A Longshot Way to End the Shutdown

Democrats outlined a plan to use a “discharge petition” to force a vote to end the government shutdown. It effectively overrides House leaders by presenting a petition signed by a majority of representatives to bring a bill to vote on the floor.

Speaker John Boehner’s press secretary immediately dismissed the idea on Twitter: “Ah, the old discharge petition move. Zero percent of the time it works every time.”

Except that Digital First Media finds four high profile times the maneuver has worked in the past.