House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi responded to House Speaker John Boehner's
Confederate flag debacle by putting Republicans further on the spot. Republicans failed. Massively.
Pelosi introduced a privileged resolution instructing that "the Speaker of the House of Representatives remove any State flag containing any portion of the Confederate battle flag, other than a flag displayed by the office of a Member of the House, from any area within the House wing of the Capitol or any House office building, and shall donate any such flag to the Library of Congress." Republican whip Kevin McCarthy moved to refer the resolution to the House Administration Committee, for "committee action." And all hell broke loose as Republicans attempted to shout down Democrats and prevent a recorded vote on sending this resolution to committee to die. Pelosi eventually got her recorded vote, and Republicans voted almost unanimously to bury the bill.
Rep. Curt Clawson (R-Fla.) was the only Republican to side with Democrats on the Confederate flag. Rep. Mia Love (Utah), the only female black Republican in Congress, briefly voted "present" before changing her vote in favor of referral in the final moments of the roll call. […]
Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) office denounced the move as a stunt.
"The Speaker offered a thoughtful and responsible way to address this issue and Pelosi responded with a cheap political stunt," Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith said.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the sole African American member of the Mississippi delegation, offered a nearly identical resolution to Pelosi's last month, days after the shooting in Charleston, S.C. McCarthy used the same move to block Thompson's measure at that time.
Maybe it's a stunt, but it's one that functioned to highlight the GOP's serious problem with racism, a problem highlighted by White House press secretary Josh Earnest in
his Thursday briefing.
"These are the same House Republicans who voted for a party leader who once described himself as 'David Duke without the baggage,' he said, referring to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), and then taking a shot at Donald Trump's recent offensive remarks about immigrants. "These are the same congressional Republicans who have declined to criticize the race-baiting rhetoric of a leading Republican presidential candidate."
Sorry, Boehner. You're not going to be able to avoid this shame. Nancy Pelosi won't let you.