House GOP Obstructs Democrats’ Discharge Petition Effort

House Democrats stepped up their effort to reopen government earlier today, announcing that they would be trying to move a discharge petition through the House:

Senior Democratic Members of the House of Representatives announced today a new effort to overcome the Republican leadership’s obstruction and allow the House to vote to open the federal government as early as October 14th through a discharge petition. This discharge petition only needs a majority of House Members to sign on and does not require any action by the Republican leadership.

“The only thing standing between this Congress and an open government is Speaker Boehner’s refusal to allow a vote on a clean continuing resolution,” said Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “This measure can remove the Speaker’s undemocratic roadblock and finally allow a clean vote in the House of Representatives to open the government.”

“There is a growing number of Republicans who want the opportunity to work with us to end this crisis. We have seen it in press reports. And I have heard it in my own private conversations with my Republican colleagues,” said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.). “Today, we are offering my Republican friends, and the American people, a way forward.”

Naturally, Republicans were in no mood for representative democracy; as of last week, the rules of the House had been changed such that only the Speaker is allowed to bring such a petition to the floor, so the Democratic caucus opted for a little political theater:

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.