In what may soon be one of the most bizarrre events in the debate regarding the impending renewal of the "PATRIOT" act, House Republicans
walked out of a hearing to discuss some potential problems with the law. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee had requested a hearing on the act with witnesses who oppose the law. All of a sudden, Sensenbrenner just got up and walked away, leaving the Dems ona the witnesses without power -- see
videos here.
Props to John at AMERICAblog for catching this, and I thought I'd pass along the news.
Thought I'd update with a
link to Raw Story with Nancy Pelosi's statement about this outrage.
Here's her intro -- sums it up pretty nicely:
"The Republicans' abuse of power reached a new low this morning when they tried to silence Democrats at a hearing on the Patriot Act by cutting the microphones.
"Chairman Sensenbrenner proved again today that he is afraid of ideas, and that Republicans will stop at nothing to silence Democrats. It is quite ironic that at a hearing on the impact of the Patriot Act on civil liberties, the Republicans attempted to suppress free speech."
She goes on from there with a full head of steam -- nice to see the Democratic leadership showing the same kind of take no BS attitude that Dean has been demonstrating lately.