A House of Representatives stenographer was dragged off the floor during
the vote to end the partial government shutdown and raise the U.S. debt
ceiling after a bizarre protest in which she began ranting at members.
The stenographer identified as Dianne Reidy, who went to the Speaker's
Chair while the vote was in progress and began yelling about God and the
government. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., banged the
gavel to restore order several times, but did not deter Reidy,
According to Ros-Lehtinen, Reidy "came up to the podium area beneath where I was standing and asked me if the microphones were on. I said that I didn't know. I assumed that perhaps I was chatting too much to the helpful parliamentarians around me. Then she suddenly faced the front and said words like 'Thus spoke the Lord.' And, 'This is not the Lord's work.'
"I hammered to get control and hush her up. She said something about the devil. It was sudden, confusing and heartbreaking. She is normally a gentle soul."
Moments later, Reidy was heard to say that America was not one nation under God because Freemasons wrote the Constitution as Capitol Police officers put her into an elevator. The disruption appeared to rattle members of Congress already jumpy after two weeks of partisan invective over the partial government shutdown and Thursday's debt ceiling deadline.
According to Ros-Lehtinen, Reidy "came up to the podium area beneath where I was standing and asked me if the microphones were on. I said that I didn't know. I assumed that perhaps I was chatting too much to the helpful parliamentarians around me. Then she suddenly faced the front and said words like 'Thus spoke the Lord.' And, 'This is not the Lord's work.'
"I hammered to get control and hush her up. She said something about the devil. It was sudden, confusing and heartbreaking. She is normally a gentle soul."
Moments later, Reidy was heard to say that America was not one nation under God because Freemasons wrote the Constitution as Capitol Police officers put her into an elevator. The disruption appeared to rattle members of Congress already jumpy after two weeks of partisan invective over the partial government shutdown and Thursday's debt ceiling deadline.
Watch the portly, bald, bearded congress critter to the right of the ranter quickly waddle out of potential harms way....,
