Someone's gotta take a stand against motherhood

From the Washington Post, via Shakespeare's Sister:

On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day," when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest.

"Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote," he announced.

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who has two young daughters, moved to table Tiahrt's request, setting up a revote. This time, 178 Republicans cast their votes against mothers.

It has long been the custom to compare a popular piece of legislation to motherhood and apple pie. Evidently, that is no longer the standard. Worse, Republicans are now confronted with a John Kerry-esque predicament: They actually voted for motherhood before they voted against it.[my emphasis]

Republicans, unhappy with the Democratic majority, have been using such procedural tactics as this all week to bring the House to a standstill, but the assault on mothers may have gone too far. House Minority Leader John Boehner, asked yesterday to explain why he and 177 of his colleagues switched their votes, answered: "Oh, we just wanted to make sure that everyone was on record in support of Mother's Day."

By voting against it?

....

"The majority has taken, once again, their go-it-alone policy," Boehner lamented yesterday. "It's time for Democrats and Republicans to work together." To induce this working together, Boehner decided to stop the House from working at all.

House Republicans are doing everything they can to prevent Democrats from passing any legislation.

I was curious if the bill included anything pernicious to the GOP (praise for single moms, evolution, or voting for women) but it's about as harmless as you'd imagine. It was submitted by a Nebraska Republican, Jeffrey Fortenberry. He voted against it the second time.

While I'm here, happy Mother's Day to my mom and to Lisa's mom! Unlike some people, I do think you made great sacrifices for the future of the nation, and for us.

And happy birthday to Adam Schlagman, who is too young and creative. I'm giving him just 20 years to solve that problem.