Yesterday, the nation watched as Mike Johnson was narrowly re-elected Speaker of the House. Many viewed it as the first real test of Donald Trump’s incoming administration. For a while, it looked like a second vote would be necessary. It wasn’t and lost in it all, at least as far as much of the main stream media is concerned, was a stunt by Stacey Plaskett (D), a non-voting Delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands. Let’s just say that Plaskett, a six-term member of the House, either failed all these years to understand what her role in the House happens to be or she is one of those folks who love trying to grab attention, not matter how inappropriate it might be.

The American Virgin Islands–as well as Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands–make up the non-voting members of the House of Representatives. Their position is unique. While they may serve on House committees and vote on measures before the committee, they are not allowed to vote on legislation. They can, however, introduce legislation. The rules governing these members are decided upon every two years with each new congress.

So why did Plaskett try to stop the vote on a point of order, especially for something she should have known the answer to without asking?

The short version is she wanted to know why the American Virgin Islands and other non-voting members were not asked to vote for the next speaker. Okay, giving her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she forgot. Right? Wrong? She decided this was the perfect time to stir the post and go off on these locations being “colonies” and the U.S. having a “colonies problem”.

She isn’t the first to question why the American Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico or the other locations still remain the red-headed step-child. It is a question we should address, sooner rather than later. However, in the middle of the vote for Speaker of the House was neither the time nor the place for it.

Instead of progressing the debate on the issue of statehood for these locations, her antics have caused more than a few to wonder if she really has managed to serve for five terms, going on six, without knowing what she can and can’t vote on. It is impossible to believe she didn’t realize before now that she has not been allowed to vote on who wields the Speaker’s gavel.

This “powerful moment”, as MSNBC calls it, led to them saying Pleskett is a strong contender for the “top truth-teller in Congress” award.

Mind you, there’s not a very high bar for that in the Swamp. But that status of the American Virgin Islands, etc., isn’t what they were there for yesterday. Like so many in DC, those who are quick to add to legislation items that have nothing to do with the original bill, she tried hijacking the vote for her own purposes.

And what did she get in return?

Folks wondering if she isn’t smart enough to understand the rules she is supposed to follow.

Folks wondering if she didn’t understand the importance of the vote. After all, the Speaker of the House is in the order of succession if anything happened to the President. But why worry about something as inconsequential as the leadership of our country when you can score some political points?

Not that it gave the clerk much pause before they responded:

Delegates-elect and the resident commissioner-elect are not qualified to vote,” the clerk replied. “Representatives-elect are the only ones qualified to vote in the election of a speaker, as provided in Section 36 of the House Rules and Manual, the speaker is elected by a majority of the members-elect voting by surname.”

Something she knew–or should have–but chose to ignore.

I wonder if she realizes yet that her actions did nothing to bring positive attention to the issue.

I get why she says the issue needs to be addressed. But she went about it the wrong way. First, the country was rightfully more concerned with settling the issue of the speakership than anything else. Second, the powers-that-be in charge of the vote and the House chamber rightfully silenced her by simply switching off her mic. Once that happened, she sat down. No more histrionics. No more attempt to have her “voice” heard. Guess she thought she’d made her point, such as it was.

I understand the desire of these territories, etc., to be recognized as equals to the states, to want the rights and privileges statehood brings. But I don’t think Plaskett is going about it the right way. Hijacking a vote as important as yesterday’s doesn’t help her cause.

Especially not when her own words make it seem like she doesn’t understand, or at least refuses to recognize, the rules she has operated under for a decade or more.

Featured image: Virgin Islands Delegate to Congress Stacey E. Plaskett, 12 February 2015, U.S. House Office of Photography. Public domain.