Minnesota’s state senators decided to keep two decidedly weird rules on the books yesterday. The legislators will still be forbidden from looking at each other during floor debates, which Senator Warren Limmer thought was “dare I say, antiquated,” and no one — senators nor staffers — will be able to drink water on the Senate floor.
Senator Torrey Westrom was one of the few people who thought the no-drinking rule was silly, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “It’s not pop, it’s not beer,” he said, in one of the most midwestern sentences ever uttered. “It’s just H2O.” The Senate briefly considered allowing pregnant women to drink water in the chamber, before a bipartisan majority voted that proposal down, too, still fearing for the safety of the Capitol’s historic desks.
State Representative Tim Sanders tweeted at Pioneer Press’s political reporter while she shared the news of the Senate’s failed “heretical proposal.”
“Long Live the House!” he said. “Where even Senators can come over and drink water on the House Floor. #Reason73whytheHouseisbetter”
He wasn’t the only state representative to make fun of upper house colleagues. Representative Mike Freiberg tweeted, “Other Senate rules: use secret handshake, speak in iambic pentameter, drag Stone of Shame if you violate a rule.”
