"We spent about 12 hours on it in a closed door session on Thursday," says Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.). "We had to first figure out our understanding of when a resignation is really a resignation. It was a spirited debate to say the least."
As it turns out, most House Democrats had no idea Gephardt was still acting as their leader. Most assumed that he has relinquished that job to Vice President Cheney on 9/12/2001.
This cause a deep philosophical debate as to whether you
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| Gephardt giving his review of "Jackass: The Movie" after a matinee showing yesterday |
"It took us about four hours yesterday just to confirm that the job was his to resign," says Miller, detailing the state of the Democratic House yesterday. "First we called President Bush for guidance, but his secretary said he didn't have to talk to us any more and to 'fuck off.' We were a little shocked by that so we called Uncle Dick [Cheney, V.P.] and he said the President had been up all night and was cranky and that he'd check into the Gephardt thing for us and get back to us by lunch time. He called back and conferenced in John [Ashcroft, Attorney General], and we took 10 minutes discussing it. I thought I heard snickering, but John said his chair was just squeaking."
After the House Democrats figured out that Gephardt was officially still the Leader, they had to decide whether his long absence represented dereliction of duty.
"I think the sentiment was unanimous that if we had known he was still in charge we would have fired him a long time ago. So everyone wanted to un-accept the resignation and then dump his ass," sums up Rep. Anthony D. Weiner (D-N.Y.). "It was eventually decided that we would accept the resignation and immediately plan a week long "House Procedure Retreat."
The retreat will feature informational workshops on House and Senate Procedures from House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R - Tex.) and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R - Miss.) as well as a many of the nation's top middle school social studies teachers.
