Good piece on “Nancy Pelosi’s Big Comeback” in the Washington Post:
… In the corridor where the House minority leader greets visitors hangs but one decoration: a photo of her at the front of the House chamber, lifting the gavel in triumph, on Jan. 5, 2007. That was the day she was sworn in as the nation’s first female speaker, arguably the most powerful post any woman has held in the nation’s history.
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The fact that the pale-yellow walls remain bare suggests that Pelosi has no intention of getting settled in her new offices. What drives her these days is the realization that, with the party’s upset victory in last month’s special election in a heavily Republican Upstate New York district, Democrats need just two dozen seats to take back their majority.
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“I feel comfortable about our ability to win it back,” Pelosi said in an interview, as she approached the six-month mark of being in the minority again. “I have a sense of responsibility to win it back, a plan to do so, and a confidence that it is very much possible to do so.” […] __
The speakership used to be a post with job security. But that is no longer true in an era in which voters are more restive and the political culture is rougher on those who hold power. In the past 21 years, five speakers have been forced out, either by scandal or by political upheaval.
__
What makes Pelosi different is not that she lost that cherished gavel — but that she didn’t head for the exit when she did. Pelosi is the first former speaker since Sam Rayburn, more than half a century ago, to remain in the House as the head of her party and to fight to get her majority back.
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She calls it her “faith-based initiative,” and it is indeed an endeavor to make her fellow Democrats believe again. […]
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“I have absolutely no problem with my relations with the White House,” she said. “I have complete access on any subject that I want to talk to them about. I understand why they have to do certain things, and they understand why I have to do certain things. We give each other room.”
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The main reason she stayed as leader, Pelosi said, was to protect her caucus’s accomplishments — chiefly, the passage of health-care overhaul — from Republican efforts to dismantle them. But Pelosi was also mindful of the signal it might have sent to other women if she had quit.
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“It’s important to me that women young in politics — they’re coming out of the kitchen as I did — are not deterred because of sexism or chauvinism [or the idea that] you can say or do anything about a woman and people will believe it,” she said.
The truism is that DC is a company town where the product is politics. But there are two sides to “politics”: the show-business, vote-for-me, winning-the-morning part, and the dull bureaucratic side where people must assemble blocks of legislation and votes like legos in order for the legislative company (and the country at large) to keep grinding along. I think this article is an indicator that Pelosi may be winning the bureaucratic war, or at least the sympathy of those bureaucrats whose lives have been made so much more tedious by the grandstanding of the current crop of Republican authoritarians, fundamentalists, and economic freebooters — all the showboaters more interested in posturing for media face time, and dollars, than in the gritty work of getting stuff done. Unlike a lot of her Senate peers, Pelosi very obviously isn’t looking for a cushy Fox News gig or a soft berth as a K Street ‘consultant’. More power to her!
Skippy-san
And Pelosi stands as a major obstacle to the Democrats taking back the House, like it or not. She provides the GOP with a face they can run against-instead of allowing the poor policies of the GOP to be brought to the front.
bago
Nancy Smash?
alwhite
Skippy – Does not matter who the Dems have as speaker the Republicans will run against them. They will be the most out of touch liberal ever in the history of the world etc etc etc ad nausium.
I am also afraid that the House will stay lost because of all the Republican victories in ’10 State races. Redistricting is the key & the the Rs are doing an excellent job of it.
Jinchi
Skippy-san, the Republicans will always have a face they can run against. They have an entire industry created to make sure there is always a Democratic demon to run against. This only matters to people who aren’t going to vote for Democrats anyway. If the Democrats replaced Nancy it would have only encouraged more of the same.
Democrats should keep or reject leaders on their own terms. Winning elections is about getting your own people to the polls, not about keeping the opposition happy.
Napoleon
You are exactly right.
She was the most effective speaker in quite some time. The Dems would be unilaterally disarming to not keep her as their leader in the House.
Linda
Skippy-san:
The only people who get riled up by Nancy Pelosi are right-wing warriors. Most everyday people–the ones who don’t read Daily Kos or Balloon Juice–dont’ know much about who she is. And the right wing warriors would get riled up if ANYBODY was in charge of the Democrats. We are talking about a media machine that worked hard to make John Kerry, a decorated veteran, out to be a coward slacker, and got some people to believe it. So good for Nancy.
Liberal Sandlapper
@skippy: In what parallel universe is this even remotely true?!
