Brian Beutler of TPM may be enamoured by the tactics Waxman took to make sure his “C-r-ap N’ Ty-rade” bill would be heading our way in a few short days:

Faced with the possibility that the GOP minority might require the committee’s clerks to read aloud the 900-page Waxman-Markey climate change bill, or many of its 400-plus proposed amendments, the committee’s chairman, Henry Waxman (D-CA), hired a speed reader. An quick tongued, acting-clerk, if you will.

The quick tongued clerk soon had the RINO’s running back to their prehistoric caves whence they came, once again conceding to political theatrical blackmail:

Mary Katharine Ham of TWS gives a true constitutional perspective as to the trouble the Republican party is in for the next couple of years while the halls of Congress are thick with these spineless creatures who claim to represent us: 

Democrats Cleverly Thwart ‘Nefarious’ Republican Scheme to Have Congress Read Cap-and-Trade Bill With Speed Reading Clerk

Heaven forfend! Who would want to make the committee, which is supposed to understand the bill, actually listen to the contents of all 900 pages of it?

Even if the reading of the bill is a partisan “stall tactic” on the part of the Republicans, intellectually honest folks who want government to function responsibly would have to admit it’s a pretty benign one—beneficial, even. The brouhaha over reading the bill is an implicit, disturbing admission that—yes!— your Congress will enact a 900-page bill heavily regulating the fundamental engine of the American economy and your life in unprecedented ways without ever having read it. Feel good about that?

Beyond TPM’s take, which is predictable from a left-leaning site, the laughter inside the hearing room from lawmakers themselves is illustrative of the darkly comic state of legislative affairs on the Hill. Just remember: This is only the attempted reading of one tiny amendment by a speed-reading clerk, no less, and the reaction in the chamber is, “Ho, ho, ho, imagine if we were actually serious about this! It’s ludicrous! The language is mystifying, the prose impenetrable. It’d be absolutely excruciating to read all of those words together, in a row. Someone once told me that’s what my monocle was for, but I absolutely refuse to believe it. Now, Alfred, collect my topcoat and cigars, and let’s head to the club for a brandy before someone else tries to burden us with the stewardship of the taxpayers’ money. Read the bill. Perish the thought!”

So, while this was going on today, I was calling DC and making my opinion be heard. Have you made that call lately?

1-202-225-2801 ~ Herseth-Sandlin’s DC office

I also received 3 letters today, 2 from Johnson and 1 from Thune. I’ll be working on an article on their contents over the weekend. I have to say that Johnson, or should I say his staff, is so well versed in using talking points vs actually answering the question that . . .

I am thinking of coming up with some kind of “SHAM-A-WARD” for their office. They are sooo deserving of it.