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44: Pro-Terps resolution passes, but not without a fight

Are House Republicans rooting against the Terps?

That's one possible interpretation of Wednesday's vote on a resolution "Congratulating the 2009-2010 University of Maryland Men's Basketball Team, Greivis Vasquez, and Coach Gary Williams on an outstanding season." The measure passed, but 132 members -- all but two of them Republicans -- voted against, unusual for such a routine symbolic bill.

The controversy started Tuesday evening, when House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D), who represents Prince George's County, offered the seemingly innocuous resolution, just as the Maryland men prepare to play Houston in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday night.

But then California Rep. John Campbell (R) got up, and he was not happy.

While emphasizing that he didn't want "to cast any aspersions on [Maryland], nor on any Terp fans or anything like that," Campbell complained that back in October, he had offered a resolution congratulating a school in his district -- the University of California, Irvine -- for winning a men's volleyball championship, but Hoyer had "pulled that resolution from the floor." . . .

When the measure came up for a vote, 129 of Campbell's fellow Republicans stood with him against the bill. Two Democrats -- Reps. Jason Altmire (Pa.) and Nick Rahall (W. Va.) -- also voted no, and six more voted present, for reasons that aren't clear.

Perhaps they're Duke fans.

-- Ben Pershing