Stop Me Before I Vote Again

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) approached Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on the floor Tuesday evening to see if she would attach her name to the most recent version of a joint resolution supporting Israel in its battle with two militant Islamic groups.

... Pelosi... wanted Republicans to include language asking the two sides to limit civilian casualties.

Boehner... told the minority leader he would bring the resolution to the floor with or without her support.

Pelosi then told him that she would back the measure, and even make a floor statement supporting it....

Of course, when she didn't get anything to tell them, she just shrugged her shoulders and said, in essence, Oh well, fuck 'em. He who pays the piper calls the tune.

Here's Pelosi's letter to Hastert insisting on keeping the Congress in session to deal with vital issues like minimum wage, homeland security, health-care, etc. This is the democrats' new aggressive policy of keeping in the Republicans' face through October. No mention of impending war with Iran, thoughl. You can count on us, there, Dennis!

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/House_Democratic_leaders_vow_to_block_0925.html

There's also an interesting speculative question, which Pelosi & Co. may not have considered: is it really to their advantage to let their candidate be seen more than his opponent? After all, the strategy for this fall appears to be based on the idea that American voters will prefer the devil they don't know.

In recent days, Pelosi said, [the Democrats'] prospects have improved by the discovery that former Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida had sent sexually explicit computer messages to teenage male pages....

"It's an opportunity for growth among women" for the Democrats, she said. "They don't always vote and this could be a motivation."

With married women, in particular, it's a huge issue, she added.

Among older voters, too. "If there's an ethical issue, seniors take a hike" and abandon politicians they blame, she said. "If we hold onto seniors we win the election."

Business hedges bets by donating to Pelosi
Firms open wallets in case Democrats take back House

Traditionally Republican big business interests are hedging their electoral bets this year by increasing their campaign contributions to Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, whose party is given a healthy shot at taking House control in the Nov. 7 elections....

Pelosi's main campaign committee reported raising more than $1.2 million, including $730,025 from political action committees, for the 2006 election through June 30.... 54.2 percent of the PAC money -- more than $400,000 -- given to Pelosi in the first six months of 2006 came from businesses. That's up from $366,000 for the entire 2003-04 election cycle, her first as House minority leader, and $207,750 in 2001-02....

The increase is even more pronounced for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee [which] received about $20.6 million from business interests in the first half of 2006. That's up from $19.5 million for all of the 2004 cycle and represents almost 50 percent of the group's total fundraising.

For the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the increase was even bigger, up 15.8 percent to $31.5 million, a figure that represented 76.8 percent of the committee's fundraising total.

• George Miller
• Anna G. Eshoo
• Edward J. Markey
• Rosa L. DeLauro
• David R. Obey
• John M. Spratt Jr.
• Rahm Emanuel

Conjure, if you dare, these three comic-book heroes: snake princess Pelosi, the E-mam, and the reincarnation of Tip O'Neill.

I call on J Elvis to give us the banner icon -- err, tri-con.

G.O.P. Ads Star Democratic Leader
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER LOS ANGELES, Nov. 1 - Representative Melissa Bean of Illinois, a Democrat, has a Republican opponent in next week's election, but he does not appear in the advertisement that skewers her. Instead, that role is being played by a fellow Democrat, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader.

Jim Marshall is paired with Ms. Pelosi in a commercial in Georgia.

A spot in Indiana again cast Ms. Pelosi in a pair, with John Conyers.

Judging by some of the political name-calling in the final days before the elections, Ms. Pelosi seems to be in the thick of campaigns for Congress from Illinois to Georgia and several places in between. She is the unwitting star of at least a half-dozen television spots - and countless radio spots, direct-mail campaigns and candidate debates -warning voters that if they choose their local Democrat for Congress, they are also casting a vote for Ms. Pelosi.

The problem with the tactic, Democrats and some Republican strategists say, is that many voters have no idea who Ms. Pelosi is. That can make the advertisements sound more desperate than menacing, or at the least, confounding.

"It's awful hard to make a boogeyman out of someone no one knows," said Ed Rollins, a Republican political consultant. "The reality is, no one is going to vote for a Republican congressman because they are afraid of Nancy Pelosi."

Don't let the DLC and DCCC spin-meisters fool you. This election was not a mandate for the Democratic Party to run to the middle. It was a mandate for the Democratic Party to do everything in its power to get us out of Iraq -- rapidly and responsibly.

