Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL): Senatorial Scholar and Dumbass

Caught this on "Special Report with Brett Baier" on Fox News last night, and it gave me a laugh.  It's from the Political Grapevine.

Florida Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson is asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to make it easier to avoid filibusters by lowering the cloture threshold from 60 votes to 55. Currently 60 votes is the magic number to stop debate and end efforts to block legislation.

Grayson says President Bush won seven major victories with fewer than 60 votes. But The Washington Times reports Grayson is incorrect on each point, either because he misunderstands senate rules or is just getting facts wrong.

Grayson says the 2003 energy bill passed with only 57 votes; in reality, it actually failed when the Senate failed to end a filibuster by a vote of 57 to forty. Had Grayson's proposed rule change been in place, the bill likely would have passed.

As part of the internship program at the Heritage Foundation, they invite one of the Chief Parliamentarians of the House of Representatives to talk with the interns.  There, she will quiz the interns on how a bill becomes a law, the ping-pong game of creating legislation, and so on.

Another thing mentioned by the Chief Parliamentarian during these talks is the length of the "Rule Book" of each legislative body.  The "House Rule Book" is said to be nearly 50 volumes in length and the "abridged version" handed to each incoming Freshman Representative is about the size of a phone book in New York City.

Most (and I'm guessing Alan Grayson fits in this description) never read it.

The "Senate Rule Book" is said to be about 150-200 pages long, and could easily read in a single sitting.

Most Senators never read it.