The Republicans shitty policies have been all over the TV and Internet since January. And Nancy Pelosi has more courage than the entire Republican side of the aisle in her little toe. They are terrified of her and attempt to vilify her as a result.
debit
@ skippy: Concern noted.
JPL
Bristol Palin was just on GMA and she is not accusing Levi of rape just plying her with alcohol and stealing her virginity. Also, too she has thick skin but people are mean and her mom would be “awesome for the country” if she were president. Just awesome.
BTW..I did have to leave the room because there is just so much awesome that one can take.
Just Some Fuckhead
How is that arguable?
dmsilev
@Skippy-san: For the next election, they already have a face who embodies All Which Is Evil. The dark-skinned guy with the funny name and the big ears, remember him?
andy
Goddamn what a fucking sewer the Wapo comment threads are. It’s almost like people are being paid to be relentlessly goddamn fucking stupid.
alwhite
@10 JSF – some might suggest that the Sec of State has more power. Others wouldn’t care either way just note they both have powers unique to their offices and let it go at that.
Napoleon
@10 JSF and @13 alwhite
There are female SC Justices also who I think it could be argued are more powerful.
nwithers
@12 andy – That’s because they ARE being paid to be “relentlessly goddamn fucking stupid”
http://www.paidforumposting.com/content/
Viva BrisVegas
Nancy Reagan?
Nancy Reagan’s astrologer?
arguingwithsignposts
@JPL – bristol is also on the front pafe of usa todays life section today. must be book publicity week. ugh.
and @skippy – that is one of the most politically tone deaf statements ive read here in a while outside the emo prog axis.
Chris
Sorry to pile on, but I agree with those who disagree with Skippy San.
You could get rid of Pelosi, and within days the new speaker would be in exactly the same position that she’s in now. The fact is that Pelosi’s been a perfectly good speaker, a perfectly good representative, and she deserves to stay in office on those terms alone. If some asshole in Kentucky thinks she’s too San Franciscoey for his “real” part of the nation, fuck him with a pitchfork.
AAA Bonds
Sticking with leaders is the best policy for the Democrats, to fight the perception that Democrats are spineless.
RalfW
This.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Meh. Pelosi’s ego is why Pelosi keeps going, just like most of the male politicians in D.C. Lust for power. Good god, the woman is 71 years old. D.C. is run by fossils.
And of course, she is so eager to keep the Dems numbers up and do everything to support the caucus that she couldn’t wait to get rid of Anthony Weiner. But when it came to GWB at the time, “impeachment was off the table.”
Fuck her.
She’s a corporate tool, just as are most of the others. Having a vagina doesn’t make her special.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
what we need is a set of left wing candidates who take the pelosi example and run with it. if you aren’t catching flak you aren’t over the target,wear your enemy’s attacks like a badge of honor.
AAA Bonds
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/michele-bachmanns-holy-war-20110622
RalfW
JSF @10 asks
This is your asinine, terrified senior editors at the paper speaking, via the reporter. Newspapers are unwilling to state facts as facts, just in case someone challenges them to back up something that, in some parallel universes, could appear to be an assertion rather than a fact.
I, for one, can’t really think of a more powerful woman in elected office, and I bet the reporter couldn’t either, but just in case some angry Pelosi-haters started haranguing the Post by “incorrectly glorifying her as more powerful than [blank]”, they cravenly wimp out and modify the superlative.
Cowards.
Johnny B
No one votes against a candidate because they don’t like the person who might become Speaker if the minority party wins a majority. The people who vilify Nancy are hard-core Republicans who will never vote for any Democratic candidate. Let them hate her as much as they like.
I actually trust Pelosi’s skills as the head of the effort to retake the House. I give her A 50/50 chance to pull it off, although I suspect her party’s fate is tied to Obama’s.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
If I didn’t think Timothy was a ratfucking dickwad before, man, I’m totally convinced now.
Rick Taylor
Nancy Pelosi is one of the few people in congress I trust.
Odie Hugh Manatee
No need for pay, we have plenty of Americans who are willing to be stupid for free. Plenty. Visit RedState or Free Republic for more than a few perfectly stupid examples.
We have millions of stupid people here. Millions.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@Fucen tarmal etc. etc.- Damn right. Scars from (figurative)war with those bastards are badges of honor.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Oh, and by the way, dickwad- Nancy is teh hawt for a 71 year old grandma. Natural born intelligence and toughness combined with the wisdom that only experience can give.
