By keeping a five minute vote open for almost an hour, the Republican majority in the House managed to coerce just enough weak-livered Repubs to pass another giveaway to oil companies masquerading as an energy bill.

This is reminiscent of the debacle of November 2003, when the Prescription Drug bill was held open for 3 hours so that Tom DeLay could threaten/bribe members to pass his giveaway to the pharmaceutical companies. DeLay was later admonishment by the Ethics Committee for this.

As important as this is as a news story, the media managed to get it all wrong. The only angle they played was that a contentious debate took place. They didn’t bother to put it in context as to the violation of House rules, and they didn’t get anywhere near discussing the substance of the controversial bill that sparked the debate. I think they would have preferred if the Chair had simply harangued the other members and then looked down contemptuously, pointed at some confused representative, and said, “You’re fired!“