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WASHINGTON The Republican trying to shepherd the GOPs Affordable Care Act repeal bill through a key committee got about eight words into his opening statement Wednesday when Democrat Frank Pallone interrupted.

Mr. Chairman! Mr. Chairman! the Jersey Shore-area congressman called out.

As the top Democrat on the committee, he wanted five minutes for leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to speak and three minutes for rank-and-file members, not the three minutes and one minute allotted.

When the Republican majority shot down that request, Pallone jumped in again. Now he wanted more time for the second-ranking Democrat to speak. He was overridden again.

Then he raised a point of parliamentary inquiry, demanding that he be recognized even as Republicans tried to get the hearing moving.

So it went.

As Republicans began their work to advance a bill that would undo one of the Democrats most cherished accomplishments, Pallone played the petulant backseat passenger unwilling to quietly go along.

As of Thursday morning the committee hearing was still rolling on more than 24 hours after it began.Democrats continued to argue against the GOP proposal, stall and force votes on amendments.

A liberal with roughly three decades in Congress, Pallone was at the forefront of his party's efforts Wednesday and Thursday to fight Republicans rollback. As the top Democrat on one of the two key committees handling the GOP bill, he may be in the spotlight for days as the point man picking at the controversial proposal.

Wednesday signaled his intentions to be an all-around pest.

The lanky and normally languid Pallone, from Long Branch, questioned Republicans on every procedural step. Democrats forced committee staff to read aloud the entirety of the piece of the bill before them 66 pages of subtitles and legalese. That took an hour.

The committee debate could into the weekend. Democrats said Wednesday that they had close to 200 amendments to offer.

Well, let me ask just one more question, Pallone said at one point.

This was your last question, responded the panels chairman, Rep. Greg Walden (R., Ore.), noting that Pallone had said his previous question was his last one.

Pallones aggressive posture, as well as his losses in procedural votes, reflected both the intense fight Democrats plan to wage and its possible futility in the face of a Republican majority. The GOP plan seems to face more threats from Republicans breaking ranks than it does from Democrats.

In an interview during a break, Pallone said his goal was to at least show the flaws in a bill that he argues Republicans are jamming through without scrutiny.

The Republicans keep talking about what they dont like in the Affordable Care Act, but they never talk about how what theyre proposing today is going to improve it, Pallone said. In almost every case I can tell you that what theyre going to do would make it worse.

Republicans argue that their bill would erase a law that they blame for rising insurance premiums and decreased consumer choices.

This is a very contentious issue, and it does seem to engender partisan vigor, said Rep. Leonard Lance (R., N.J.), a member of the panel who has known Pallone for roughly 30 years. (Lance said he would likely support the bill.)

Walden, initially showing frustration, eventually took on the air of a parent gently trying to move things along while the kids kicked the back of his seat.

Well get through this, he said. Lets just all settle down here.

Hearings in the committee and another key panel, the Ways and Means Committee, Wednesday gave rank-and-file lawmakers their first chances to get their hands on the sweeping health bill.

I think its the appropriate framework through which to bring about the kind of reforms that we need, said Rep. Ryan Costello (R., Pa.), a member of the committee from Chester County, becoming one of the first local lawmakers to endorse the proposal. He said the measure would rein in health-care costs and get us on a path forward where we dont have government-centered, government-controlled health care.

Rep. Mike Doyle, a Democrat from the Pittsburgh area, read a letter from Gov. Wolf warning that the bill would disrupt health-care access and coverage for millions of Pennsylvanians.

Between sparring, Pallone leaned back in his chair to consult with aides and walked the dais to strategize with fellow Democrats. With their microphones off, Pallone and Walden spoke, frequently laughing together.

The irony is that Pallone, 65, has been dogged by a reputation of being too soft. The longtime representative passed up a chance to run for the Senate in 2002, leading some to question whether he had the guts for a fight.

Even as he jabbed at Republicans on Wednesday, he delivered his sharp words in a soft, easy tone, reading directly from notes. He launched his objections while propping his head on his hand.

