Over the past several weeks, the House Judiciary Committee has been conducting hearings on PATRIOT Act, including the 16 sections that are set to “sunset” this year unless Congress reauthorizes them.

Needless to say, Republican House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner has presided over these important proceedings with his usual bipartisan sensitivity. (Remember the Republican chairman who attempted to falsify House records by surreptitiously rewriting a Democrat’s description of an amendment? That’s our Chairman Sensenbrenner.)

On Friday, Sensenbrenner got a fair amount of press for illegally terminating a House Judiciary hearing, flouncing out of the chamber with the gavel, and cutting his colleagues’ microphones. However, by and large, mainstream media haven’t put Sensenbrenner’s disgraceful behavior in context. First, Friday’s abortive hearing was itself the direct result of Sensenbrenner’s concerted campaign to stifle and obstruct his Democratic colleagues throughout the PATRIOT Act hearings. Second, Sensenbrenner terminated the hearing illegally, presumably to keep criticism of the PATRIOT Act off the record.

The latest Sensenbrenner snit was the culmination of weeks of hostility and obstructionism towards his Democratic colleagues on the Judiciary Committee. Friday’s meeting was a special session requested by the Democratic minority under House Rule 11, which entitles the minority to an extra session to call its own witnesses.

Rule 11 hasn’t been invoked in 10 years. Why did the Democrats exert this right during the PATRIOT hearings?

Judiciary Committee member Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) explains:

Earlier this week, the Chairman, scheduled a series of hearings on the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, however, many of the hearings were on non-controversial parts of the Act. The hearings did not address some really obvious and important issues like section 215, which authorizes FBI access to library records and racial profiling. In an amazing slight, the only witness the Chairman would allow was the Deputy Attorney General of the United States who, of course, supports the permanent enactment of the Act. THE MINORITY DID NOT GET TO CALL A SINGLE WITNESS. [Emphasis original.]

Piqued, by the minority’s demand, Sensenbrenner scheduled their hearing on Friday, even though the House adjourned on Thursday. Many of the Committee members, and presumably most of the press, had already gone home for the weekend.

As you’ll see on the video, the hearing drew a crowd anyway. Sensenbrenner made no effort to hide his contempt for the Democrats and their witnesses:

The four witnesses were from groups, including Amnesty International USA and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, that have questioned the constitutionality of some aspects of the act, which allows law enforcement greater authority to investigate suspected terrorists.

Nadler said Sensenbrenner, one of the authors of the Patriot Act, was “rather rude, cutting everybody off in mid-sentence with an attitude of total hostility.”[AP, via Raw Story]

Tempers flared when Mike Pence (R-Ind) decided to play the gulag game and accused Chip Pitts, the representative for Amnesty International of endangering American lives through the staggering power of metaphor. Sensenbrenner wouldn’t have let Pitts respond if Jerry Nadler (D-NY) hadn’t raised a “point of decency” against the Chair.

The Chairman can dish it out, but he sure can’t take it.

Rep. Wasserman Schultz:

The most egregious abuse was that the Chairman clearly violated the Rules of the House by adjourning the hearing based solely on his own authority. In order to end a hearing, the Chair must make a Unanimous Consent request or a motion to adjourn. Mr. Sensenbrenner did neither. Additionally, he adjourned the hearing based solely on his own authority while Mr. Nadler was attempting to raise a point of order (arguably to highlight this fact), which constitutes a clear abuse of House Rules. Subject to our discretion, this could constitute a privilege to be raised on the House floor. It can also be argued that this violation was particularly egregious given that this was the Minority’s day of hearings. (begins at 1:51:00 on video)

Watch Sensenbrenner’s tantrum at Dembloggers, send the link to your friends.

Write to Sensenbrenner, ask him whether he’s pissed on any books lately.