The Democratic Congress

Rep John Conyers (D-MI), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee who was told by House Republicans that he would be refused rooms for Democratic hearings, has found a space in the Capitol for his fourm Thursday on the Downing Street documents, RAW STORY has learned.

The hearing will be broadcast live on C-SPAN 3 Thursday.

Conyers and other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee were recently told the Republican majority staff had instituted a new policy to deny any request from a Democrat to use a committee hearing room.

GOP Judiciary spokesman Jeff Lungren told The Hill Tuesday Republicans were upset Congressmembers were addressing Conyers as “Mr. Chairman.”

“They were unwilling or unable to make those changes,” Lungren added. “At this point, if they want to hold these forums, they’ll have to find some other place to do it.”

Personally I think this is brilliant. The Republican Congressional leadership is stonewalling, and refusing to exercise its constitutional responsibilities. They have gone so far as to try to block the ability of the Democrats to do anything at all.

Now, finally, the Dems are fighting fire with fire -- holding "unofficial" hearings in unofficial locations. The Republican Congress has intentionally created a vacuum, and the Democratic COngress is finally filling it. If the press covers them, this is a win-win for both truth and the Democrats. Making a bigger stink only raises the visibility of the unofficial hearings, and highlight the obvious question about why the unofficial hearings were necessary in the first place.

You go.