I wish he had a little bit more prosecutorial energy, but hell do his job and he does it fine, said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D., N.J.), who hailed Pallones persistence and called him a brother.

Pallone ran for Senate in 2013, finishing a distant second to Cory Booker in a four-way Democratic primary. Returned to the House, he showed some appetite for battle, winning a nasty internal struggle for the top seat on the powerful committee, defeating a rival backed by top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

That perch gives Pallone a front-row seat in one of the biggest fights in Washington.

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Published: March 9, 2017 10:56 AM EST | Updated: March 9, 2017 11:26 AM EST

Over the past year, the Inquirer, the Daily News and Philly.com have uncovered corruption in local and state public offices, shed light on hidden and dangerous environmental risks, and deeply examined the regions growing heroin epidemic. This is indispensable journalism, brought to you by the largest, most experienced newsroom in the region. Fact-based journalism of this caliber isnt cheap. We need your support to keep our talented reporters, editors and photographers holding government accountable, looking out for the public interest, and separating fact from fiction. If you already subscribe, thank you. If not, please consider doing so by clicking on the button below. Subscriptions can be home delivered in print, or digitally read on nearly any mobile device or computer, and start as low as 25 per day. We're thankful for your support in every way.

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Obamacare hearing rolls past 24 hours. Meet the NJ leader of Democratic resistance - Philly.com

After weeks of demonstrations outside of his office in California, longtime Republican congressman Darrell Issa faced a crowded auditorium of angry voters Saturday, marking his first town hall appearance since the election in November.

The nine-term congressman caved to demands from his constituents to hold a town hall event, bringing him face to face with an auditorium of more than 500 largely Democratic voters troubled by the Trump administration.

Issa held two separate town halls at Junior Seau Recreation Center in Oceanside, California, to accommodate the large number of voters and protesters who gathered to challenge their representative. Audience members booed and jeered throughout the meetings as the congressman answered questions for more than three hours.

At one point, the auditorium was so rowdy Issa quipped, "I don't mind that things are contentious. I just don't want things to end like the play 'Hamilton.'"

But his voters were largely not amused.

They pressed Issa on how he plans to challenge the proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act, calls to defund Planned Parenthood, and President Trump's stance on immigration and refugees.

Voters also refused to let the congressman sidestep questions about Trump's alleged ties to Russia, repeatedly questioning how he personally plans to investigate the country's interference in the 2016 election.

Related: Republicans Tamp Down Sessions Criticism While Democrats Ramp it Up

Issa said his past statements with regard to Russia have been "clearly out of step" with his fellow Republicans in Congress and that he has, instead, pressed lawmakers to investigate the claims.

Demonstrators protest over the repeal and replacement of Obamacare outside the offices of Republican congressman Darrell Issa in Vista, California. MIKE BLAKE / Reuters

"When you elect a member of Congress you elect him to worry about global security and our security," he said. "Are we going to investigate Russia to the very nth degree on interfering in our election? Yes."

Issa ended his first town hall after a tense exchange with a Democratic challenger for his congressional seat. On Wednesday, a prominent local Democrat, Mike Levin, announced he would run against the congressman in 2018, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Related:

In a preview of their upcoming showdown, Levin and Issa had a tense exchange over the environment before the congressman cut him off.

"If you're fortunate enough to go to Congress, you're going to discover that dialogue is possible," Issa said, to renewed boos and jeers.

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Darrell Issa, Republican Congressman, Faces Tough Crowd at Town Hall - NBCNews.com

Late on Friday, a federal district court finally issued its long-awaited ruling in the lawsuit over Texas Republican-drawn congressional map shown at the top of this post (see here for a larger version). The court delivered a major victory for voting rights when it struck down several districts for violating the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protections Clause, holding that several districts were illegal racial gerrymanders. This ruling could result in a new map being used in the 2018 elections that would contain additional districts where Latino voters could elect their candidate preference, and Democrats could consequently gain seats.

