Article I, Section I of the U.S. Constitution reads, in part, “The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen … by the people of the several states.”

This is one of those rare Constitutional directives that is utterly without grey area. House members are to be from states. Period.

Unless, apparently, the new Democratic House leadership wishes it otherwise.

Yesterday, Democratic House Leader Steny Hoyer introduced a proposed change to House rules that would allow Delegates and the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico to vote on the floor of the House.

Delegates and the Resident Commissioner represent U.S. territories and other possessions in the House. There are five: one delegate each from the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands and Guam, and the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico.

Needless to say, four of the five are Democrats.

Under House rules, delegates and the Resident Commissioner are currently allowed to cast votes in House Committees. (A practice that I believe is also contrary to the Constitution.) At present, they are not allowed to cast votes on the floor.

If the Democrats get their way, that will soon change.

The Democrats can violate this clear Constitutional instruction owing to a quirk in the manner that the House usually does its business. When the House considers legislation on the floor, it usually refashions itself as the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union.

Hoyer’s rule change would allow the delegates and the Resident Commission to cast votes in the Committee of the Whole, as it is usually called.

This isn’t the first time the Democrats have done this. They pushed through a similar rules change in 1993. The Republican majority removed it in 1995.

But the reaction to the 1993 effort is enlightening. The New York Times said about the proposal, “This maneuver is nothing but shameless political tyranny.”

The Chicago Tribune opined that, “This amounts to a blatant end-run around the Constitution, which allows full voting status only to the representatives of the states.”

USA Today warned, “House Democrats, always eager to grab more power, are expected to open Congress’s new year Tuesday by making an end run around the Constitution.”

Hoyer’s proposal will likely be brought to a vote sometime in the next few days.

And it strikes me that this will be an interesting test for some of those newly minted “conservative” Democrats. Will they stand with their party in a blatantly partisan and unconstitutional act? Or will they stand on principle and with the Constitution?

So it’s time to crank up the phone lines again. Let’s get after those Democratic freshmen like Heath Schuler and ask them to stand up for the Constitution. Heaven knows the Democratic leadership isn’t going to do it.

Here’s the full text of Hoyer’s proposal. (.pdf) This version doesn’t show its designation, which is H.Res.78.

Jim: Infurating, utterly infurating. The debate has gone thus:

Democrats: It’s not faaaaaaaair! We have four representatives from U.S. territories who can’t vote!

Republicans: Then change the Constitution. I’ll oppose it, but good luck with that.

Democrats: That takes too looooong! I don’t have the patience! It’s too haaaaaard!

Republicans: Tough.

Democrats: Why can’t we just change the rules?

Republicans: Because the rules change will violate the Constitution.

Democrats: That’s not faaaaaaaair! I don’t want to follow the Constitution! It’s too haaaaaard! I was going to go to the Tocce Station to pick up some power converters!

What the hell happened to the Constitution? Congress gets to skip the parts it doesn’t like? Flag burning, lap dancing, and “death to America” from a radical imam is protected, but political speech before an election isn’t? Doesn’t anybody believe in playing by the rules anymore?

Cam: Whoa. Did you really just compare Hoyer to Luke Skywalker? I know, whiny whiny whiny, but still. You can’t do that.

Jim: Come on, the “WAAAAAAH Power converters” is the whiniest line in the history of cinema. Had Mark Hamill delivered another line in that tone of voice, we all would have been rooting for the Sand People.