And that's why the next thing Democrats need to do is make sure that Jack Murtha becomes the new Majority Leader of the House. He led the charge to make Iraq the central issue of this campaign, and led the charge to keep pressing the issue when other Democratic leaders wanted to tone down the rhetoric or move economic issues to the forefront.

Jack Murtha's leadership sparked last night's victory and has given Democrats control of Congress for the first time in a dozen years. Now they have to complete the end-the-Iraq-debacle mission the voters have given them. And Murtha's the leader who can take them the rest of the way.

Roll Call: Pelosi comes out for Murtha in Majority Leader's race.
Pelosi's letter to Murtha

11/12/2006

Dear Jack,

Thank you for your letter requesting my support for your candidacy for Majority Leader in the 110th Congress.

...Your strong voice for national security, the war on terror and Iraq provides genuine leadership for our party, and I count on you to continue to lead on these vital issues. For this and for all you have done for Democrats in the past and especially this last year, I am pleased to support your candidacy for Majority Leader for the 110th Congress. As we move forward and work together on the urgent questions of Iraq, the war on terrorism, strengthening our military to meet 21st century challenges, improving our national security.... your presence in the leadership of our party would add a knowledgeable and respected voice to our Democratic team.

For the moment at least, the generals seems to have stolen a march on the Lobby. Oh to have been a fly on the wall.

Here's the Times' latest. First look at the picture, then read the text, below.

Pelosi Rebuffed Over Her Choice for Majority Leader
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 — House Democrats chose Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland as their new majority leader on Thursday, rejecting the choice of the incoming speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and straining the unity of the new majority party....

“Let the healing begin,” said Ms. Pelosi....

In the view of many Democrats, Ms. Pelosi’s liberal reputation is offset by Mr. Hoyer’s moderate image....

So why does Murtha look so grim? Did he really think he had a shot, the poor old fool? More to the point, why does Rahm look so grim? You would think -- wouldn't you -- that this was a victory for him?

And then there's that funny look on Pelosi's own face -- like a person who has been paid quite a lot to be sodomized, and who's just now figuring out precisely what that entails.

On a side note, I'm deeply amused by the pair of unidentified brown hands protruding into the frame from the right. Never one to underestimate the Times' photo editors -- much as I may despise its writers -- I have to believe that somebody noted the echo of Durer's famous drawing.

These praying hands -- will their owner's prayers be answered? Depends on what the prayers are. If the supplicant is asking for a job, he or she may well get one. But if something is being sought for the race -- well, good luck.

Believe the tower press and you'd figure that Nancy, this "embattled" crusader for mideast peace, has already suffered crippling loses to the Rahm and Steny show, But really, folks do you buy this gig? Is this fierce little party chieftain really lashed by her colleagues, a lady Prometheus, to the rock of Iraq? Will her liver be pecked at mercilessly by dembo hawks for all of the next two years, as the Baghdad blood and sand patrol just continues its slow drift to nowhere?

Or has the ever level-headed, ravenously ambitious, tough as a cactus snake speaker of the house Nan Francisco just made it seem as though this is the "real story" -- to make her gay and dovey home district still warm and friendfull for little Nancy of the thousand smiles, while Nan of a hundred deals peddles her soul over and over to the empire?

Why do incorrigible donkey-sniffers like Greider always profess such amazement and indignation at these inevitable follies?

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=144330

Same Old Same Old
by William Greider

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi ought to find a quiet place where she can sit down and recount the election. She was not chosen by her friends in Silicon Valley or by the friendly investment bankers on both coasts.... So why does Pelosi begin the education of her freshman members with a seminar on Rubinomics? Robert Rubin, the Citigroup executive and former Treasury secretary, will appear solo next week before the party caucus to explain the economy....

When labor officials heard about this, they asked to be included since they have very different ideas about what Democrats need to do in behalf of struggling workers and middle-class families. Pelosi decided against it. This session, her spokesman explains, is only about "fiscal responsibility"... It is seriously unwise for this new Speaker to leave an impression she has already chosen sides.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/21/AR2006122101865_pf.html

Pelosi Aims To Recast Self, Party New House Speaker Plans a 4-Day Fete
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer

On a scale associated with presidential inaugurations, Nancy Pelosi is planning four days of celebration surrounding her Jan. 4 swearing-in as the first female speaker of the House. She will return to the blue-collar Baltimore neighborhood where she grew up, attend Mass at the women's college where she studied political science, and dine at the Italian Embassy as Tony Bennett sings "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."

