So what's a few seconds between friends and uhhh... large, furry, brown things?

Shenanigans last August in the House involving an Agriculture bill that contained a provision for benefits to illegal aliens reported in WaPo article yesterday buried on A13:

“Republicans were demanding that the measure bar illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits. The proposal was an attempt to divide Democrats, pressure freshmen in districts where anti-immigration sentiment runs high and test their leadership. (ed. note: It’s acknowledged that the article excludes the possibility that this proposal by the Republicans might have also been an attempt at doing the “principled” and “right” thing. Those damn Republicans and their wedge issues.)

To thwart that move, Hoyer aggressively pushed McNulty to gavel the vote shut as soon as he could round up enough Democrats to kill it. When the gavel fell, the unofficial tally showed Republicans winning. But the vote stayed open until Democrats had won it.”

Full story on House investigation and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s pending testimony regarding his actions here.