Sometimes, members of Congress get carried away and make ridiculous statements while speaking on the floor of the House. When they do they make a mockery of our work and our democracy.

I am taking a stand to keep the floor of Congress clear of flagrant, political and absurd comments that denigrate religious views. It starts with my official protest vote to block the approval of Wednesday’s comments by a Democrat House member who compared his presidential candidate to Jesus Christ and alluded the Republican vice president candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is akin to Pontius Pilate.

To that I say: I know Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a personal friend of mine. Sen. Barack Obama is no Jesus Christ. My protest statement is not yet published online, so I am making it available to you here:

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Even though I am scheduled to be in Texas today, I chose to remain in Washington to participate in the GOP effort to draw attention to America’s current energy situation, and to the fact that we in the House were prevented from voting on a substantive, comprehensive energy plan in June or in July.

This week’s activities will involve everybody who is near the Capitol. There will be no television or audio coverage because the cameras, the microphones, and even the lights have been turned off (and I suspect the air conditioning will be eventually turned off) in order to squelch this attempt by House Republicans to call attention to this important issue. We will be on the House floor and the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building talking with visitors about the current energy crisis we are facing, and the Democrats’ inaction.

It is disappointing that we have reached this point. For months, we have been attempting to get a simple up-or-down vote on environmentally sensitive drilling for oil on the Outer Continental Shelf. There has been a groundswell of support for this among the American people, as well, as gasoline prices have climbed over the $4 mark per gallon.

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This morning, our GOP House leadership delivered a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) asking her to call the House back into emergency session this month to deal with the country’s growing energy crisis. The letter said, in part:

With American families and small businesses facing record high gasoline prices, Congress has adjourned to leave Washington for a five-week break. The message this sends to the American people is bad enough; its ramifications, however, are far worse. You have the power to call Congress back into session at any moment to deal with issues of urgent national importance…

Congress should not take the next five weeks off while the American people suffer at the pump. We respectfully request that you schedule a vote on the comprehensive American Energy Act during an emergency legislative session this month.

As could be expected, she and her fellow House Democrats disagreed, and followed their early vote for adjournment by heading out of town and leaving the American people to deal with rising gas prices and energy uncertainty while they enjoyed a relaxing five-week paid vacation.

Unfortunately for Speaker Pelosi, her plan didn’t work as well as she had hoped.

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Thank you to the hundreds of you who took time out of your day yesterday to sign my petition, to join my Facebook group, and/or to call Speaker Pelosi’s office about Democratic attempts to limit online communication between the American people and their elected representatives. If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to do so at your earliest convenience. You can also put a petition widget on your site by copying and pasting the code from the bottom of this post on my blog.

I am grateful to sites like RedState, which are keeping readers informed about this issue while keeping the heat on Congressional leaders. Several of my House Republican colleagues, including John Culberson, Thaddeus McCotter, and Minority Leader John Boehner, have also been working hard to make sure that the truth about this issue is presented to the American people.

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To put this petition widget on your blog or Web site, copy and paste the following code: <a href=”http://www.mikeconaway.com/censor”><img border=0 src=”http://mikeconaway.com/files/censor.jpg” width=160 height=170/></a>

As reported yesterday here on RedState, Congressional Democratic leaders, who promised in 2006 to create a more “open” government, are now proposing a new rule that would prevent Members of Congress from using the Internet to communicate with the American people unless the Web site they are using has been “approved” by a panel responsible for creating internal House rules.

Millions of Americans, and hundreds of Representatives — including myself — use video-sharing Web sites like YouTube, personal blogs, and online community sites like Red State to keep track of what is going on in Congress, to provide constituents with information and insight, and to build and foster communication between elected representatives and the American people.

The Internet and the New Media have made Congress more transparent, sometimes against its will, and have better empowered Americans to hold elected officials accountable for their actions, statements, decisions, and votes. Instead of embracing and working to further this new level of openness and transparency, as they promised when they were candidates for office, Democratic leaders are fighting to close the new lines of communication between politicians and the people that the Internet has opened.

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