Nancy is a total badass; and truly badassed women scare the panties off of ninnehammers like Tim Fuckwad and your average Jebopathic pseudo-Christian “conservative.”
AAA Bonds
Hillary Clinton easily has more power than Nancy Pelosi because the State Department now functions under the imperial model of the Presidency practiced by George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Zagloba
Indeed they are. However, to play into that honor is to step on one of the double standard landmines: when a Republican, especially a woman, trumpets her opposition cred, s/he’s plucky or a Mama Grizzly. When a Democrat does so, s/he’s shrill and unSerious.
moonbat
The Republican campaign post election in 2010 to get Pelosi out of the minority leader position said it all. They are terrified of her because she is not afraid of them. Goddam right keep her in there. She knows every trick in the book and will let them get away with as little as possible while they are in the majority.
arguingwithsignposts
Stay classy. T. I
AAA Bonds
HOLY SHIT T.I. POSTS HERE? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ! ?
arguingwithsignposts
@aaa bonds – how much power does the secy state have apart from the president, exactly?
AAA Bonds
How much power does a speaker have apart from his or her party in Congress?
What matters is how much power the person and the position have, obviously, not how much power they’d have in a space capsule orbiting Jupiter.
Certainly, I’d be in favor of a less powerful Cabinet and a less powerful Presidency. Just like most Democrats were until 2008.
rikryah
Nancy Pelosi got shyt done. and, she did it without a hair out of place, in Dior and Jimmy Choos.
AAA Bonds
It is true that Pelosi dresses fly, like Cali should
cleek
1.21 gigawatts
comrade scott's agenda of rage
This.
Few teabaggers of the left realize that the single thing that kept the Bushies from totally finishing their agenda of destruction was not just a Dem-controlled House in 2007 but one led by a hard-as-nails legislator with an effectively non-working majority. When she was given a working majority in 09 and a Dem president, look at what was accomplished.
She is the perfect partner for a president like Obama. She regains the Speaker’s chair in 12 and he gets re-elected, watch for another blistering two years of legislative stuff. None of that will please the firebaggers tho.
And all of this assumes the Senate doesn’t flip which I think is highly likely.
slappy
Strong men also cry… strong men also cry.
AAA Bonds
One thing worth noting is that Republicans give WAAAAAAAAY more of a shit about Pelosi, Reid, etc. than Democrats do.
It’s a Whitewater/Janet Reno style thing – Republicans really believe these people are the Devil with a plan to Communize the U.S., as opposed to Democrats who see Boehner, Cantor, McConnell, etc. as bumbling idiots
cleek
no, they aren’t terrified of her. she’s their political opponent and they’re using the tools they have (including getting their base all frenzied-up over a caricature of her) to keep her and her party out of power. they’d treat any other Dem the same way – has nothing to do with her.
arguingwithsignposts
@aaa bonds- not true. I see them as people with a plan to install fascism in the u.s. – boehner, mcconnell, et al
Chris
GREAT SCOTT!!!
geg6
THIS.
Gawd, I love her. Love, love, love her. Bigger balls than any man in DC that I can see. I aspire to be as much like her as I can. Best Dem out there. Full stop.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Excellent, and convincing, retort. Idiot.
AAA Bonds
Good.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
OMG, please. She looks like Gloria Swanson transported into the painting “The Scream.” A classic example of plastic surgery gone scary.
She’s a corporate whore for the establishment. But as a hired shill, you already know that.
Valdivia
I love how everyone started calling Skippy, skippy-san. This place is awesome (to borrow from Ms Bristol)
I think Nancy Smash rocks and she will be once again the most effective speaker. Let her lead.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Well, we all know BJ is ALL about staying classy, it’s true.
piratedan
well I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Nancy Smash who recognized what a gift it was when the Ryan budget plan was floated for a vote and who arranged her cadre to make the R’s wear that debacle like an anchor. I weep for all the legislation that was passed that languished in the Senate because McConnell outmaneuvered Reid as they went to the scorched earth filibuster plan.
Omnes Omnibus
@ Tim…: You have your opinions and one doubts that anything anyone here says will change them. You don’t really engage in good faith debate. Is it any wonder that people don’t bother to take you seriously? I think not.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Nancy Pelosi, 2006: “Impeachment is off the table.”
Yes, she’s very brave and strong. Anthony Weiner she gets rid of, George W warmonger Bush, not so much.
