Reply #13: FL: House Session Ends After 12-Hour 'Read-a-thon'

[livvy]

This is an older piece, but I don't recall seeing it, and I found it amusing.

OrlandoSentinel.com
LEGISLATURE 2008
House session ends after 12-hour 'read-a-thon'
Spat over proposal spurs Dems to invoke maneuver
Aaron Deslatte and John Kennedy

Tallahassee Bureau

9:10 AM EDT, April 19, 2008

TALLAHASSEE

They sat mostly silent, eyes forward, mouths shut.

It wasn't a sulking kindergarten class, but the Florida House of Representatives. On Friday, Republicans and Democrats -- normally collegial, if occasionally testy -- engaged in a daylong version of a schoolyard stare-down.

It began before lunch, when minority Democrats -- accusing the Republican leadership of trying to squelch debate -- used their parliamentary muscle to require that each bill on the agenda be read in full.

They had tried to promote a proposal to make the FCAT less of a factor in the letter grades given the state's schools and had sought to amend a Senate bill that would do that on to an educational-standards bill favored by House Speaker Marco Rubio, R- West Miami.

But House leaders -- shooting for a 1 p.m. adjournment to allow Jewish members to go home for Passover and black members to attend a legislative gala -- invoked a rule limiting debate time to three minutes.

Enraged, Democratic leader Rep. Dan Gelber, D- Miami Beach, demanded all bills be read in full, and Republicans didn't have the two-thirds vote to deny him.

As a clerk began reading aloud from an 86-page condo-association bill, a visibly angry Rubio slammed down his gavel, ordered the House sergeant-at-arms to make sure all 119 members were in the chamber, then lock the doors.

"I want everyone in their seats. It's important that we give the clerk our attention," Rubio said. He then ordered the staff to turn off Internet access to the members' laptops. Lawmakers soon started pecking at their BlackBerrys.

But soon, BlackBerry access was cut off.

In the midst of huddle of lawmakers, Gelber advised his members not to drink water -- so they wouldn't have to go to the bathroom.

Half an hour into the droning recitation of condo law, Rubio slammed the gavel again when he saw Rep. Franklin Sands, a Broward County Democrat slated to take over as minority leader, crossing the floor. "The clerk will stop reading until Rep. Sands takes his seat."

more...

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-tally1908apr19,0,2835447.story