Playing by House Rules
2012-02-17 - by
What would have happened two years ago if then-Speaker Joe Hackney had ordered Capitol police to clear away a group of Tea Party demonstrators on the second floor of the Legislative Building?
Republicans no doubt would be in high dudgeon over such high-handed action. The Tea Party would be in a frenzy over “police-state tactics.” They’d be back with signs portraying Hackney as Hitler. Paul Coble would see the UN and Agenda 21 behind it all.
In fairness, I’m told by people who spend a lot of time there that the Legislative Building is an extraordinarily open place. They worry about security and safety in an age when politics is so heated.
But it’s striking that this 25-year-old rule gets applied for the first time now, by a Republican leadership that every day seems increasingly oversensitive to criticism and intolerant of any opposition – whether from the media or the public.
If a Tea Party group shows up on the second floor, will the Speaker’s Office once again call out the gendarmes?
Playing by House Rules
2012-02-17/
What would have happened two years ago if then-Speaker Joe Hackney had ordered Capitol police to clear away a group of Tea Party demonstrators on the second floor of the Legislative Building?
Republicans no doubt would be in high dudgeon over such high-handed action. The Tea Party would be in a frenzy over “police-state tactics.” They’d be back with signs portraying Hackney as Hitler. Paul Coble would see the UN and Agenda 21 behind it all.
In fairness, I’m told by people who spend a lot of time there that the Legislative Building is an extraordinarily open place. They worry about security and safety in an age when politics is so heated.
But it’s striking that this 25-year-old rule gets applied for the first time now, by a Republican leadership that every day seems increasingly oversensitive to criticism and intolerant of any opposition – whether from the media or the public.
If a Tea Party group shows up on the second floor, will the Speaker’s Office once again call out the gendarmes?