Democrats lock Republicans out of committee room

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/63941-democrats-lock-republicans-out-of-committee-room

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from
meeting when Democrats aren't present.

Towns' action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading
Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over
Towns's failure to launch an investigation into Countrywide Mortgage's
reported sweetheart deals to VIPs.

For months Towns has refused Republican requests to subpoena records
in the case. Last Thursday Committee Republicans, led by Issa, were
poised to force an open vote on the subpoenas at a Committee mark-up
meeting. The mark-up was abruptly canceled. Only Republicans showed up
while Democrats chairs remained empty.

Republicans charged that Towns cancelled the meeting to avoid the
subpoena vote. Democrats first claimed the mark-up was canceled due to
a conflict with the Financial Services Committee. Later they said it
was abandoned after a disagreement among Democratic members on whether
to subpoena records on the mortgage industry's political contributions
to Republicans.

A GOP committee staffer captured video of Democrats leaving their
separate meeting in private chambers after the mark-up was supposed to
have begun. He spliced the video to other footage of the Democrats'
empty chairs at the hearing room, set it to the tune of "Hit the Road,
Jack" and posted it on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's
minority webpage, where it remained as of press time.

Towns's staffers told Republicans they were not happy about the
presence of the video camera in the hearing room when they were not
present. Issa's spokesman said the Democrats readily acknowledged to
Republicans that they changed the locks in retaliation to the
videotape of the Democrats' absence from the business meeting even
though committee rules allow meetings to be taped.

"It's not surprising that they would choose to retaliate given the
embarrassment we caused by catching them in a lie on tape," said Issa
spokesman Kurt Bardella. "If only they
would use their creative energy to do some actual oversight rather
than resorting to immature tactics, but I guess we're getting some
insight into what lengths they'll go to avoid addressing the
Countrywide VIP issue."

Towns's office said in a statement the locks were changed on
Republicans "because they don't know how to behave." As for the video
the GOP made, Towns's office pointed out: "The minority is using
taxpayer dollars to make these campaign style videos."

The partisan sniping recalls a similarly bitter name-calling match
between House Republicans and Democrats on the Ways and Means
Committee in 2003 when Republicans controlled the majority and former
Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) chaired the panel. The episode ended in
Thomas, known for his acerbic tongue, summoning the Capitol Police to
evict an outraged gaggle of Democratic colleagues from a library in
the Longworth House office building.

The committee had convened that morning to consider a bipartisan bill
that would revise the nation's pension and retirement-saving system.

Democrats objected when Thomas brought up a 90-page substitute measure
that had been released shortly before midnight the night before.
Democrats said they needed more time to read it. Thomas disagreed.

In response, Democrats objected to a normally perfunctory motion to
dispense with the reading of the dense legislation. A clerk obligingly
began reading it line by line.

Democrats departed to a library just off the main hearing room,
leaving only Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-Calif.) to prevent the
Republicans from obtaining unanimous consent to skip the reading.
After a few minutes, Thomas asked again for the unanimous consent, and
instantly brought down his gavel. Stark told reporters he had
objected, but Thomas had replied, "You're too late."

Even before Thomas gaveled the reading to an end, he had directed
staff to call the Capitol Police to remove the Democrats form the
library.

Countrywide, now owned by Bank of America, was reported to have given
VIP loans and treatment to lawmakers and officials at the federal and
local level who were in a position to influence policy affecting the
mortgage giant. Issa has repeatedly reminded Committee Democrats that
Bank of America officials had said they would turn over records on the
VIP program – but only in response to a subpoena.

Towns, who received a mortgage loan from Countrywide but insists he
was not part of the VIP program, has said he declined to launch an
investigation because he does not want to interfere with an ongoing
Justice Department probe into the matter.