Jim Mills

High drama on the House floor this afternoon.

In just a few hours we will know if Nancy Pelosi has the votes to pass the controversial so-called cap-and-trade energy bill.

Loads of questions at this hour. Are the votes there? Why is Pelosi putting some of her centrists in harm’s way with a vote like this when the Senate may not take the bill up until the fall? How many of her liberals have fallen off because they think the bill has been tweaked too much to appease the moderates? On and on.

Congress has been obsessed with cars, car sales and car dealerships all week — and today is certainly no different.

The plight of the incredible and immediate shrinking number of car dealerships nationwide gets more attention today as Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) holds another Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing with the usual suspects of Fritz Henderson, CEO of General Motors, James Press, president of Chrysler, and John McEleney, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association.

Hello, class — Welcome to SCOTUS Summer School of Rock! I am so happy you are here. Although I am sure most of you would rather be at the beach, sailing, fishing, playing cards or doing just about anything else other than sitting around memorizing definitions, I am sure we are going to have a wonderful summer together. And if we all keep with up our book-learnin’ this summer, I am sure we can finagle a few special field trips to the Capitol and catch a little of that Supreme Court confirmation hearing action, just to spice things up a bit.

But first things first.

Note from the author: Stay tuned for some exciting details about how to get in on the ground floor of the new Jihad World Theme Park ...

The news hits just kept on coming here in Washington this week.

On the same day President Obama was flexing his newfound automotive muscle at the White House by putting the pedal to the metal on new mileage rules, across town, his former Senate colleagues were slamming on the brakes by striking $80 million out of a war-spending bill designed to fund the Going Out of Business sale at Guantánamo Bay.

An extraordinary news conference in the Capitol today, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and what she did or did not know about waterboarding.

Immediately below I have included her comments on the matter. For the sake of continuity I have excised a question on healthcare. If you need some immediate context, you can click here and read my Tuesday column on the matter. Really interested in seeing the comments on this one.

Before you read any further — watch the video by clicking right here. Watch it several times if you want. Then come back here and share your thoughts with the entire class.

... Back now? What did you think?

If you are a boring, knee-jerky, off-the-shelf Obama-hater, you absolutely loved it. You have already made up your mind that Barrack HUSSEIN Obama is a one-worlding-lefty-socialist-pinko-traitor who wasn’t even born here in the U.S. Should never have been elected president of the United States, am I right? You love the video so much you already sent the thing around to all your similarly brilliant and sophisticated friends.

Like most other unhealthy, neurotic Washington-based news junkies, the last thing I do before turning in at night is to check my BlackBerry just one last time for any evening news developments. I then dutifully place the little contraption that rules all on the nightstand about two inches from my face.

And yes, if I happen to awaken during the night, more likely than not I will take a quick glance just to make sure I haven’t missed anything important. Like I said, it is an unhealthy, neurotic, unbalanced way to live, but I suspect I am not alone in my electro-nocturnal habits.

Last night was no exception.

I have no idea how this when-will-it-ever-end Minnesota Senate Race is going to turn out, but I guarantee you one thing. If Al Franken believes in his heart of hearts that the job is rightfully his, he will fight to the bitter end to get it. At least from my experience, anyway.

It was 10 years ago last month and the political world had just been rocked by the House impeachment of President Clinton and the expected high-drama Senate trial that was about to follow.

I knew early on that it was going to be an Inaugural ceremony soaked in selfless devotion when, on the floor of the rapidly filling House chamber, a disgruntled congressman was causing early-morning havoc by objecting to the old-bull seniority process by which members of Congress were to be escorted to their VIP seats on the Inaugural platform.

Wanting the spirit of the day to be defined by those venerable qualities of self-sacrifice and altruism that have made this nation great, the resolute patriot pressed his case by raising a point of order and asking if it wouldn’t be more fair and better for all concerned if members couldn’t instead line up alphabetically by last name. Point of order rejected by the visionless, invisible powers of reticence and small thinking, Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Aloha) took one for the team, fell in line and lived to fight another day. The wheels of justice sometimes move slowly.

As someone who has taken a fair number of shots at President George W. Bush and the ineptitudes of his administration over the past eight years, I have to say that his morning news conference showed us the president at his very best: insightful, ingratiating, humorous, strong, defiant and seemingly quite at peace with the way history will present his presidency.

We also got a little news out of the president when he indicated that he would not be asking Congress for the remaining $350 billion in TARP bailout money unless President-elect Obama specifically asked him to.