Eager to avoid a government shutdown, House Republicans have offered up a "clean" stopgap to fund the government for another 45 days sans Ukraine aid. Desperate to delay the vote, Democrat Jamaal Bowman had a totally rational, legal, and ethical response: to pull the fire alarm, setting off chaos in Cannon.

The New York socialist likely committed at least three crimes in pulling the alarm.

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The lesser offense, a false emergency report, is a misdemeanor under District of Columbia law and punishable by up to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine. Falsely pulling a fire alarm probably also constitutes illegal obstruction of congressional proceedings, a felony under federal law, and could conceivably be tried as an obstruction of justice charge under D.C. law, which includes "corruptly, or by threats of force, any way obstructs or impedes or endeavors to obstruct or impede the due administration of justice in any official proceeding."

As a pragmatic matter, Bowman's gambit was a failure. Kevin McCarthy's compromise succeeded by a margin of 126 votes, with only one Democrat voting against keeping the government open for business. As a legal matter, it was likely a crime at least two times over. As a moral matter, it was a travesty.

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Resorting to arguably criminal means to obstruct a congressional proceeding — much less one to keep the lights on in Congress — is the sort of offense that got former President Donald Trump impeached for a second time and within ten votes of being convicted by the Senate. Assuming that Bowman acted of his own idiocy, it shouldn't just be Republican leadership calling for his resignation; it should be House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries demanding it.

Refusal to demand that Bowman bow out of Congress would be interpreted as a tacit endorsement of his criminal incompetence, as it should be.