Barney Frank: “I will congratulate my Republican colleagues on one thing: they have enough humanity left to be completely embarrassed…”

“I will congratulate my Republican colleagues on one thing: they have enough humanity left to be completely embarrassed by what they are now doing: leaving the gentleman from New York alone at his post to defend what is really the last step in what has been an ongoing Republican assault on the notion that in the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, democracy with a small ``d'' ought to be practiced. I guess there is one other thing I can say in their defense: they understand that this is a wholly unserious effort. If this were in fact a serious legislative effort, it would be an outrage. But it is not an outrage; it is a farce. The gentleman from New York talked about how urgent this was. It is so urgent that now, 9:35 at night on the day before we are probably going to adjourn, knowing that, they bring forward a bill which no one has seen; and, of course, the less one has seen of this bill, the more one thinks of it. They bring forth the bill under very extraordinary procedures. It is going to take rules. First, they have to have a rule that suspends the rule that says we have to have enough time to read the bill. Then they bring forth a rule when they ram this through that says there will be no amendment in order, no substitute, no alternative. Yes, the Democrats will be given, as the rules of the House minimally require, a motion to recommit. That allows for 10 minutes of debate on the substance of that motion.…”