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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (432677)	7/24/2003 12:33:11 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769669

GOP Ways and Means Chairman Tearfully Apologizes to House "I learned a very painful lesson on Friday," Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas said of asking Capitol Police to evict Democrats. (Ray Lustig -- The Washington Post) By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, July 24, 2003; Page A01 Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) tearfully apologized on the House floor yesterday for asking Capitol Police officers to evict Democrats from a committee room Friday, as Republicans worked to quell bad publicity stemming from the fracas. The extraordinary public admission -- Thomas broke down in tears as he addressed a hushed chamber usually reserved for policy debates and state speeches -- capped a week of quiet damage control by GOP leaders. Furious at the thought of handing Democrats a public relations win, top Republicans have spent hours in closed-door meetings lecturing senior members on proper decorum. Friday's routine Ways and Means Committee session on pension legislation dissolved into partisan brawling after Democrats said they had not been given enough time to review a substitute version offered by Thomas. When the chairman refused to delay the vote, the Democrats decamped to an adjacent library in protest. Thomas summoned Capitol Police to oust them, although the arriving officers declined to do so, and the impasse ended without fisticuffs. That did not stop Democrats from blasting Thomas and his GOP colleagues on the House floor all afternoon, and many news accounts and editorial pages aired their complaints. The scorn focused on Thomas, whose self-confidence borders on arrogance and whose abrasive manner has long been tolerated by House leaders because of his expertise in tax-writing, health care and trade. Yesterday, his normal hubris melted in front of his riveted colleagues.