So, not getting the result they wanted, House Democrats first closed a vote while voting was still going on, then erased the fact the vote had ever occurred:
In what just might be the dirtiest trick ever played in the House of Representatives, last night Democrats tried first to reverse the outcome of an unfavorable vote, then made it disappear altogether.
According to Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)'s website, when the electronic vote tally indicated that a Republican motion to recommit an Agriculture appropriations bill to committee had apparently won, the Dems simply stopped the vote.
The vote to "add language prohibiting any taxpayer funds under the agriculture programs from going to illegal immigrants" had apparently passed 215 to 213. But House Dems would have neither their Hispandering nor their government-bloating denied.
(...)
McNulty declared the vote a draw.
After 5 minutes of rancor, Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD.) offered a motion to reconsider a vote his party had already lost. The understandably PO'd minority stormed out of the chamber in protest of the majority's despicable tactics.
And for their next trick, Poof! The Dems vanished the vote like a vaudeville rabbit.
As of 8AM EST this morning, the official House website had absolutely no record such a vote ever took place.
Wow. That sounds more like something Mao would do than something that would occur in the legislature of a liberal democracy. Democratic governance depends on following regular procedures that apply to everyone equally at all times, not just when it serves the desires of the majority party. Have House Democrats been reading 1984 instead of Robert's Rules of Order?
In recent weeks, we've seen the Democrats endorse a bill that would end the secret ballot for union certification elections, they pushed for the reinstatement of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," and now they're rewriting history to hide a legislative defeat and cover their violations of House rules.
Maybe they should change their name to the Occasionally Democratic Party?
LINKS: More at Captain's Quarters, Power Line, Flopping Aces, Atlas Shrugs, Sister Toldjah,Gateway Pundit, and Michelle Malkin.
UPDATE: Ed Morrissey reports that Congressional Quarterly upholds the Republican version of what happened, but castigates both sides for playing too many cute games with votes. I agree. Once you cast your vote, that should be it. No changing it later just to look good to the folks back home.
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