentleman has not done.
Thom Hartmann: There you go, Anthony Weiner. Good on you, sir, and just kicking Peter King’s butt right across the House floor and calling him out. But still it failed. This from Politico, this article, House GOP leaders: 9/11", this was the 9-11 first responders bill. “House Republican leadership is advising its members,” that would be John Boehner, "to vote against a bipartisan bill," by the way, there were I think 7% of the Republicans in favor of this thing, “that would ... bolster medical support to Sept. 11 victims.” It was called the "James Zadroga 9/11", he was one of the victims of 9/11, "9/11 Health", one of the heroes of 9/11 as referred to by Anthony Weiner, "Health and Compensation Act of 2009".
And they want to extend this thing to 2031, this fund, because people who are really sick from exposure to all these chemicals and asbestos and everything else on 9-11, they’re still alive and they’re disabled and they can’t work and they have health problems and many of them don’t have health insurance. And the Republicans are saying, 'hey, to hell with them, these people don’t make campaign donations, they’re not Goldman Sachs, they’re not big Wall Street bankers, they’re not oil companies, screw ‘em!'
I mean this is, the Republicans, I got this great email from Albert, he says, “Republicans have blocked unemployment benefits, blocked finance reform, blocked Wall Street reform, blocked immigration reform, blocked debate, blocked BP liability, blocked the small business lending plan, blocked campaign finance reform, blocked meaningful healthcare reform, blocked their own amendment on healthcare, blocked taxes on oil profits, blocked the disclosure act, blocked federal nominees, blocked the atomic energy bill, blocked the measure to ban foreign meddling, blocked bank reform, blocked housing relief, blocked FISA talks. The Republicans blocked Medicare payment fix, they blocked, Republicans blocked a measure to provide benefits to homeless vets, they blocked a federal telework measure, they blocked everything. Why not just call them Republican blockheads?” Good one, good one.
By the way, Peter King, congressman Peter King from New York, he’s the guy that Anthony Weiner was just calling out, that you were just hearing him call out. They had a big fight on Fox News this morning, in fact, you can see the video all over the Internet, there’s one over at DemocraticUnderground.com among other places.
Congressman Peter King, the Republican from New York state, in 2004 on election day while people were voting all over this country, this was John Kerry versus George W. Bush, was being filmed by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter for a documentary. I think her name is Alexandra Pelosi? [Alexandra - ed.] And Nancy Pelosi’s daughter walked up to Congressman Peter King who was at this drunken Republican celebration of the fact that they were going to win, and said, ‘How do you think it’s going to turn out? Is Bush going to win? Is Kerry going to win? What’s going on?’ and this is what congressman Peter King had to say, keep in mind the Republican party, the party of the electronic voting machines, this is what Peter King had to say:
Peter King: “We won.”
Alexandra Pelosi: “How do you know that?
Peter King: “It’s all over but the counting. And we’ll take care of the counting.”
Thom Hartmann: Yeah. Let’s hear that one more time.
Peter King: “It’s already over, the election’s over. We won.”
Alexandra Pelosi: “How do you know that?
Peter King: “It’s all over but the counting. And we’ll take care of the counting.”
Thom Hartmann: “We won, it’s already over, we won.” And you know it’s the, people are still voting, she says, how do you know that? “Oh it’s all over but the counting and we’ll take care of the counting.” In a drunken unguarded moment, the Republican senator Peter King.
Now, I would suggest to you, I’ve played that clip on this program probably 100 times in the last 5 years. I would suggest to you that you have never heard that on corporate media. You have never heard that on any of the corporate media, right? We’ll see, but I would bet you, you have not.
Transcribed by Suzanne Roberts, Portland Psychology Clinic.
