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HOH’s One-Minute Recess: King’s Virtual Retreat

Another day, another ridiculous spat between lawmakers totally disinterested in anything the opposing party might have to say about, well, anything. While decorum prohibits Members from openly telling each other to “shadap!,” nothing can stop them from blissfully tuning each other out.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) exercised his right to mentally check out about 0.00001 seconds after fellow Judiciary Committee member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) began speaking about the polarizing Stop Online Piracy Act.

“We are debating the Stop Online Piracy Act and [Sheila] Jackson has so bored me that I’m killing time by surfing the Internet,” King announced to his 7,000-plus Twitter followers.

Jackson Lee was obviously offended by the online diss. But King maintains he was hardly alone in seeking refuge elsewhere.

“I’m not the only one she drove to the Internet. There must have been six or eight iPads there,” King assured Roll Call. “If you were out in the Judiciary Committee sitting there, you were either surfing on the Internet or you were back in the back having lunch.”

We know of at least one provocative soul (stay tuned) who made a point of being present for the rhetorical fireworks, so it’s hardly fair of King to assert that everyone was ostensibly asleep/on a munchies run.

We suspect Jackson Lee shouldn’t hold her breath for a formal apology, what with King shooting back at Twitter haters, “Judging from the many responses of my critics, they’ve never heard of multitasking and need to, in the words of [Herman] Cain, get a sense of humor.”

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