House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) scuttled a meeting this week with New Orleans officials over federal aid for the hurricane-torn state after a Louisiana Democrat joined Republicans in calling for an investigation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The vote by Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) in favor of investigating his party’s handling of this week’s ethics vote nearly cost his home-state delegation some precious face time with the powerful chairman in charge of congressional purse strings.

Efforts to contact Obey were not successful.

Melancon had reportedly helped arrange meetings for New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and others Wednesday with House leaders, Obey and others.

But then House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) introduced a privileged resolution calling for a formal investigation into Pelosi, charging her with keeping a procedural vote open for roughly 16 minutes past the cutoff point on Tuesday night.

Melancon was the only Democrat to vote in favor of the resolution, though 15 Democrats didn’t vote.

It was tabled Wednesday on a 215-193 vote. Outraged Democratic leaders noted that even Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), who had protested his party’s tactics most loudly on the ethics vote, voted against investigating Pelosi.

The resolution quoted news reports that also named Clyburn and some of the lawmakers who were urged by Clyburn and Pelosi to switch votes.

Melancon’s vote sparked a furor among top Democrats, including Obey, who was to meet with the New Orleans delegation later Wednesday. A fuming Obey refused to attend the meeting.

 Obey reportedly believed that he’d tried to talk to Melancon about Boehner’s proposed investigation during the vote, but Melancon avoided him. A Democratic source said leadership representatives also tried to intervene, thinking his vote was an error, but Melancon told them he was standing by it.

Not true, Melancon said Thursday. In an interview, he said his vote was partially in error. He did want to vote to protest his leadership’s late-night arm-twisting tactics, but he didn’t mean to support a call for investigation that named names.

 “I came in from a committee meeting, and I asked someone, ‘What are we voting on?’” Melancon recalled. “He said, ‘It’s against your caucus for what happened last night.’ Well, I agree that we shouldn’t have done that.”

He continued, “I didn’t know they were naming names.”

Melancon said he had not heard of any threats of meetings being canceled because of his vote. He noted his district doesn’t include New Orleans, but said he’s always ready to help the city’s officials with whatever they need for hurricane recovery.

The second-term lawmaker attended Nagin’s first meeting Wednesday. He said he wasn’t sure if his office had set up the remaining meetings.

Nonetheless, Nagin and his delegation had stumbled into a mess.

Enter Jefferson. The New Orleans congressman, who faces federal corruption charges, contacted Clyburn, who has made hurricane recovery one of his leadership priorities and who was also upset with Melancon. Jefferson said he would talk to Melancon and urged Clyburn to put the meetings back together.

Nagin got to meet with Obey a few hours later. Clyburn didn’t make the meeting, but met with Nagin Thursday. Spokeswoman Kristie Greco said Clyburn couldn’t meet Wednesday because he was busy whipping budget and FISA votes, not because of any disagreement with Melancon.

Asked for comment, a Nagin spokeswoman said the mayor held all the meetings he was expecting to have Wednesday.