Melvin Watt: “Yogi Berra said, ``This is deja vu all over again,'' and that is really what I want to talk about, because this is deja…”

“Yogi Berra said, ``This is deja vu all over again,'' and that is really what I want to talk about, because this is deja vu all over again. You have not seen me on the floor recently very much. Earlier in this term, during the first 100 days, I rose time after time after time to protest procedural shortcomings that my Republican colleagues had engaged in. They want to take credit for all of this reform, yet they do not want to comply with their own rules that they are taking credit for among the American people. Let me give you some examples. On the opening day of this Congress, my colleagues passed a new rule which bars proxy voting in committees. They argued that proxy voting makes a mockery of the committee process and concentrates power in committee leaders. Well, I happen to agree with them. So what do they do on a regular basis in committee? We cannot vote by proxies, but anytime a vote comes out in a way that they do not like, then they simply go back and ask for reconsideration so that when their Members are not there, they always have a fallback position to come back in and get the results that they are looking for anyway.”