Marsha Blackburn Quotes
Seldom does a member of either party have to be called down for inappropriate behavior on the House floor.
Blackburn, Marsha. Congressional Record. Government Printing Office, 2009.
Many people notice that in the House of Representatives in a debate or a speech the speaker always addresses “Mr. Speaker.” This was the rule voted on by the first House. The purpose was to avoid the legislators shouting at each other and getting into personal arguments and insulting each other. Try it. It’s hard to be angry with someone when you have to argue through a third person.
The debate was about the unlimited pardon power of the President. Madison argued that the check was the impeachment power. However, Presidents had tended to make large numbers of pardons just before they leave office so the impeachment power works only as a check for the beginning and middle part of their term.
Two years later with bipartisan support Speaker Joseph Cannon was stripped of his party and the Rules Committee was created.
It didn't take long in early America for legislative caucuses to spring up:
This practice is still followed.
In 1920 La Guardia became president of the New York City Board of Alderman. One Alderman attacked the new president at a meeting, calling him a disgrace to his party.
This clause was a throwback to the days before the separation of powers where the legislature could imprison anyone they thought contemptuous or interfering with their deliberation. Contrast this with the earlier constitution of Massachusetts which forbade the legislature from acting as a judge or prosecutor. See {616750} and {616749}. Also this was a clear invasion of freedom of the press and freedom of speech provided by the Bill of Rights. However, at the time, it was not clear that the Federal Constitution was binding on State Governments on State Matters. Modern law is still ambiguous on this general point, but not on freedom of speech and the press which is currently definitely binding on the states.
Marsha Blackburn is an American politician and businesswoman serving as the senior United States Senator from Tennessee. A member of the Republican Party, Blackburn served in the U.S. House for Tennessee's 7th congressional district from 2003 to 2019, and as a state senator from 1999 to 2003. On November 6, 2018, she became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee, defeating former Democratic Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. Blackburn became the state's senior senator in January 2021 when Lamar Alexander retired from the Senate. She is the most junior Republican who is the senior senator from their state. Blackburn was a supporter of the Tea Party movement, and has been described as staunchly conservative.