Fuck her.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Explain please. Thanks.
Also:
Would it be your position that you Obots and Demlickers are wildly open to having your opinions changed? HAHAHAHAHA…
I always wonder where the hell the idea came from that BJ is intended to be a Democratic Establishment circle jerk, and all dissenting voices to that default position are discouraged? You jerkwads get enough stroking from each other, you don’t need it from me.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Tim, Tim, please, get the Republican dick out of your mouth. It’s making you hard to understand.
Omnes Omnibus
@ Tim…:
My opinion. You come here to troll. Have fun.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Tim’s just another piss-ant ratfucking white boy.
Fuck him.
After you get that Republican koch out of his ass, that is.
Ash Can
Shorter Tim I: WHERE’S MY GODDAMNED PONY?
Valdivia
So much pie in this thread
Cacti
I thought Andrew Cuomo was the new great white hopeless, and Weiner was the nutroots flavor of last month.
Citizen_X
That’s your comparison? Pelosi’s accomplished 1000 times more than Anthony Weiner ever will.
Ah, but Weiner was good at being a loudmouth, camera seeking poseur, so you found him entertaining, right? Go get ’em, Anthony! Who needs actual legislation?
Linda Featheringill
Ivan #30
This.
Any person would be lucky to spend some time with the lady. Doing whatever.
Cacti
Except for when an actual First Amendment issue came up in his own backyard, and he didn’t have boo to say about it.
A true man of the people and champion of the oppressed.
Dennis SGMM
Pelosi at least keeps some of the Democratic Reps from scattering like a covey of quail every time the Republicans start harrumphing in unison. At this point I can’t see a Dem resurgence in the House for years. Losing the majority there was bad, losing so many statehouses around a census year was worse. In ’12 we’ll be defending Senate seats on a roughly two-to-one ratio as well as defending the presidency. That means an uphill fight for Dems – especially since the Supreme Corporatist Court opened the floodgates to uncounted and unaccountable tides of cash.
Obama may win re-election. If he does he may also be saddled with a Republican Congress for whom scorched earth is a point of departure.
Cacti
I agree with regards to redistricting, and the sheer number of Senate seats that are in play.
Holding the Presidency in an election year, however, is decidedly advantageous.
Judas Escargot
You’d have preferred she wasted all of Jan 2009-Jan 2011 going after GWB? Seriously?
You must be lots of fun at Thanksgiving: “Tim, could you pass the cranberry sauce?”. “You stole my Darth Vader action figure when I was twelve! Fuck you!”
moonbat
If the Dem candidates for Senate have any brains they will run as the last bastion against the crazy House’s plan to privatize Medicare. It’s a winning issue and ones the Repubs for some suicidal reason seem unable to walk away from. Nail them to the wall with it.
And this issue alone is the reason it was good that Pelosi didn’t retire. They thought they’d be able to get the Dems to come up with some compromise plan to Ryan’s. Her response: We have a plan. It is called Medicare.
clestes
Skippy
they tried running against Nancy in the NY-26. Didn’t matter. Medicare matters. She is doing the right thing here. Staying in and positioning the dems to take the House back. She can do it.
Dennis SGMM
@Judas Escargot
I can’t help but think that one of the results of the move to impeach Nixon was the move to impeach Bill Clinton. Had Pelosi attempted (And inevitably failed) to impeach GWB today’s House Republicans would be ginning up Obama’s impeachment rather than diddling themselves with the Ryan plan.
kay
Hey, Tim? Pelosi won an election. Her colleagues in the House elected her leader, over that other guy. Much as you want to make this as being about something she didn’t earn, and that AL is somehow celebrating the fact that she’s female, the facts are she did earn it. She got more votes.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Obots are not known for their originality.
kay
Oh, no you don’t, Tim. Pelosi didn’t “get rid” of Weiner. Weiner pled. He ran away, again.
He had expulsion process available to him. He chose not to fight. Just like he chose to apologize and grovel for what he said was a grave breach of trust.
He said that, right before he resigned. Decisions were made. He made them.
For someone who’s such a stickler for accountability and process, you ignore a lot that reflects poorly on your heroes.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
So basically, we “have to look forward, not behind…?”
Too bad that doesn’t apply to all criminals. Our prisons would be empty. What a joke.
Rick Taylor
My favorite quote from the above:
__
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Kay:
What the hell are you talking about? Please point out where I stated anything in disagreement with the above. Thanks.
