In all my days, I’ve not seen anything like what’s happening in Congress today. If you want to know who actually wants to do something about our energy policy, take today’s happenings as a really huge clue. House Republicans decided to storm the Democratic Bastille and took over the floor of the House of Representatives for half the day. Before that, though, we got to see the amazing sight of Mitch McConnell repeatedly asking Democrats how high gas prices would have to go before they’d allow us to get our oil. Republicans were ready for a lot more, but the Democrats were a lot more eager to go on vacation.

Nancy Pelosi, the modern-day Marie Antoinette whose advise to America was summed up by one of her underlings as “Drive small cars and wait for the wind”, tried to shut down the debate before it really got started. When Republicans wanted to keep the debate going instead of going home for three weeks, Pelosi called a panic vote to adjourn the House. When Republicans kept on speaking, she threw a hissy fit.

At about 12:30 PM, she shut down the microphones and turned off the C-SPAN cameras so that America couldn’t see her desperation and shame. The Republicans kept on going. She turned out the lights. The Republicans put out the call for all hands to show up on the floor. She shut off the air-conditioning. The Republicans invited the public visiting the House to come down to the floor, which they could do since the House wasn’t in session. And they kept on going. Tom Cole said in defiance response that this afternoon is a “vision of the future by the Democrat Party: The lights are out, there’s no power, and the air conditioning is gonna go off soon.”

Pelosi’s office has said only that “The House is in adjournment. The lights are off, the mikes are off…They can talk all they want. We’re just doing what we normally do.” Yep. I’d say that’s exactly what they normally do: throw a big temper tantrum when they don’t get their way and fall back on the same old progressive playbook of using their power to stifle opposition.

Republicans called in for pizza at 3 PM. At one point it was thought that she’d send in security to shut down the House and eject the upstarts. That didn’t happen. I’m not sure whether that means she actualy has a lick of sense or if she just couldn’t find enough specially-colored shirts for the occasion.

With no cameras running (not C-SPAN’s fault, by the way), creative Republicans started getting the word out on their own. John Culbertson started making his own videos and Twittering the happenings. Peter Hoekstra is doing the Twitter thing, too. Michelle Malkin is all over the story with plenty of updates and notes that even though C-SPAN is still dark, it’s linking to Culberton’s videos and Twitters as of 5 PM Eastern.

Mike Pence is saying that “You are not witnessing a revolt…You are witnessing democracy in action.” I don’t know. It sure looks like one heck of a revolt to me.

Allah wants to know why more House Republicans aren’t heading to the floor with video cameras and aides ready to slam every single minute onto YouTube and their own web sites. Were I an enterprising Senator, I’d be headed over to the House side with a camera of my own and do the filming myself. Were I an enterprising Republican Senator running for President, I’d tear up any prepared speech I was going to give tonight and talk about nothing but this.

And let me just say that I’ve been watching Fox News for the past half hour and the anchor has said not one single word about any of this. If FNC is indeed the Mouth of Sauron, it’s falling down on the job badly.

And at 5 PM, it’s all over. The Politico reported it thusly:

Right at the stroke of 5, Georgia Rep. Tom Price announced that House Republicans were stopping their impromptu protest on the floor of the chamber, ending a five-plus-hour mock rebellion with a round of “God Bless America.”

The assembled tourists, aides and members in the chamber gave Price and his compatriots a standing ovation. They left the chamber to shouts of “USA! USA! USA!”

Other Posts of Interest:

• Nancy Pelosi’s Message to America? “Comments Closed”
• House Republicans Call “Ollie Ollie Oxen Free!”
• Pelosi Breaks More Promises, Ho Hum