Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) “had a scary choking incident and was thankfully aided by a doctor-turned-GOP-aide, Nick Muzin, who may have saved his life,” National Review reports.

David Hawkings flags a new Gallup survey which found that only 10% of those surveyed “described themselves as having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress, ranking it last on a list of 16 societal institutions for the fourth consecutive year. No institution has scored lower since Gallup started asking in 1973.”

“Underscoring the crisis of confidence, Congress was the only institution this year in which a majority expressed very little or no faith at all. The number was 52 percent; television news was the institution with the next most-pronounced lack of confidence, at 39 percent.”

House GOP leaders quietly added language to their bill banning all abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy to include exceptions for rape and incest, the Washington Post reports.

Republicans were successful in preventing the language from being added but the Rules Committee made the change anyway at the behest of leaders.

Roll Call: “An insurgent group of House Republicans is pushing to codify the ‘Hastert rule‘ to only allow bills with majority GOP support to come to the floor.”

Rep. Joe Heck (R-NV) issued an apology after BuzzFeed posted selections from the Twitter feed of his 16-year-old son that included racist, homophobic and sexist remarks, the Las Vegas Review Journal reports.

Said Heck: “I am extremely disappointed in my son’s use of the offensive and inappropriate language on Twitter. That type of language has never been permitted in our home.”

Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) surprisingly showed up at an LGBT event on Capitol Hill, the Houston Chronicle reports.

“Of course, that was before the he realized he was at the wrong event. As it turns out, Hall and his staffers were under the impression that they were attending an event for a fellow congressman, an event scheduled for that same day. After being welcomed into the event and offered refreshments, Hall inquired about the congressman whom he was there to support. After being told that he was indeed in the wrong place, the longtime conservative quickly left the premises — that is, as quickly as a 90-year-old can physically leave a premises.”

After Roll Call noted his presence by suggesting he might be “letting his hair down” by attending the event, Hall responded: “I would just say that while I do have a good head of hair for a 90-year-old, I do not have the quantity of hair, nor the inclination, to let it down.”

Smart Politics finds that three of the 78 women in the House of Represenatives prefer to use the term “congressman” over “congresswoman” when referring to themselves in the first or third person.

All three of these women are Republicans from deep red states: Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Diane Black (R-TN) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).

“Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.”

— Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), quoted by the Washington Post, arguing against an exception for banning all abortion after 20 weeks.

[Read more…]

As Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) reaches the 21,000-day milestone of U.S. House service today, Smart Politics notes Dingell has served alongside 2,445 different U.S. Representatives thus far during his 57+ years in the House.

A Smart Politics analysis finds “Smith” is the most popular surname in U.S. House history with 115 Representatives, and, with the addition of Missouri’s Jason Smith to its rolls, the name now extends its lead to 50 over “Johnson” which comes in second with 65. 

“In an institution where seniority has long been prized, Representative John D. Dingell Jr. of Michigan is about to set a new standard with 57 years, 5 months and 26 days of House service — a remarkable tenure that spans more than a quarter of the existence of Congress,” the New York Times reports.

Tom Bevan: “One need not be a term-limit zealot to feel unnerved at the idea that his Michigan district has been in the hands of the Dingell family for 80 straight years.”

Ron Fournier: “In a reminder of how the GOP overreached during the Clinton-era sex scandal, Issa doesn’t seem capable of letting damning facts speak for themselves. … Note what Issa is doing. He does it all the time–start an unsubstantiated allegation with an absolute declaration (‘when in fact’) and follow it with weasel words (‘the indication is’). This smear-and-caveat technique allows him to ruin reputations without being called a liar. Issa is a demagogue with plausible deniability.”

“Do you hear history’s echo? Sen. Joe McCarthy paved his way to infamy with 205 names… He might also want to realize that the president is swamped in self-inflicted controversies that raise questions of West
Wing competence, if not corruption. We will soon know whether the IRS’s targeting involved officials at the White House or President Obama’s reelection campaign. The flames don’t need Issa’s toxic fuel.”

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) announced that she will undergo treatment for lung cancer, Newsday reports.

“I’ve never understood the allure of putting your name on a building that was built with taxpayers’ money.”

— Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), quoted by the Washington Post.

House Speaker John Boehner, “who by title and position should be the second most powerful person in Washington, sure doesn’t seem or sound like it,” Politico reports.

“He has little ability to work his will with fellow House Republicans. He has quit for good his solo efforts to craft a grand bargain on taxes and spending. And he hasn’t bothered to initiate a substantive conversation with President Barack Obama in this calendar year.”

Former Reps. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) and Connie Mack (R-FL) are getting divorced, Roll Call reports.

They were only the fourth couple to serve together in congressional history.

At a congressional hearing on an abortion bill that would ban the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) “told a female witness that she should have carried her pregnancy to term even though doctors had discovered the fetus had no brain function,” the Huffington Post reports.

Said Gohmert: “Having my great sympathy and empathy both, I still come back wondering,
shouldn’t we wait, like that couple did, and see if the child can
survive before we decide to rip him apart?”

Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL) will resign from Congress later this year to take a job at the University of Alabama, Roll Call reports.