Campbell gets a little payback on House floor - OC Register
Wednesday, 17 March 2010 08:45
Revenge is sweet. Even if it’s only a little bit. Tuesday night Rep. John Campbell got a little bit of payback for the UC Irvine 2009 championship men’s volleyball team, which was snubbed by the House last year.
Campbell tried to get a harmless resolution passed last year congratulating the Anteaters on their championship season. Democratic Rep. George Miller stopped that measure from going forward because Campbell wouldn’t support a water project bill Miller wanted.
That was last October. Fast forward to Tuesday night and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer had a resolution on the floor congratulating the Maryland Terrapins for a good basketball season and making the NCAA tournament. Hoyer is from Maryland.
Campbell couldn’t resist. He couldn’t stop the resolution from passing. But he did delay it a day, demanding a roll call vote on something that would normally have sailed through on a voice vote.
“I don’t like doing this,’’ Campbell said on the floor. “These things are usually fun. Usually easy. But it seems like in the House recently we have lost a sense of equity and fairness in the process."
“Seems like if a school is represented by someone from the minority party they don’t get the recognition whereas perhaps if they are from the majority they don’t,’’ Campbell said.
I wasn’t able to reach anyone in Hoyer’s office to see what he thought of Campbell’s remarks.
Besides the tit for tat, Campbell raised another interesting point.
The resolution congratulates the Terps for a good season and getting in the playoff. As Campbell said there are 65 teams in the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. Where are the resolutions for them?
Campbell also brought up an item in Tuesday’s Washington Post that pointed out that the Terps had the lowest graduation rate among the 65 teams at 8 percent.
Just one last little dig.