The courtstruck down several districts where Republicans had either diluted Latino voting strength so that Anglo candidates could win, or where Republicans had packed Latino votersto prevent them from electing their candidate choice in neighboring seats. A redrawn map could consequently see considerable changes to the invalidated 23rd District, which spans from El Paso to San Antonio, the 27th, which covers Corpus Christiand Victoria, and the 35th, which stretches from Austin to San Antonio, along with neighboring seats. Such adjustmentscould subsequently see a Latino Democrat oust Republican incumbents in the 23rd and 27th.

The judges additionally faulted Republicans for abusing race when drawing districts in the greater Dallas area, butdid not specifically indicate that theywould require Republican legislators to draw a new district to elect a Latino candidate. Plaintiffs will undoubtedly press the court to impose such a requirement when they argue for the appropriate remedy. Indeed, Daily Kos Elections itself has previously demonstrated how Republicans could have drawn another seat that would elect Latino voters candidate choice in Dallas at the expense of an Anglo Republican, in addition to making the aforementioned GOP-held 23rd and 27th heavily Latino.

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Huge: Court strikes down Texas' Republican-drawn congressional map for illegal racial gerrymandering - Daily Kos

Cameron Pollack / Sun Photography Editor

Rep. Tom Reed holds a town hall meeting at the Southside Community Center on Saturday.

Claire Forest, who runs the Forest Family Farm near Ithacas South Hill, braved the cold to attend a town hall for Rep. Tom Reed (RN.Y.) early Saturday morning and to protest Reeds support of hydraulic fracturing because of the effects it would have on her farmland.

I was supposed to prune my fruit trees today, she said. But instead, Im here.

Forests voice was one of many that rang out at the Southside Community Center, where Reed held the first of four scheduled town halls Saturday. Despite stinging winds and bone-numbing cold, hundreds of constituents and protesters showed up before 6 a.m. to get tickets and waited until doors the to Southside gymnasium opened at 7.

Cameron Pollack / Sun Photography Editor

The Southside Community Center was filled with posters and a chanting crowd criticizing the Republican congressman at his town hall meeting.

Reed was met with a crowd of constituents both angry and appreciative inside, including those who insisted on quieting the attendees and letting the congressman speak. As the town hall continued, the crowd grew substantially, topping 500 by the meetings conclusion and drowning out his voice with loud boos and chants of Do your job!

When Reed entered the gymnasium, he addressed the crowds concerns that he might not show up.

Ive been here in Ithaca before, I will be in Ithaca again, and Im here today because I care, he said. I care.

Do you? a constituent shouted back.

The remainder of the town hall followed this same pattern; attendees, most of whom were progressive, were given two signs a green Agree sign and a red Disagree placard.

At various points, such as when Reed voiced his opposition to single-payer healthcare, or an all of the above energy policy, the crowd turned into a sea of red. When audience members voiced support for coverage of people with pre-existing conditions, that sea of red turned green.

The audience stretched their arms up holding signs that read, Drain the Swamp, Uproot the Reeds, Trump Care = Wealth Care, Tom Greed: Ruining Our Medicare and Raising Our Property Taxes and Who Would Jesus Deport.

Cameron Pollack / Sun Photography Editor

Rep. Reed was met with furious constituents again at his second town hall in Ithaca this year.

Cornell Prof. Chris Schaffer, biomedical engineering, confronted Reed directly, calling President Donald Trumps new ban idiotic and voicing concern over its effect on one of his Iranian students ability to travel.

Most of the discussion in the town hall, however, was focused on healthcare policy, and Reeds support of the Republican Partys repeal and replace plan, which focuses more on subsidizing costs of insurance through tax credits based on age and income brackets, rather than based on the cost of insurance in a given area, as done under the Affordable Care Act.

For Kevin Kowalewski 17, president of Cornell Democrats, much of the crowds exasperation was directed toward the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, which is being rushed through the House of Representatives.

What theyre trying to do with the Affordable Care Act is simply not acceptable, he told The Sun. This massive turnout is emblematic as to how much people actually care about the issue.

