Republican Diaz-Balart Disrupts Lantos Memorial

James Joyner · · 6 comments

Silliness in Congress has morphed into ugliness, including a disruption of the memorial service for recently passed colleague Tom Lantos, NBC’s Mike Viqueira reports.

Republicans are outraged. Democrats are putting forward a resolution holding White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress. House GOP rank-and-file are planning a dramatic walk out when the vote is called. Democrats are affronted. Right in the middle of the Statuary Hall service for the late Tom Lantos, a Republican went to the floor — just steps from the solemn proceedings — and called a procedural vote, apparently out of pique.

Now that’s mature. And a fine display of “family values.”

The incident has led to a game of “but they started it.” Martin Kady II:

Minority Leader John Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel has put out a statement blaming Democrats for the chaos during Lantos’ service. “This morning, during the memorial service for Tom Lantos — a public servant beloved on both sides of the aisle — the House Democratic leadership violated an agreement and called the House back into session,” Steel said. “They took this action despite clearly understanding that it would trigger a series of procedural motions. This cheap, cynical political move seems to have been designed to shut down one of the few procedural tools that can be employed by the minority party in the House. Playing this sort of game during the memorial service of a great and good man is beneath the dignity of this House and should be beneath the dignity of Democratic leaders.”

Either way, the disruption of Lantos’ service looks tawdry. Jonathein Stein has videos of the incident and reports Florida’s Lincoln Diaz-Balart was the Republican in question.

Here you can watch C-SPAN interrupt their coverage of the memorial because “the House has been gaveled back into session.”

The juxtaposition of the ongoing memorial and the procedural vote is rather chilling as well:

Warning: The latter also contains the unconscionable butchering of the Beatles song “All You Need is Love.” Which, under the circumstances, is as ironic as the rendition is awful.