In the wonderful movie, The Sandlot, the most stinging indictment of any baseball player in the pre-Feminist era was hurled by The Great Hambino at a member of an opposing team: “You play ball like a girl!”
If only the Great Hambino could see the House Democrats now. A Republican bill, H.R. 4078, which meant to prohibit major federal regulations until the unemployment rate drops to 6%, had a typo in it, which read “employment” instead of “unemployment,” and House Democrats won’t let the Republicans correct it, even though the Republicans have the required unanimous consent.
Wednesday morning, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said he would not grant unanimous consent to add “un” to the word “employment.” Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Gerry Connolly indicated that Democrats were still not willing to fix the typo.
Nyah, nyah, na nyah, nyah.
House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Darrell Issa asked Connolly if he would object to the typo being fixed, since the Republicans unanimously requested it. Connolly chortled triumphantly, “This member will reserve the right to object at the appropriate time.”
Genuinely pissed off, Issa retorted, “Nothing could be more insincere than to pick on professional staff on a typographical error. If we have to … go to the Rules Committee, I guess we will, but I’m really sorry to see that kind of an attitude on what the gentleman and all of us know was simply a typographical error.”
Connolly then played ball like a girl, whimpering to the chair, “Did this member hear … the distinguished chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee characterize a member as insincere?”
It should be noted here that when Republicans were in the minority, Democrats were allowed to make changes to bills on the floor by unanimous consent.
But then, Republicans didn’t throw like Democrats.