Apparently, Doc Hastings is talking a lot these days.
Well, this is kind of interesting. From the blog of Seattle’s very own Stranger:
Somewhat shocking is that Doc Hastings talked more than anyone else in our House delegation last session because, well, who the fuck knows anything about Doc Hastings?
Well, the man resides in the part of the state which Stranger readers in Seattle would drive past without stopping, in infrequent forays to Spokane. So he would be the most likely “Invisible Man” in a Washington Congressional Congregation. But I think I can debunk this:
Something tells me Doc Hastings is the Congressional equivalent of an old man writing angry letters to the editor, or sitting on his porch yelling at kids to get off his lawn.
No, he is nowhere near as interesting or illuminating. Pursue the quotations of Doc Hastings at your own leisure.
Last week I marvelled at a reference to Doc Hastings as having emerged as a “leading critic” of the Obama Administration. This, I suppose, is the transformation of a relatively small fish in a big pond as a mid-bench member of the Majority Party to a relatviely big fish in a small pond as a slightly further up in the middle benches member of the Minority Party.
From that perch, Hastings has found the new found role of scheduling massive floor speeches. That, apparently, fits the bill these days in terms of “emerged as a leading critic”. (Also, I guess push polls fits that bill, but that may have always been there.) It is a brisk walk down from his previous role. He used to be a frequent gaveller, meaning even when he didn’t speak, he logged a lot of time on C-SPAN. Indeed, one of Doc Hastings’s career highlights, I would say, was being the man that held up the 15 minute voting session for the Medicare D program to three hours — recently referenced in the Dennis Hastert portrait raising ceremony.:
In his prayer opening event, Rev. Daniel P. Coughlin, the House chaplain, noted that Mr. Hastert was also a wily strategist who learned to “never take his eye of the clock, but use it to his advantage†– an apparent reference to Mr. Hastert’s decision to hold open a floor vote for more than three hours to secure approval of the Medicare drug program.
Stepping aside his placement on the institutionally ineffective Ethics Committee when it threatened to actually do a job and look into Tom DeLay, the most bizarre moment in Doc Hastings career came when Hastings was placed as an extra-constitutional Emergency Provisional Speaker in case of a chaotic Armegeddon scenario — which, come to think of it, would make for the most dull and uninspired work of Speculative Fiction imaginable.
If you throw in his latest battle against roaming horses, a not altogether absurd position except that he’s phrased it as “welfare for wild horses”, and the rather sedate comfortably fiefdomed Congress-critter (who can get by so long as he can secure necessary Hanford funding) actually becomes a mildly interesting figure.
I am wondering what the floor voice chart would look like in, say, 2003-2006 as opposed to 2007-2009. In other words, does the out party – having to find its place as an oppositional force– take to the floor and speak a lot? This results in such a situation as Earl Blumenauer describes here.
In the middle 1980s, as Ronald Reagan’s “revolution” settled to its deal-making and reality checking against old guard Republicans and incumbent Democrats, a band of Republicans, largely elected in 1980 off of Reagan’s coat-tails, took to the floor and offered up a steady dose of ferment — a cluster of Republicans trying to turn around their debate through C-SPAN, the man who made a name for himself with this legislative tactic being one Newt Gingrich. Tip O’Neil became annoyed enough by a projected outside image of stampeding movement conservatives that he had C-SPAN shift production to have the cameras scan around the Congressional chambers and reveal the emptiness of the chambers.