WASHINGTON --
The stare-down over the debt limit debate had become so fierce that a trio of South Carolina Republicans, pressured by their leaders to agree to a bill they didn't like, sought answers from a higher power.
"I'm going to pray on it," Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said late Thursday.
He ducked into a locked, little-known room tucked between the Rotunda walls and House Speaker John Boehner's office. Soon, fellow South Carolina Republicans Mick Mulvaney and Tim Scott punched the door combination and joined him.
Scott seemed the least burdened of the three. For him, "divine inspiration already happened."
"I was a lean no. Now I'm a no," he said with a grin.
The trio settled into chairs in the small, high-ceilinged room, which is dominated by a stained glass window that does not face the outside and fills the entire wall. A light behind it reveals George Washington at its center, on bended knee.
Their retreat lasted about 10 minutes. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, deep into the difficult task of rounding up enough votes to pass Boehner's debt ceiling plan, had summoned the lawmakers to his office for pizza and a chat. They ambled downstairs and joined a parade of Republican colleagues filing into McCarthy's office who had not committed to voting for Boehner's bill.
Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/07/29/3255917/members-pressured-on-debt-seek.html#ixzz1TUtoN0te
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