What really bugs me about all this is that a former member of the Grateful Dead -- drummer Mickey Hart -- at Pelosi's self-aggrandizement...uh, that is swearing-in party. You'd think someone of Mickey's history and background wouldn't be swigging Kool-Aid -- that is, Kool-Aid with something besides LSD in it. (;^>

Looks as if The Nancy is going to be doing what Mexicans cynically describe as "taking a bath in the People"...putting in appearances in her old 'hood, her old school.

Oh, and btw, as the DW and I were coming back into town from visiting my sister's place down in Virginia, heading west on Penn Ave back towards our house on Capitol Hill (come visit our scenic Green Zone), the Metrobus-stop shelters had entire sides filled with The Nancy's beaming portrait and the bold banner headline (paraphrasing a bit) "Congratulations, Speaker Pelosi, etc. etc." Jayzus Keerist, the "New face of the Democratic Party". Oh, God, please kill me now.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/print?id=2805714

Pelosi Won't Block Funding to Stop Iraq Troop Surge....
Nancy Pelosi Tells ABC News' Diane Sawyer That Bush 'Has to Answer for This War'

...Nancy Pelosi says she won't block funding for additional troops.... Democrats in Congress would not be held responsible for putting the soldiers in the troop surge in additional harm's way by blocking funds....

Sawyer: Are you going to move to cut off funding for troops going into Iraq as part of the surge?

Pelosi: Democrats will never cut off funding for our troops when they are in harm's way, but we will hold the president accountable.... That's why Congress will vote to oppose the president's escalation, from the standpoint of policy. We will have our disagreement.

Sawyer: But short of that -- questions posed, resolutions passed -- short of that, are you acquiescing in the surge if the pocketbook is the only other control mechanism?

Pelosi: The president knows that because the troops are in harm's way, that we won't cut off the resources....

Sawyer: You have talked about beginning withdrawals in four to six months. Everyone would like to know, what would you propose that we do if suddenly it looks like a complete conflagration? What is the Democratic plan in the event of that?

Pelosi: First of all, [it is] the president's war. He's the one without a plan....

Sawyer: Can you fathom any circumstance under which you would say, "No, leave troops there?"

Pelosi: Well, you always evaluate circumstances as they are a threat to the United States and what we do must make the American people safer, not weaken our military, and bring stability to the region.

And they're going to insist on using migraine-inducing cliche phrases, over and over. "In harm's way" -- the reek of beery war-buff sentimentality off that one is enough to choke a turkey buzzard. I guess it's the new "boots on the ground."

The delightful image above is, as I write, on Nancy Pelosi's Web site. I've saved it in case it vanishes, as I daresay it will, now that:

...thanks to the outpouring of support from volunteers all across the San Francisco Bay Area, the petitioning teams were able to gather the signatures required to place a truly independent and fighting candidate for the people on the ballot in the 8th District of San Francisco.

At 1:17 p.m. today, the Department of Elections certified officially that Cindy is on the ballot!

I never give money to political campaigns, but, you know, a foolish consistency and all that... I sent ole Cindy a check. If it gives Pelosi even half a second more insomnia, I'll consider it money well spent.

Mike Flugennock writes:

What, again?

Pelosi sees Dems' convention opening new era

Nancy Pelosi

This week, thousands of Americans from across the country will gather in Denver....

Monday night, I will have an opportunity to speak to my fellow Democrats and the American people about what I believe is the most critical election of my lifetime.... Let us begin anew.

Wasn't the slogan of the 1980 GOP Convention "Together, A New Beginning"? Didn't La Nan say, on "Meet The Press" in 2006, "It's going to be a new day" -- in the same interview where she says that impeachment of El Presidente is "not on the table"? Oh, and Smiff, which DP hack was it that said "...and now, we govern..." after the DP's landslide mandate of 2006?

It's been years now -- and I've felt the lack like a hole square through my simple Celtic heart -- but finally last night the ghost of Hunter T returned to my bedchamber.

"Paine, you suckling porker you -- what's up? The Hill ain't your beat no more? The congress beneath your dignity or something?"

He did not wait upon my answer.

"Shit, I gotta rush this. It's unofficial -- my being here -- officially I'm playing stud poker with my buddy Rainer-Marie. He has over some loose-ass motherfuckers -- Luke Apuleius, Joe Addison, Bill Occam. I'm missin' this for you, Paine. And if the Angkor scans me while I'm here -- it's zoop! Back down to the pit, and pronto.

