House stenographer removed during vote on shutdown, debt limit

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- A U.S. House stenographer interrupted the critical vote Wednesday night on the shutdown, yelling at members before being removed from the House chamber.

Capitol Police officers led the woman from the floor after she started shouting about a house divided during the lengthy political stalemate over funding the government and raising the federal borrowing limit.

"He will not be mocked. He will not be mocked. Don't touch me. He will not be mocked. The greatest deception here is this is not 'one nation under God.' It never was. Had it been, it would not have been ... no ... it would not have been," she said as police approached her.

She said the Constitution could not have been written by freemasons. George Washington and a number of other founding fathers were masons.

Feelings were running high elsewhere, Roll Call reported. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., the vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, and Chris Vieson, floor director for Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., got into a shouting match as Democrats introduced a series of consent requests.

Roll Call said witnesses' accounts of the altercation and their interpretations had a partisan tinge. A Cantor spokesman said Crowley poked his finger at Vieson, while the congressman said she apologized to him for inappropriate behavior.