"Two hours that gave me a sense of just how confused and disjointed the Republicans are"

At Huffington Post, Earl Blumenauer describes the two hours he spent yesterday presiding over House proceedings.

Today, my two hour stint in the Chair was made up entirely of one-minute speeches. This is a House procedure where Members from both parties come to the floor, and the two sides take alternating one-minute shots talking about everything from critical issues to commemorating a championship high school softball team, to an announcement of legislation that a Member is introducing.

Sometimes, however, it isn't pretty. Today, I literally watched Republicans become unhinged as they attempted to outdo one another on the "evils" of programs being considered by President Obama and the Democrats in Congress. As the Republicans took advantage of the unlimited opportunities for one-minute speeches, dozens of them headed to the floor with competing tales of horror that are allegedly in the Democratic approach to health reform.

At one point, Blumenauer had to listen in parliamentary silence as a Republican colleague misrepresented a section of the bill that Blumenauer himself had written.

And there's this:

A colleague from Oregon claimed that 114 million Americans would lose their health insurance; that Democrats want to socialize 20% of the economy. In as much as healthcare currently is only 16% of the economy, this is quite a trick.

Tough to imagine who our math-challenged representative might be, isn't it? Let's see . . . five minus four equals . . . wait, don't tell me . . . .

(Cross-posted at Loaded Orygun.)