The Daily Toxin

Sometimes when a revolution starts, you have to run to the front lines if for no other reason than to say “I was there” when everything eventually comes to an end. So when a few congressional Republicans decided to continue their rebellion against Nancy Pelosi this week, five of us here at work decided we had to go.

Tuesday’s festivities got started at about 10:30 when the renegade congressmen marched in and Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) welcomed the crowd. The guerilla congress, as it has been dubbed in the press, opened with a prayer and the pledge of allegiance. After Pence said a few words about the historic nature of the mock session he introduced Texas’ own Mac Thornberry from the 13th district as the first speaker, who made sure to mention that his district is larger than 13 states. Thornberry was followed by Tim Wahlburg of Michigan, who was up for election today in the Michigan primary. Next came a touching moment, as Rep. Pence noticed a soldier in the back of the crowd and brought him up front to thank him for his service. The crowd, which had been applauding all morning long, rose to its feet and cheered louder than at any point yet.

About an hour into the day a staffer from Roy Blunt’s office found us and took us from the gallery down onto the house floor (huge thanks to them). It was absolutely surreal sitting in those chairs and cheering on the renegades from the floor of the house.

Louie Gohmert from Texas’ 1st District came up after a little while, eliciting cheers from the handful of Texans in the room. After he spoke I went into the back room to chat with him for a little while before he had to retake the floor. It is not the first time I’ve met him, but every time I do I’m still amazed at just how gregarious and kind he is to every single person who comes up to him.

When I went back out to the floor, John Shadegg was speaking (and wearing a pink tie, which I thought was great). He is such an eloquent speaker and a principled conservative; I would not be surprised at all to see him in a leadership position after the election.

At about 11:45 Duncan Hunter took the floor. His speech focused on the threat to our security posed by our dependence on foreign sources of energy, and questioned what would happen if Hugo Chavez decided to cut us off or if Iran cut off the Straight of Hormuz. One has to wonder if all the excitement from this rogue session is causing him to wish he wasn’t retiring at the end of this term.

In all there were four Texans present, a very strong showing for our state. The four representatives present were Louie Gohmert, John Carter, Jeb Hensarling, and Mac Thornberry. If your congressman is not on that list, email or call them now and tell them to get there.

Mike Pence came up again around 12:30 to thank everyone who was there and explain to all of the latecomers what they were doing. He demonstrated how the gas price issue shows that Republicans are more sensitive to the plight of ordinary Americans than Democrats who want to wait another year to pass any legislation – a point that should be made much more often. At around 1 pm we had to leave to go back to work (damn jobs).

All of the congressmen there were very open and talkative with the visitors. Rep. Pence himself spoke with us outside the chamber and posed for a picture. I mentioned to him that I was glad the Republicans were finally showing some teeth. He said he preferred to think of it as showing some heart. Frankly, whatever it is, I’m glad that our guys in congress have finally found it.

Some final random thoughts:
• It was hard to get a good count of how many people were there due to the tour groups cycling in and out, but I would guess there were about 100 people in the chamber most of the time we were there.
• I would not want to get on Ohio Rep. Jean Schmidt’s bad side.
• We took some pictures outside Nancy Pelosi’s office making thumbs down signs, and random tourists walking past starting cheering us. Not a good sign for the speaker.
• Because Comrade Pelosi has turned off the cameras in the chamber, the only way to keep this story alive is if we keep talking about it. If you’re in the DC area, please go by the capitol at least one day this week and report on what you see. Spread this story via blogs, facebook notes, myspace posts, email, letters to the editor of your local newspaper, letters to your congressman, and anything else you can think of. Let’s make this a story the mainstream media can not ignore.