UPDATED: House passed major Energy Bill after debate featuring tantrum by GOP leader Boehner

UPDATE @ 7:17 PM: The House just passed the Energy bill by a vote of 219 - 212. 44 Democrats voted no, but eight Republicans voted for the legislation. That makes it bipartisan, which, as we all know, is the most important thing EVER. Hallelujah.

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For the past couple hours, I've made the mistake of watching the House debate H.R. 2454 - American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Minority Leader John Boehner gave an hour long rant. The Hill called it a "filibuster-like move":

In a highly unusual move, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Friday launched a filibuster-like move to delay a vote on the Democrats' cap-and-trade bill.

The House minority leader is going through the bill page-by-page in a speech on the House floor to protest changes made to the measure at just after three a.m. on Friday.

It looked and sounded like he was playing a game. The Republicans act pretty damn juvenile. One could easily forget that the GOP controlled the House from 1995 through 2007, yet never did anything of substance on energy. Seriously, Boehner sounded like a teenage punk with all his goofy gang members behind him, urging him on. Good god, they are useless. Speaker Pelosi turned down the opportunity for a speech and urged a vote.

The Obama administration has been aggressively lobbying for this legislation, which is a key part of his agenda. (When the White House wants something, they work for it.)

The House is now voting on, by a vote of 172 - 256, defeated a GOP substitute amendment to weaken the bill. The sponsor of the substitute, Randy Forbes from Virginia, is a real piece of work, too. Then, they'll go to final passage of the bill next. I'll update this post with final tallies shortly.