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In the article, the 15 minute limit was called a "norm", a "regular practice", "longstanding tradition" and "standards". The speaker not only abadoned this practice, but allowed a member of the executive to enter and physically lobby in the legislature (very dangerous).
In Britain and Australia we call things like this legal "conventions" and, as Ornstein says, they're just as important as codified rules. Try reading the British constitution; you won't find one single grand document because the whole thing is a web of different documents, norms, traditions and legal conventions that provide the basis for a stable, democratic system.
This willingness to break legislative convention and bend the rules to their breaking point is even more dangerous to the integrity of Government than the definition of "sexual relations".
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