'Civility hour' debut is a dud

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- Civility was supposed to get an hour Thursday night on the floor of the House of Representatives. But the House couldn't even handle that much.
At the last minute, it canceled the scheduled "Civility Hour" debate on tort reform in favor of a series of tit-for-tat "speeches" to a nearly empty chamber on why Democrats don't care about national security ("They were into the dot-com boom," explained Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., in a connection that surely made sense to her) and why Republicans allowed the Iraq war to turn disastrous ("It has lasted longer than any other conflict in U.S. history," intoned Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., whose history classes apparently skipped minor skirmishes such as the American Revolution and Vietnam).
In some ways, it was an improvement on the day before, when Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., was temporarily barred from speaking on the floor for offending Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga.
Civility -- instilled in our kids and standard in most workplaces -- may have the smallest lobby of any interest on Capitol Hill.
Its lonesome champions are U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., the founders -- and so far sole members of -- a fledgling Civility Caucus and organizers of the "Civility Hour."
Thursday's debate was to be, Cleaver and Capito hoped, the first of monthly, hour-long, substantive and civil debates on key issues. The debates, to which all members of the House will be invited, will be followed by informal bipartisan dinners.
Cleaver was hopeful Friday that "Civility Hour" could debut next week but seemingly resigned to continued toxicity.