The Lame Duck 111th Congress kicks off lamely demonstrating that Representative Paul Broun is the Lamest Duck of All

Will the lame duck session of the 111th Congress be a do-nothing session? It's starting off that way. The session opened yesterday with the House considering two perfunctory, could-have-been-done-anytime, safe, and polite measures. You'd have to think that the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, looked to her old comrades in arms and said give me a couple of pitches, soft and belt-high, so we can knock a couple out of the park and go home early.

The first measure the lame duckers took up was H. Res. 1713, a bill titled "Recognizing the 50th anniversary of Ruby Bridges desegregating a previously all-White public elementary school" which was introduced by Georgia's Democratic Representative John Lewis. When I say introduced, it was introduced - first seen- yesterday.

The Problem We All Live With, by Norman Rockwell

Ruby Nell Bridges was the little girl depicted by a famous Norman Rockwell panting called "The Problem We All Live With". H. Res. 1713 passed by a margin of 385 to 1 with 46 Representative not voting on roll call 567. The sole negative vote came from another Georgia Representative, Republican Paul Broun, Jr. Representative Broun has been busy earning himself a reputation as a wing-nut. He voted against H.R. 5566, a bill to banning "crush" videos, which depict animal cruelty. He has called the President a socialist, comparing the President to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. He has made outrageous allegations against the Council on American Islamic Relations, This is the man who said the Center for Disease Control was going to call Americans on the phone to force them to eat more fruits and vegetables.

I think if Norman Rockwell were still alive he might paint a picture of Georgia's atavistic Republican Representative Paul Broun  calling it "The Problem We All Live With".

H. Con. Res. 328 was the second order of business in the House yesterday. H. Con. Res. 328 is another bill introduced for the first time yesterday. The measure called, "Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the successful and substantial contributions of the amendments to the patent and trademark laws that were initially enacted in 1980 by Public Law 96-517 (commonly referred to as the "Bayh-Dole Act") on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of its enactment", was introduced by Michigan's Democratic Representative John Conyers, Jr. The margin of victory for H. Con. Res. 328 was 385 to 1 with 46 Members of Congress not voting. Apparently Representative Broun has "just say no" stuck in his head as he again cast the House's sole negative vote. I bet his report card from elementary school contained comments like "Paul does not get along well with others."