WTF Is It Now?!?

Bushistan, police state
The day began with a fairly ordinary procedural fight over an otherwise-innocuous pension bill. Committee Democrats complained that the Republican majority had not given them enough time to review a substitute bill that they had received shortly before midnight Thursday. Most of the Democrats then moved to a nearby library to plot strategy after they demanded that Republicans read the legislation line by line. Infuriated, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) instructed the Capitol Police to remove the Democrats. Republicans said Democrats were being disorderly and did not have the right to occupy the libary.

Republicans defended Thomas, saying he had no choice but to call in police to head off physical attacks they said appeared imminent from Rep. Pete Stark, a 71-year-old Democrat from California.

With no Democrats present, Thomas and the rest of the Republicans approved the final bill unanimously by voice vote and adjourned.