Nevadans sit out reading of Constitution on House floor

By Karoun Demirjian

Friday, Jan. 7, 2011 | 2 a.m.

They promised they’d do it, and on the second day of their tenure in the House, the GOP staged a not-so-dramatic reading of the U.S. Constitution.

Despite it being the government’s founding document, it’s the first time it’s been read — every article, signature, and amendment — on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The event wasn’t just in homage to the Founding Fathers; it was also a sign of the new influence of the Tea Party, for whom adherence to the Constitution was — as Nevadans will remember from Sharron Angle’s senatorial campaign — a major campaigning point during the 2010 midterms.

The reading was fairly bipartisan: 72 Republicans, and 63 Democrats took to the bully pulpit for their moment. The reading order was random, with a few exceptions, such as civil rights activist John Lewis of Georgia, who read the amendment about the abolition of slavery.

There was some unwelcome audience participation too: as Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey read the clause in Article II, Section 1 about how “no person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States ... shall be eligible to the Office of President,” a woman watching from the gallery began screaming “except Obama!”, and had to be escorted out by security.

But from Nevadans? Nary a peep.

Despite the fact that Nevada is a state where almost half the electorate voted for Angle’s rhetorically Constitution-driven campaign, not one of Nevada’s three representatives took to the mics Thursday to give voice to a clause.

We asked them why — and although each appeared to have had better things to do, all were quick to sing the praises of the Constitution as they offered their excuses.

“Congressman Heller was in a Ways and Means organizational meeting all morning and had constituent meetings after,” Rep. Dean Heller’s spokesman Stewart Bybee said. “Although he would like to have participated in the reading, he was unable to.”

“I support the idea of reading it on the floor, now and in the future,” Rep. Joe Heck said. “But I have read the Constitution, I know what’s in it — and today I was busy working for the people of Nevada.”

Heller and Heck are both Republicans. Rep. Shelley Berkley, the House delegation’s lone Democrat, said she had scheduled meetings with constituents during the time allotted for the reading on the floor.

“I think it’s far more important for me to fulfill my obligations under the Constitution than read aloud a document I’ve already read,” Berkley said. “I have a pocket copy of the Constitution in my car and another in my purse and both are dog-eared all over — I know that Constitution.”

But if Nevadans were sorely underrepresented in the big show, they weren’t alone: Lawmakers from 15 states sat out.