Off on the wrong foot

One day in Congress and Frank Kratovil is already showing his stripes.

Yesterday the House approved new rules on a practically party-line basis. Chief among the rules dropped from the Contract With America-era rules (which made things more fair for both the majority and minority party) were the six-year term limit on committee chairs and neutering the "motion to recommit":

A motion to recommit a bill or joint resolution may include instructions only in the form of a direction to report an amendment or amendments back to the House forthwith. 

The other bothersome practice which drew controversy last year was holding votes open until the side the Speaker deems correct prevails. Guess what, it's now the rule of the House that Speaker Pelosi or whoever is running the show at that particular juncture can twist some arms and get their way:

Conduct of Votes- In clause 2(a) of rule XX, strike `A record vote by electronic device shall not be held open for the sole purpose of reversing the outcome of such vote.'. (Emphasis mine.)

There were also a number of changes to promote gender neutrality, which only serves the point of political correctness.

While there were six Democrats who bravely stood up for the old rules (while seven chose not to vote), Frank wasn't one of them. And it only took two votes for Kratovil to assert his "independence" and keep Nancy Pelosi as Speaker (the first vote was to determine a quorum.)

Four votes so far, two poor ones. Is this what the Eastern Shore really wanted?

The hat tip for today goes to the ALG blog, but the research was something I already knew how to do. Count on it being done a lot.