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ST. CLOUD TIMES REPORTER CONFIRMS DCCC SENT HIM INFORMATION ON BACHMANN VOTE #3
By Michael B. Brodkorb | August 9, 2007
St. Cloud Time reporter Larry Schumacher has a new post about the passage of the 35-W bride repair relief package that was sponsored in the U.S House by Congressman Oberstar and co-sponsored by Walz, Kline, Ramstad, McCollum, Ellison, Bachmann, and Peterson.
Due to a confusing article from the St. Cloud Times and behind-the-scences maneuvering by Democratic operatives, two "Dump" blogs are continue to make the claim that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Congressman John Kline chose partisan politics over the interest of Minnesota by voting for a procedural motion to adjourn before final passage of the 35-W bridge repair funding package.
In his latest post, Schumacher concedes that I was correct on many points in my last post on this subject.
Below is my fisking of Schumacher's latest post.
- Schumacher: He says, "Second, he's [Brodkorb] correct that adjornment wouldn't necessarily have meant indefinite postponment of a vote on the bridge bill. There's a mandatory 18-hour cap on how long they can adjorn. What he doesn't acknowledge (among other things) is that Congress was on its way out the door for a month of quality time in their home districts. The bridge bill was one of the last things they had on their plate, and there's no guarantee they would have come back to the bill before they left D.C. for a month."
Reality: Yes, there is a guarantee. It's the Constitution. Congress cannot adjourn for more than 3 days without a concurrent resolution passed by the House and Senate. At a maximum, a motion to adjourn ends business until the next legislative day, which is specified in House Rules as 9am Saturday. It's not possible that a motion to adjourn would've led the House into the recess. I don't understand Schumacher's point, unless he's hypothesizing that Congress wouldn't have considered the aid bill Saturday if the motion passed (here, he's proven wrong again because the House still considered another version of HR3311 Saturday). Also, if Schumacher wants to play the "hypothetical" game, the Speaker can call the House into session at any time. For example, Speaker Hastert called the House into emergency sessions twice in 2005. First on March 20 to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo and again on September 2 to provide aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina None of this is relevant, though, because Schumacher's point is wrong.
- Schumacher: "Yes, it did not turn out to be the final vote, but they wouldn't know that until the Senate amended it later that evening. By then, I suspect many of them were home. Probably packing."
Reality: Personally, I would challenge Schumacher to prove it because he can't. If you feel like getting into the weeds, the Senate called Roll Call Vote number 310 at 9:37 p.m. and moved immediately into consideration of Senator Coleman's amendment to HR 3311. The House motion to adjourn wasn't called until 9:39 p.m.. Certainly Senator Coleman drafted his amendment in advance of going to the floor. Would Schumacher like to charge that Senator Coleman didn't notify Chairman Oberstar or the other members of the Minnesota delegation that he was amending the bill? I think not.
I'll repeat that the entire back-and-forth on the blogosphere over this issue reflects poorly on the reporting done by the St. Cloud Times on this specific vote. If Brogan's article wasn't contextually misleading, then we wouldn't be having this debate.
King and I will likely be discussing this issue during Saturday's radio show and invitations will be extended to both Schumacher and Brogan to appear. Please check back to Minnesota Democrats Exposed for more information.
Topics: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
August 9th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
if nothing else this isa case of sloppy reporting.
If I was Larry Schumacher, I would be embarassed.
August 9th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Thanks for keeping this top of mind.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
[...] "Minnesota Democrats Exposed's Michael Brodkorb is having quite the conversation with the St. Cloud Times. In a story about the House working on federal aid for the bridge disaster, St. Cloud Times reporter Pamela Brogan wrote, 'Earlier in the day, [U.S. GOP Rep. Michele] Bachmann and Republican [U.S.] Rep. John Kline had voted to adjourn the House before it approved the federal aid.' That's true, but so did the Minnesota Democratic members of the Minnesota delegation and the vote was procedural–the House was reconvening the next morning. Contextually, in the story, the statement is outrageous. The mystery is why the St. Cloud Times doesn't just say, we goofed." Source: Politics In Minnesota Weekly Report, August 10, 2007 [...]