From
this morning:
As [Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL)] began speaking against racial profiling, he removed his suit jacket to reveal the hoodie underneath, flipped up the hood and donned a pair of dark sunglasses. Immediately, Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS), acting as speaker, repeatedly banged his gavel and called Rush out of order.
But the congressman raised his voice and ignored the effort to silence him. He spoke in solidarity with "the young people all across the land who are making a statement about hoodies, about the real hoodlums in this nation, particularly those who tread on our laws wearing official or quasi-official clothes. Racial profiling has to stop. Mr. Speaker, just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum." He then recited two Bible verses. He was still speaking as he was ushered away from the podium.
Harper invoked Clause 5 of House Rule 17, which forbids the wearing of hats in the chamber when the House is in session, and spoke words probably never before heard there: “Members need to remove their hoods or leave the floor.”
Things I have learned: It is reasonable to call the president of the United States a liar during one of his speeches, but it is not acceptable to wear a hat. It is reasonable to argue for war with another nation for purely spurious purposes—but not to wear hats. It is permissible to argue that uninsured Americans don't really deserve health care if their jobs don't pay enough for them to afford it, but saying so while wearing something on your head is right out. You can lie outright about policy programs, you can invoke the specter of "death panels", or do whatever the hell it is that Michele Bachmann, Steve King, or other luminaries of the institution do every day of their dismal, degrading lives, but you must not wear a hat while doing so.
You may, as an ex-legislator, lobby your colleagues on the floor of the institution. You may break any other longstanding rules of the institution, such as to how long individual votes should be held open, so long as doing so will advantage your side. You may hold up entirely uncontroversial things until you have gained a bit of random pork for your own district. You may be a deadbeat dad. You may be caught with a prostitute. You may be widely known for your inability to add numbers together, while still being held up as paragon of policy intellectiualism. But you may not wear your hat when speaking to Congress. That will get you escorted from the premises.
After all, we're not monsters here. This nation has standards.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2008:
It's been relatively quiet on the super delegate front this week. On Wednesday, Obama gained a super from Connecticut as the state named its add-on delegate. That was negated yesterday as Rep. Al Wynn resigned Thursday. If Gov. O'Malley schedules a special election to fill that seat before the convention, then Donna Edwards would add that delegate back onto Obama's column, but there's no guarantee of that. It's at O'Malley's discretion at this point.
Puerto Rico's governor was indicted yesterday as well, and assuming this forces him out of office (which you'd think it would), that's another Obama super out the window.
But today, Sen. Bob Casey endorsed Obama.
Tweet of the Day:
"And then I told the butler, 'Get out of there, that's for cars. Take the stairs.'" #RomneyAnecdotes
— @bendimiero via web
High Impact Posts are here. Top Comments are here.
