Balkinization: What Corrine Brown Should Have Said

What Corrine Brown Should Have Said

Florida Representative Corrine Brown (D. Fla.) had her remarks striken from the record during a debate on whether federal officials should be forbidden from inviting international observers for the 2004 Presidential election. The disciplinary action came after she made the following comments (story from the Washington Post):

"I come from Florida, where you and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'etat. We need to make sure it doesn't happen again," Brown said. "Over and over again after the election when you stole the election, you came back here and said, 'Get over it.' No, we're not going to get over it. And we want verification from the world."

After Brown objected to the ruling of the chair, the House voted 219-187 to strike her comments from the record. Unfortunately, Brown violated a norm that members are not supposed to make personal attacks on each other, at the very least they are not supposed to accuse each other of lawbreaking.

As I understand the rules, all Brown had to do was to avoid saying "you." She could have said that Republican operatives in Florida had stolen the election. She could even have accused Governor Jeb Bush directly. (But not Katherine Harris, who is now a Florida congresswoman!). Those remarks might have angered her Republican colleagues every bit as much, but they wouldn't have been grounds to strike her remarks from the record.

What seems to have gotten lost in the fracas is that the proposed measure passed by a vote of 243-161 as an amendment to a $19.4 billion foreign aid bill. The amendment bars any federal official from requesting that the United Nations formally observe the U.S. elections on Nov. 2. The amendment is little more than silly xenophobic posturing. It is also a stupid idea. We should be doing everything in our power at this crucial moment to assure the legitimacy of American democracy in the eyes of the world. Saying that we are so afraid of international observers that we must officially bar their entry does little to elevate our badly battered reputation, and merely confirms an image of American arrogance. In any case, judging from our last Presidential election, and the current shenanigans over electronic voting machines and felon disqualification, if any place needs international observers to ensure fair elections it is Florida.

Posted 6:46 PM by JB [link]

Comments:

If we wanted to make our elections look more legitimate, we wouldn't invite UN observers. We'd purge the voter rolls of dead people and illegal aliens, and require people to prove their identities to register and to vote. But Brown doesn't want legitimate elections, she just wants to showboat.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:06 PM

As a concerned Florida resident and attorney, I can first confirm that the "rule" under which Representative Brown's comments were struck wouldn't have operated but for the "you." The rule in question, invoked by Steve Buyer from Indiana, ruled on by Mac Thornberry from Texas, and later voted on by the house after Brown objected, only affects accusations of crimes against fellow members.

To me, tho, the bigger issue is the fact that Buyer considered it reasonable, and all 210 republicans agreed (and 33 democrats) that a $19.4 billion dollar foreign aid bill needed to include a measure barring any federal official from requesting any sort of UN oversight for the election.

Now its clear that some sort of oversight is required, even if you believe that the disenfranchisement of thousands of minority voters in the state of Florida was as accidental as the powers that be would have you believe. Even John Kerry, all fears about political backlash aside, when speaking down here in West Palm, called for local attorneys to monitor the polls on a voluntary basis. (No, I've not heard anything since about this, but I'm waiting.)

Martin Luther King, III, and others, are pushing for the removal of the Help America Vote act, which many feel was in large part responsible for the issues in Florida. Even the courts ruling on this issue in Florida made no conclusive ruling as to the fairness of the process, but essentially decided to stop mucking about in the federal elections process anyway. And I hardly think we can call a U.S. Supreme Court opinion on the issue that comes out with so many separate dissents and barely squeeks by on a special concurrence to be unanimous.

What Corrine Brown should've asked, and asked loudly, is if the elections and our election process were so fuzzy and safe, why would the Republicans feel the need to proactively bar observation of the process? I don't agree that any such observation needs to come from outside U.S. borders, necessarily, but why would any measure that might "prove" how fair the elections are be trumped in any fashion?

I myself am a family lawyer in Florida, and having watched the Schiavo case very closely, I can tell you that our state's leaders have no problem with rewriting the law or simply evading it because they disagree with the way our courts have interpreted it, and openly denouncing those same courts as "activist" while doing so.

Christopher Chopin

# posted by

Christopher Chopin : 5:54 AM

It's the UN. Generally speaking, if you're going to have somebody monitor your elections, it should be somebody you've got reason to believe isn't corrupt.

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:59 AM

Should observers show at my precinct here in Texas, I will invoke my authority under Texas law and direct them to exit the polling place. Barring that, I shall have swear out a complaint against them for interfering with a polling place.

They should have their legal case sorted out some time around the time Condi Rice is elected as successor to President Bush in 2008.

# posted by

Greg : 12:39 AM

Let me clarify that I am referring to UN observers -- duly commissioned poll-watchers are always welcome.

Not that I can get the Democrats in this precinct to supply even so much as one precinct worker (much less someone to serve as alternate election judge). Hell, I can't even get the Democrat chair to resond to my emails requesting information about her own availability on election day (why should this election be any different than any others since I took over?).

# posted by

Greg : 12:43 AM

I agree...I live in Palm Beach County, Florida, and am an attorney. Both Kerry and Michael Moore have intimated they'll be here, monitoring elections, but emails to both asking how I can help have hit a brick wall.

# posted by

Christopher Chopin : 10:05 PM

Corrine Brown (born November 11, 1946) is an American politician. She has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1993, sportsbook, representing Florida's 3rd congressional district (map). Her district includes parts of Duval, Clay, Putnam, Alachua, Volusia, Marion, Lake, Seminole, and Orange Counties. http://www.enterbet.com

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