Nine months after Democrats allegedly stole a parliamentary vote in the House, the long-running "Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007" will haul House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer to the witness stand today for what Republicans insist will be the Maryland Democrat's comeuppance.

The events of that day have been long forgotten by all but the most partisan of Republicans or the wonkiest of C-SPAN watchers. In the meantime, an investigative committee created to salve wounded feelings in the House has spent nearly half a million dollars, mainly on high-priced K Street lawyers.

House Democrats and Republicans agreed Tuesday that something went wrong during a vote on the night of Aug. 2 last year. But after a nine-month, half-million dollar investigation, Democrats still see it as an innocent mistake, while Republicans view it as an assault on democracy.

"When any majority feels it can cut corners," said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, the Republican leader of the six-member team set up to investigate the vote, "we risk reducing the most powerful democracy in the history of the world to a banana republic."

Democrats expressed remorse over the incident, but denied any ulterior motives.

Rep. Michael McNulty (D-N.Y.), who presided in the Speaker’s chair during the 2007 vote, also testified on Tuesday and apologized for having gaveled the Republican amendment closed when the voting tally reached a 214­-214 deadlock. The electronic tally board in the chamber showed the amendment winning by a margin of 215-213 when it was gaveled.

Republicans have cried foul over the 2007 vote. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said the “chaos of Aug. 2, 2007 was a dark moment in the history of the United States House of Representatives and must never be allowed to happen again.”

Republicans eager to tar the new majority as excessively heavy-handed put Democrats on the spot Tuesday, examining in detail a chaotic night when standard voting procedures were not followed.

Indiana Republican Mike Pence — interrogating McNulty and others in public after months of closed-door interviews — chided his colleague, saying he “sidestepped a long-standing procedural safeguard designed to ensure the integrity of the vote on the floor of the House.”

“I believe that the evidence gathered by the select committee will show that the chair rushed to close the vote in the face of pressure from Democratic leadership,” said Pence.

Had Republicans won that night, it would have been a morale-booster and a rare political victory in a chamber where the minority has few opportunities to force votes on tough issues — in this case to deny food stamps to illegal aliens.