David Halpert, a pediatric neurologist at Cayuga Medical Center, entered the gym toting a sign made by his wife Teresa How many lies are too many lies? and expressed concern over access to care in rural counties like Tompkins.

Cameron Pollack / Sun Photography Editor

David Halpert, an Ithaca neurologist, criticized the proposed Republican health care plan at Reeds town hall.

From Halperts initial question, Reed was jeered and hissed at by the audience as he announced the Houses health care bill. The reforms that will replace the Affordable Care Act will be phased in over the next 12 to 24 months, Reed said, adding refundable tax credits, changes to health savings accounts and removal of tax increases.

Reed said he will also prioritize Medicaid expansion for a transition period, expanding state level discretion on Medicaid programs with a $100 million investment and a switch to per capita-based Medicaid block grants aimed to help patients in low-volume hospitals in rural areas.

His words prompted shouts of disagreement, but Reed retained his unwavering stance.

Clearly, the Affordable Care Act is not working and we need to move forward, he said.

Jim Skaley, of Dryden, expressed concern over the stability of his medicare and the cost of his private insurance premiums.

If the Congressional Budget Office comes out and says that millions of people are going to lose insurance, Id like to see [Reed] vote no, he said.

One woman confronted Reed over his desire to defund Planned Parenthood, accusing him of trying to defund the organization based on his personal beliefs, not based on the beliefs of everybody in [his] constituency.

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (D-125) joined the dissatisfied crowd, pointing out that New York would lose $3.7 billion every year in health care funding under the new proposal, in addition to a $3 million cut from hospitals and more than $1 million from Tompkins County, where she said 8,000 people depend on Obamacare.

Insurance exchanges are going to collapse, she said. Very quickly, people are going to lose their health insurance.

Over chants of represent us! Reed responded, I am honored to represent 717,000 people, and each one of those voices is important to me, before handing the microphone to a more supportive constituent, Thomas Taylor, of Elmira, the only person in the gymnasium wearing a Make America Great Again hat.

Cameron Pollack / Sun Photography Editor

Thomas Taylor was one of the few supporters of Reed and President Donald Trump in attendance at the town hall.

While Trump supporters were sparse at the meeting, Taylor was not afraid to make his stance known.

President [Barack] Obama once said that elections have consequences, Taylor reminded the audience, which repeatedly interrupted him. Last November, we had an election. The positions of both candidates were very clear.

Now, Congressman, Taylor said, who are you going to represent? The people who elected you, or the people who lost?

Your voice does have an impact on me, Reed said, met by a scornful laughter, which continued as he discussed his disapproval for a single payer system and his commitment to cutting back environmental regulations in support of the fossil fuel industry.

After Reed took questions from members of the public outside, Nia Nunn, president of the Southside Community Center Board, thanked Reed for attending, and invited him back, so we can talk about that Muslim ban, drawing laughs from the crowd.

Asked of Reeds performance at the town hall meeting, Ivy Greene 17, vice president of Cornell Democrats, said the congressmans answers were purposefully unclear.

We put in the effort to come here and we deserve clear, direct answers to our questions, she said. Im disappointed.

To Greene, the frustrated chants and interruptions were symptomatic of the lack of transparency and verity in political discourse.

We are not getting clear answers and true facts from our politicians, she said.

Greene said that, despite Reeds stated desire to have a dialogue with constituents, he seemed to purposely avoid a venue that would have accommodated more people. Some Ithacans wanted Reed to host the town hall at the State Theatre, which offered a vastly reduced price to the congressman.

As Reed made his way down Plain Street after the meetings end, most of the crowd dispersed to flee the bitter cold.

The few that followed him pressed him on Trumps refusal to release his tax returns, possible cuts to the National Endowment of the Arts and his support for the travel ban.

Asked repeatedly by members of the crowd when he would be returning to Ithaca, Reeds response was always the same:

Ill be back!

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Jeers, Protests Greet Republican Tom Reed in Ithaca - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

A pair of conservative Republican senators are accusing their own party of hypocrisy for rushing throughits replacement of Obamacare.And they've got a point thoughperhaps not forthe most obvious reason.

