Mike Lee Fights the RNC Machine

"No!" "Objection!" "Point of order!" "Mr. Chairman!"

The mild-mannered Mike Lee is not one to shout, but the Utah senator and delegate repeatedly yelled at the top of lungs Monday afternoon at the Republican National Convention in objection to what he saw as an unprecedented attempt to break RNC's own rules and steamroll dissent.

"I have never in all my life, certainly going on six years in the United States Senate, prior to that as a lifelong Republican, never seen anything like this," Lee told reporters on the floor of the convention after the chair—Arkansas congressman Steve Womack—declined to recognize their objections and walked off stage.

Womack had just held a vote to adopt the RNC's Rules Committee package, but the result of the voice vote was not obviously clear—both ayes and nays generated loud cheers. The chair nevertheless ruled the ayes were in the majority, prompting an uproar from convention delegates demanding a roll-call vote. The uproar in turn prompted Womack's departure from the stage.

"There is no precedent for this in parliamentary procedure," Lee told reporters. "There is no precedent for this in the rules of the Republican National Convention. We are now in uncharted territory. Somebody owes us an explanation. I have never seen the chair abandoned like that. They vacated the stage entirely."