Wacky Shenanigans

I forgot to mention this yesterday, what with all of the talk about being classy, but the 112th Congress started up this week. Why is this important? Well, aside from the obvious that our legislative body now has a Republican majority in the House, a bit of amusing going-ons happened on Wednesday.

You see, dear readers. the Republicans in the House of Representatives decided that they would begin the 112th Congress by reading the Constitution aloud. There's been some arguments throughout the blogosphere as to whether or not this was a waste of time or a wonderful show of patriotism, and that is neither here nor there. No, what's amusing (to me at least) is that on the very day that the Republican majority insisted on reading the Constitution in full (except for all of that embarrassing stuff about 3/5ths of a person in regards to taxes), two Republican representatives violated the Constitution by casting votes without actually getting sworn in.

From the Huffington Post:

Two House Republicans have cast votes as members of the 112th Congress, but were not sworn in on Wednesday, a violation of the Constitution on the same day that the GOP had the document read from the podium.

The Republicans, incumbent Pete Sessions of Texas and freshman Mike Fitzpatrick, missed the swearing in because they were at a fundraiser in the Capitol Visitors Center. The pair watched the swearing-in on television from the Capitol Visitors Center with their hands raised.

...

House ethics rules forbid fundraising in the Capitol.

Glad to know that fulfilling the job they were hired to do is so much more important than raising money for their camp--oh. Never mind.