“Our fellow Americans deserve to know when we are frustrated with one another, kind to one another, present, or absent. The current pool view of the Congress is antiquated and boomer-fied.” — U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, in a statement to CNN

For several glorious days this month, America got to see Congress in all of its scheming backstabbery, schadenfreude, silliness, boringness, fury, and ridiculousness.

Normally, during day-to-day business, Congress limits the press and the public to a video feed from government-controlled cameras. That’s the stuff you typically see on C-SPAN: a lot of empty seats, canned speeches, and staid roll calls.

However, throughout the days of marathon votes it took to name Kevin McCarthy speaker of the House, with no official rules package established because Congress had no speaker and no one had been sworn in, C-SPAN had the right to scan the entirety of the House floor with independently operated cameras. C-SPAN provided its coverage to other media outlets through what’s known as “pool coverage.”

A lot of historic scenes ended up on film.

You saw lawmakers huddled together on the House floor, lobbying each other to break the stalemate that denied McCarthy the speaker’s gavel for round after aggravating round of voting.

You saw the poor kids who came to the Capitol to watch their parents or grandparents getting sworn into office instead sitting around, slumped in their chairs, bored out of their minds (but better-behaved than the adults in the room).

You saw far-left U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York talking to far-right U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, even though Gosar once tweeted a video that showed him killing her.

You saw U.S. Rep. George Santos, R-New York, who has admitted to falsifying important parts of his biography, sitting alone and isolated from his fellow members.

You saw U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida sitting straight-backed and smirking, knowing his vote would be crucial to McCarthy’s future.

After Gaetz denied McCarthy the speakership on the 14th round, you saw U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Alabama seem to lunge after Gaetz, apparently intending violence, before U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-North Carolina covered Rogers’s mouth and pulled Rogers away.

You saw Democrats laughing at Republicans’ inability to form a governing coalition.

After days of that kind of footage, McCarthy finally won the speakership around 1 a.m. Jan. 7. With normal order restored, McCarthy booted the independently operated cameras and the bland government footage resumed.

But some people want the more riveting coverage restored.

C-SPAN has written McCarthy, seeking permission to supplement the government cameras with their own independently operated recording equipment.

As of this writing, McCarthy had yet to respond to the request, but C-SPAN had the support of other lawmakers.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told CNN expanded C-SPAN coverage would mean that “the public’s going to be able to see more about the way the government works,” which he called “great.”

Gaetz introduced a measure that would allow C-SPAN cameras in the House chamber at all times.

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisconsin, introduced a similar measure, saying via Twitter the C-SPAN coverage of the McCarthy speakership drama was “worthy of an Oscar. That’s why I’m introducing legislation requiring House cameras to continue to capture the full Chamber & not just what the Speaker wants.”

I couldn’t agree more.

The unrestrained coverage of the speaker votes showed both aisles of the U.S. House at their worst. The snakish deal-making, the anger, the double crossing, the pride and self-interest, the double standards, the total lack of regard for how their actions affect the American public (remember, with no one in the House sworn in, Congress could not respond to a national emergency if one happened during the week of infighting).

You can read about that kind of stuff in the printed press and get a good sense of how bad things are, but seeing it all unfold before your eyes really cements the sad facts in the psyche and helps you understand how childish those folks can be.

That shouldn’t end.

The Capitol is called “the people’s house,” and the people ought to have full access to all four walls of both chambers of Congress. They ought to see who’s talking to who, whether they’re speaking amiably or lunging at each other’s throats.

Seeing that kind of thing can help the public see who’s making deals with whom and judge whether they support that kind of back scratching. They can judge the character of the people they send to Washington to do business on their behalf.

In short, they can see how the sausage is made.

And they ought to see that, because they have to eat that sausage whether they like it or not.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-354-3112 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.