So, then, moving along…regardless of how she got to where she is, the fact remains that she is a corporate/establishment tool, who operates by the D.C. principal that the larger and more horrendous one’s crimes, the less likely one is to pay a price for them.
Weiner’s weiner pics: OUT. Bush’s wars and torture and illegal wiretapping: PASS
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Kay:
Horseshit. If Pelosi and establishment Dems had backed him up instead of publicly calling for his resignation, threatening to cut off his office’s electricity, threatening to eliminate his committee seats, etc., and twisting arms behind the scenes, Weiner would still be where he was.
But then, he is not responsible for thousands and thousands of war dead and trillions wasted, so Nancy’s not OK with it. She is much more accommodating to REpublican war criminals.
Please.
kay
Pelosi didn’t expel Anthony Weiner, Tim. Again: he pled.
Pelosi did acknowledge that she has power in Congress over the (allegedly) “unaccountable and imperial executive”, unlike the rest of the cowards in Congress, who continue to insist they don’t have power that they have. She said “I have it, and I’m choosing not to use it”. That’s a strong legislative branch leader.
She could have done what the rest of them do, which is pretend they don’t have it .
Larkspur
T-Troll, you are getting boring. You are acting all cranky and repetitive and it is tiresome. I think I will skip over your comments now.
Bill Murray
@Judas Escargot:
well since the quote was made in, what, 2006, and GWB wasn’t President from 2009-2011, so impeachment was moot, your point is really pointless.
Larkspur
Bill Murray 81: I believe mootiness and the recognition thereof was the point.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Wow. You’re right. That IS a very strong leader. One who says “I could stop you from recklessly destroying this country, but by God, I am not going to do it. So there!”
Kay, from what I’ve seen here I have some respect for you, but you are displaying the usual symptoms of having been assimilated. You’re INSIDE. Perspective check, please.
kay
If Pelosi and establishment Dems had backed him up instead of publicly calling for his resignation, threatening to cut off his office’s electricity, threatening to eliminate his committee seats, etc., and twisting arms behind the scenes, Weiner would still be where he was.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Excellent. A sure sign that my points are hitting nerves, making you a tad uncomfortable.
Please do feel free to skip my comments and continue pleasuring your fellow Pelosi/Demlickers.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Hello? His resignation WAS the capitulation.
Nancy should have been kicking Breitfart’s ass instead of one of her fellow Dem’s.
kay
If she were one of your heroes she’d have made up some nonsense about the “unaccountable executive” victimizing her and magically wiping away her power under the Constitution.
Instead, she acknowledged the process that exists to hold the exceutive to account, she acknowledged the power that she had, and she made an actual decision.
Then she took the heat for the decision, as a congressional leader. And got re-elected, by nearly the entire liberal caucus. She’s some operator, tricking all those liberals into voting for her.
kay
No, no, no. He appeared, confessed that he lied, apologized, and said how damaging and awful his behavior was. You’re the only one making the argument that his behavior wasn’t damaging or serious. He said it was. Was he lying again? It’s really no big deal but he said it was a big deal? Which is it?
Then it was merely a matter of how he was going to be held accountable for the behavior he described as serious and damaging and wrong. His suggestion was “no accountability at all” (understandably, I guess) but his peers there in the House didn’t agree with that.
Once he made the first groveling apology, once he defined his own behavior as horrible and wrong, it was all begging for mercy, Tim.
Decisions were made. By him.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Kay, it’s pointless to argue with Tim. He’s a compleat ninnehammer, and unworthy of the energy required to hit the type keys.
Oh, and Tim, before you respond– I keep doing it because I like spitting in your drink, you brain-dead shit-for-brains no-load cockbreath monkey sucking piece of firebagging shit.
Now have a nice day, motherfucker.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Keep beating that drum, Kay. Maybe even you will believe that narrative some day.
It’s disappointing to see someone with your intellect put so much energy into kidding themselves.
Also, too, furthermore, and additionally: Your summary of Pelosi’s AWESOME and FEARSOME and BRAVE decision to not use her AWESOMENESS, in its desperation to make her sound STRONG, makes the story even more pathetically transparent: She played the insider game and bowed to the realities of corrupt Washington. Of course she was re elected. Re elected by a bunch of corrupt hacks.
To you, that signifies greatness. I say it illuminates how a corrupt system protects the powerful and punishes the weak.
