GOP Protests Plan to Seat Democrat in 14-Hour Fight

Despite a 14-hour protest by Republicans that kept the House in session overnight, the Democratic-controlled House Administration Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to seat Democratic Rep. Frank McCloskey in Indiana’s hotly disputed congressional election.

Minutes before the 12-0 vote, Republican members of the panel had walked out of the session, hinting that they will resume their “guerrilla tactics” today to focus attention on their call for a special election in the race between McCloskey and Republican Richard McIntyre.

“We are going to stay outraged,” vowed Rep. Bill Frenzel (R-Minn.).

Among the options bitter Republicans say they are considering are civil disobedience, disruption of congressional business, non-participation in House votes and another all-night session similar to the one that began late Monday.

Four-Vote Victory

The committee’s adoption of a House task force report that gave McCloskey a four-vote victory over McIntyre in Indiana’s 8th District was assured by a 12-7 Democratic majority. A Republican motion to vacate the seat and call a special election was defeated by a similar margin.

Republicans charge that the Democratic-controlled task force, chaired by California Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), stopped counting absentee ballots after McCloskey had taken a lead. The three-member task force voted to count some ballots that would have been invalid under Indiana’s strict voting laws, but not others. Democrats, meanwhile, have continued to defend the task force’s conclusion.

After the full committee voted Tuesday, Republican leaders met with House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) to ask that McIntyre be seated and scheduled a strategy meeting for today. The full House is expected to vote on the issue next week.

Recount by GAO

The highly organized marathon House session, which began after the task force voted to officially adopt the figures reported in a recount by the General Accounting Office, was led by a string of stalwart GOP congressmen from 7:40 p.m. Monday until 9:53 a.m. Tuesday.

Late into the night, with congressmen reading from the Constitution and James Madison’s “Federalist Papers,” Rep. Thomas N. Kindness (R-Ohio) called the “Insomniac Club of America” to arms, declaring: “It is time for rebellion.”

“The level of rage is so deep . . . I think it is conceivable that almost anything could happen,” Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) told the few Republicans gathered in the chamber. “If getting arrested for South Africa is noble, then getting arrested for Indiana is more noble.”

Richard Conlon, staff director of the Democratic Study Group, a research arm of liberal and moderate House Democrats, said Tuesday that he thought the Democrats had blundered by not immediately rebutting Republicans during the all-night marathon.

Got Away With ‘Murder’

“We let them get away with murder last night,” he said.

In an interview, Rep. Robert S. Walker (R-Pa.), an expert in such parliamentary maneuvers, said disruptive tactics could include offering large numbers of amendments to bills, requiring bills to be read in full, demanding roll-call votes on routine matters and persuading large numbers of Republicans to make speeches on the House floor--in short, the House version of a Senate filibuster.

Expelling Panetta from the House and blocking entrance to the chamber were two of the more extreme options reportedly discussed in a Republican caucus.

“When you have feelings running this high, you get a lot of weird suggestions,” Frenzel said, predicting “a schism in this House which may poison the well for years to come.”

Absentee Ballots Cited

During Tuesday’s Administration’s Committee meeting, the recount director, James Shumway, told California Rep. William M. Thomas of Bakersfield--the lone Republican on the task force--that he probably would have counted some of the absentee ballots that the task force rejected.

“Based on the security and handling,” Shumway said, “I guess we would’ve counted them.”

Thomas responded that Shumway’s remarks were “as clear a statement as you can get” to support the GOP cry of “foul” in the recount.

But an aide to O’Neill, Chris Matthews, said optimistically that Tuesday’s shouting might have been the last.

“We’re all aware there’s a lot of heat in this, which hopefully will subside,” Matthews said.