GOP members stage House protest

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The microphones were off and the lights were dim, but more than a dozen House Republicans refused to go home Friday after the body adjourned for August recess.

The protesting conservatives gave impromptu speeches and nearly filled the seats of the chamber with staffers, Boy Scouts and tourists, in an attempt to pressure Democrats to hold a vote on offshore drilling and other GOP energy ideas. Republicans claim some 45 congressmen took part.

All sound systems had been turned off as soon as the House went into recess. But the noise was easy to hear from outside the chamber. The crowd on the floor chanted, "Vote! Vote! Vote!" after Congressmen Tom Price, R-Georgia, called for more action on energy and urged each person to tell 10 others to join the cause.

Tourists who were signed up for tours with Republican congressmen and senators were ushered in to fill seats on the chamber floor, and voiced their support of the event. But tourists with passes from Democratic offices watched from above, in the balconies. "I was not impressed at all," said Sue Miller from Memphis, Tennessee. "Democrats did not have a chance to defend themselves."