WereBear
That’s right SHE IS. (Well, I also admire President Obama’s accomplishments.) But in terms of getting things done, she is an awesome ally, and knows her stuff so darn well.
kay
Oh, yes. The weak. The powerless. The defenseless.
Like Anthony Weiner. Who was married by Bill Clinton. A power political wedding that was featured in Vogue magazine. They probably invaded his privacy there under duress. Maybe Pelosi made him do it.
I’m sure he’ll get a secure sinecure somewhere or other. He’s middle aged, and he’s never done anything else than talk a lot.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
What is your REAL issue with Anthony Weiner, as a person?
It’s informative to know that you, like Pelosi, think sexting is a crime greater than lying a nation into war.
To me that’s crazy. But that’s just me. And I don’t hang out at insidery Dem-leaning blog conferences to find out what all the cool blog kids think. That’s your gig.
Tom Hilton
@Timothy etc.:
You just completely missed the part about grandstanders vs. people who actually do the hard work to pass legislation, didn’t you?
Weiner was a grandstander, and not much for the hard work. He was very effective at it, and that’s what made him valuable to the Democrats. Once his visibility became a negative, though, he was no longer useful to the party. That’s why he got cut loose.
Clearer now?
MaximusNYC
Emo progressive is emo.
I have no use for people who hold eternal grudges about the perfect ponies that Democrats woulda, coulda, shoulda given them in a perfect universe, while ignoring the actual achievements of one of the most effective liberal politicians of my lifetime (=40 years).
Politics for these people is an endless series of purity tests, which Dems (and all officeholders) will always fail, because, newflash: politics isn’t pure, and never has been. These folks are stuck in a childlike view of politicians as either saints or sellouts. And they are ignorant of the true history of progressivism, which has ALWAYS been advanced in a messy, compromised, stop-start manner.
Of course pundits and other unelected, powerless people can loudly proclaim the most pure and unsullied progressivism — and we need those people to remind us of where we want to go — but people with actual responsibilities don’t usually have that luxury.
This is why I was suspicious of John Edwards in the 2007/8 campaign. He had a lot of progressives on his side because he said all the right things. But unlike Clinton and Obama, he had no power or responsibility, and thus no accountability for anything he said. When you looked at his actual record in the Senate, he’d done very little. Weiner is a similar case in point: talked a good game (and we need talkers), but had almost no real accomplishments to his name.
Pay attention to what they do, not what they say. And understand the constraints within which they operate. Finally, don’t pout like a 12-year-old when you don’t get everything you demand, right away. That’s not how the real world works.
kay
It’s informative to know that you, like Pelosi, think sexting is a crime greater than lying a nation into war.
kay
Tim, here’s where he made the decision:
See? I didn’t say “terrible mistakes” or include “constituents”. He did.
There was an alternative statement that he might have made, which is your argument, where he would say it wasn’t terrible and it didn’t effect his work.
But that’s not what he said. Until one of them says it, it’s not operable in any real sense. They’re (all these guys, always) accepting the charges. None of them are making your argument.
I think you need the “defendant”, Tim. I don’t know how you go on w/this w/out him:)
TooManyJens
@Timothy etc.:
If Weiner hadn’t lied to his own caucus and leadership, maybe they would have backed him. I’ve always read this as a party discipline issue rather than as any statement from Pelosi and the Dems that texting dick pictures is necessarily something that requires removal from Congress. And they could get rid of Weiner without derailing their entire legislative agenda for the next two years — in fact, getting rid of them probably helped to refocus attention where they want it.
I hate that GWB and his cronies got away with torture and aggressive war. You won’t believe that, and I don’t really give a fuck if you do, but I hate it. I was one of the people in 2006 sending angry messages to Pelosi’s office when she talked about impeachment being off the table. But I honestly don’t know how the Dems could possibly go about investigating and punishing those crimes and still be able to govern the country in any functional way, given what the Republican reaction would be. I don’t. Do you? If not, you need to at least realize the tradeoff you’re calling for.
Tom Hilton
Sadly, the word “tradeoff” does not exist in the emoprog vocabulary.
Judas Escargot
@Dennis SGMM:
Yep, this: I remember reading during the Clinton fiasco that some GOP Senators were saying as much (behind closed doors, of course) that this was ‘payback’ for Nixon.
One of the many flaws of gerontocracy is that the rest of us get to pay for slights and transgressions that took place when we were in diapers– or not even born.