House Republicans passed their bill through a keycommittee in the wee hours of Thursday morning less than two and a half days after the bill was introduced and without any scoring from the independent Congressional Budget Office.

"This is exactly the type of backroom dealing and rushed process that we criticized Democrats for," Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said Tuesday.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), meanwhile, tweeted his own less-direct hypocrisy claim early Thursday morning:

But the two debates over Obamacare and now over its potential replacement aren't really analogous, and there has been some revisionist history going on when it comes to what happened back in 2009 and 2010 when Democrats passed Obamacare.

The big reason it's remembered as having been jammed through is that Democrats used an unusual maneuver the budget reconciliation process to attain final passage when they lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate in the special election won by Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.). The reconciliation process is not subject to filibuster.

Yet the process, as Philip Bump noted Wednesday, was actually rather lengthy. Indeed, it seemed almost endless at the time. Topher Spiro of the left-leaning Center for American Progress crunched the numbers:

In the House, Democrats held a series of public hearings before introducing a public discussion draft in June 2009. The House then held more public hearings before introducing new legislative text in July. All three relevant committees held markups committee work sessions to amend the legislation and the full House vote on the amended legislation did not take place until November.

In the Senate, the HELP Committee held 14 bipartisan roundtables and 13 public hearings in 2008 and 2009. During the committees markup in June 2009, Democrats accepted more than 160 Republican amendments to the bill.

Beginning in May 2008 20 months before the Senate vote and six months before Barack Obama, who would later sign the bill into law, was even elected president the Senate Finance Committee held 17 public roundtables, summits and hearings. In 2009, Democrats met and negotiated with three Republicans for several months before the tea party protests caused the GOP to back away from negotiations. The Finance Committee held its markup in September, and the full Senate vote did not take place until December.

In both the House and the Senate, scores by the independent Congressional Budget Office were available before each vote at each stage of the process. These scores are estimates of the effects of legislation on the budget and on the number of people who would be covered by health insurance.

Part of the reason some Republicans have seized upon the idea that Obamacare was rushed is undoubtedly that infamous Nancy Pelosi quote. Pelosi (D-Calif.), then House speaker, said in March 2010 that Democrats needed to "pass the [health care] bill so that you can find out what's in it." That sounded a lot like Democrats putting one over on the American public by ramming through legislation that people didn't fully understand.

But Pelosi's meaning seemed to be more that people would recognize the benefits once it was put into practice. And the bill had been in the public domain for months. The reconciliation process itself lasted for weeks about the same time period Republicans are giving their entire bill.

There actually aren't a whole lot of quotes from Republicans way back when accusing Democrats of passing Obamacare too quickly. Instead, there are lots of comments taking issue with the specific maneuver that Democrats used and the fact that the bill didn't get any Republican votes.

"They have sort of a Europeanized version of [health care reform] that they jammed through without a single Republican vote in the last Congress," then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in January 2011.

Then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) added around that same time:"We didn't have any open debate for both sides at all on the health care bill, the way it was jammed through."

So the speed of the legislation is one thing; the actual method of passageis what really irked Republicans. But that's also problematic for Republicans today, because they, too, are planning to use the budget reconciliation process. This allows them, again, to avoid a filibuster but could also limit what they can accomplish.

The other problem for Republicans in moving this along so quickly is that there is no CBO score. Republicans have for years accused Democrats of budget gimmicks and a lack of transparency in the legislation that they have passed. Republicans ran on the idea of postingbills online for everyone to see and understand.

They insist there will be a CBO score before final passage, but the fact that the bill is making real progress without lawmakers' knowing what experts estimate its impact will be is very difficult to square with GOP complaints about Pelosi's comment.That sounds a lot like Republicans passing the bill before they find out what's in it.

But when the rubber really hits the road and the GOP really opens itself up to charges of hypocrisy is if and when it tries to pass this bill through reconciliation and likely with no bipartisan support. Just like Republicans attacked Democrats for doing almost exactly seven years ago.

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Republicans are rushing right into charges of Obamacare hypocrisy - Washington Post