Violet
So late to this thread, but just wanted to add my own NANCY SMASH! to it. She’s just awesome. Love her. I hope she gets her gavel back.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Gavel, hell. I want her to get a big ol’ Gallagher sized mallet and start knockin’ fools in their thick heads.
Thoughtcrime
How about something like this?:
http://zespara.deviantart.com/art/Female-Thor-Commission-105102586
RalfW
It’s the madonna/whore complex applied to the vendors of magic sparkle ponies, I mean elected officals.
LanceThruster
I consider myself a progressive Dem who doesn’t want to join in on the Pelosi wank-fest. Would have been much happier if Cindy Sheehan won her seat.
Just sayin’.
Tom Hilton
Jeebus O’Malley Christ, are there seriously still people who consider Cindy Sheehan anything other than a dimbulb wackjob?
Or do you just have such a deep deranged hatred of Pelosi that you think even a dimbulb wackjob would be better in her seat?
(In any case, we San Franciscans chose Pelosi over that carpetbagger from Cow Town–aka Vacaville–by a 7 to 1 margin.)
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Tim the idiot
A politician who bows to reality?! NO! IMPURE! Politicians must live in my fantasy world of unicorns and gumdrops! How dare a politician even acknowledge reality? Where’s my pretty ponies?!
I also like that you consider the people of Pelosi’s district to be a bunch of corrupt hacks. They’re all phonies. Everyone is a phony! Everyone but you!
Sorry that this fallen world is too debased for your beautiful soul.
brokenax
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida Congresswoman, cancer survivor. With two away in the final inning she watched as the two batters in front of her were intentionally walked. To get to her. Let’s just say it didn’t work out for the opposition. She’s a fighter. Glad to have her on the team.
http://media.talkingpointsmemo.com/slideshow/congresssoftball/1-181428
John Puma
A strong woman doesn’t take impeachment off the table, especially when
she has just become the first of her gender to be speaker of the US House of Representatives.
LanceThruster
OK, so moving and getting politically active in one’s new area of residence in a no-no. As far as “dimbulbs” go, I saw Pelosi on C-SPAN books promoting “Know Your Power” as she talked all about her upbringing which made “doing the right thing” non-negotiable (though impeachment was “off the table”).
I’ve also seen Citizen Sheehan speak truth to power eloquently. No dimbulb or wackjob she. She got some good local endorsements and Rep. Pelosi was unwilling to debate her or even consider acting in behest of the will of her constituency.
If Pelosi wasn’t speaker, some other Dem sell-out would be filling her shoes, but Cindy Sheehan would speak out on issues so many other Dems are afraid to (in the manner Dennis Kucinich does).
If Madame Speaker Pelosi was such a godd@mned powerhouse, maybe she could have done something to keep “dimbulb wackjob” (your words) Cindy Sheehan’s child from being killed in some bullsh!t US war on “terroristism.”
LanceThruster
A strong woman doesn’t take impeachment off the table, especially when
she has just become the first of her gender to be speaker of the US House of Representatives.
Hear, hear, John Puma!
Tom Hilton
@SharpstickNudger: yeah, you have a really good point. If Speaker Pelosi is such a goddamn powerhouse, why wasn’t she able to build a time machine, go back in time, and single-handedly prevent the Iraq war?
To expect anything less from our leaders is to be a corporatist sellout.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Hey Maroon: I was bloviating about the other corrupt congressslime who elected her minority leader. Pay attention.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@dipshit Timmy
Way to ignore my main point, which is that you’re proud to disregard reality as something that should be considered by a politician if they want your favor. No, no, focus on the joke I made based on your failure to write clearly. That’s what’s truly important.
The kind of politicians you want don’t exist. They can’t exist. They are no less fantastical than leprechauns and fairies. Again, so sorry that the world isn’t the whimsical wonderland you’d prefer. Now, go back to your Disney cartoons and let the people who can stomach the real world deal with this pile of shit as best they can.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Yes, Da Da…you the man. You so big and strong and mature and have no standards…yes, you the man.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
And you most certainly ain’t.
LanceThruster
Tom Hilton #112 – Time machine needed? Not really. She could have just stood on principle and voted against continued funding of the war.
see: Nancy Pelosi: Still Talking Against the War and Voting for It
She is successful within the power structure that on many issues makes the Dems only slightly less repulsive than the GOP. That being said, Cindy Sheehan represents the progressive base of Dems far better than Pelosi (and that’s 63% of Pelosi’s district).