"Maybe you didn't grasp this back there, couple-three years ago, but I can't haunt anyone but Congress watchers. The triad is into pure mission focus -- god bless 'em -- and as a liberator, second rate, I'm assigned to visitatin' with scribes of the north american peoples' representatives only.

"Why, you ask? 'Cause -- err, um -- well that body in its profane wisdom ultimately must be the catalyst of the American people's salvation -- kinda like the Roman senate wasn't, vis-a-vis the imperial system and all. Only this time it's gotta be different -- this time the congress is gonna topple the unitary presidency -- or I'll fuck Ma Cass." I can't really quite capture describe this patter of Hunters -- it all came at me in shape-shifts, likea lunatic sampling of recollected voices. There was a fair measure of Clark Gable, and some offputting Gabby Hayes, and maybe a touch of David Brinkley, and lots, I mean lots, of Bob Reich for some reason.

"And now, you got this het hip Adlai type right up there in the White House ready to play the people's emperor bit. Seeing as the monocrats' monomania is ceaseless aquistion of more elbow room -- pushing the power envelope -- well this guy's gonna try pushin' into new regions.

"So madame speaker, the Nan there, with her hag closeups and lampshade suits and huge chest cones and all, needs to quit this bride of Frankenstein bit -- cut out the Gothic Boulevard, seven-veil act for Barack, and spend her quality time clawing up the GOP leadership like the wild bloody she-cat she is.

"Bypass the prez tango and just gain traction by hacking away at those closet-fruit top-shelfers across the aisle. Run the bastards back and forth through a shambles, put on an S and M show in the House like nothin' since Thaddeus Stevens ran things.

"Call it Congressional Reconstruction II -- the red states' reconstruction, the spiritual Dixie reconstruction. You got me? She needs by congressional action alone to organize all those mongrel sunbelt wage-class helots, the undocs, the brothers, all the busted rednecks and tattoo Annies alike into a national system of freedmens' bureaus -- and -- and -- Fuck! No! I'm getting recalled! Shit!"

And right then, poof! he disappeared.

I have no notion nor even the inkling of a notion where Hunter was going with all that.

I suspect I'd better attend to the house that Madison built once again, like I did through the election of '06, and hope that'll give Hunter permission to return and fill in the rest of the plan.

The antidemocratic, anti-Constitutional, forces that tried torturing captives into confessing Sadaam ordered them to carry out the September 11 attacks (see Senate Armed Services Committee Report) are now trying to torture the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States into confessing she shares their guilt. This is consistent with the purposes of torture; coercion and blackmail.

Link

That's cheap sophistry. Disingenuous from the start. What the Republicans are doing, now, is consistent with vengeful, minatory stool pigeon behavior. They are making it clear that they'll drag her down with them if there's so much as a hint of a real investigation. What they did, previously, was make sure she was too dirty to raise objections. The latter seems like excessive precaution to me, given her mindless enthusiasm, but it's consistent with their criminal mentality.

Moreover, Pelosi's position is nothing like that of a torture victim's. She can bring the wingnuts up short whenever she feels like it. The very worst that will happen to her is she'll lose office and become a hideously wealthy lobbyist. She is certainly not going to be tied hand and foot, smeared with feces, beaten and left to lie on a chilled floor until she goes mad. It's not in the cards. Not remotely. She's not going to be put in full body restraints and force fed. Nor does she face water boarding. She's not going to be tortured. It's grandiose hysterics to even make the comparison. She could put a stop to their media antics, herself, at any time by demanding a full, independent investigation.

Even in the most generous interpretation of her actions, Pelosi is the worst kind of politician. She lacked the street smarts to cope with experts in plausible deniability. She leapt into the role of useful idiot. She lacked the sense of self-preservation, never mind integrity, to sound an alarm once it was clear she'd been set up as a patsy. She was stupidly eager to collude with vicious thugs, and now she's paying the smallest possible price for it. She's an accessory to crimes against humanity, she walked into the role with her eyes wide open, and she shows no signs of remorse. Worse, I'll bet she gets reelected easily. She's perfectly representative of her defenders.

I may have mentioned before that I regularly get begging emails from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). I got one a couple months ago signed by Al Gore. More recently I've had a few signed by James Carville. Why anybody would think that people would want to send money to James Carville or anything associated with him is hard to fathom, but presumably the DCCC know their target market.

Today's mail jumped the shark, though:

From: Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Subject: Because of You
Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 10:44:50 -0400
X-Mailer: PHPMailer [version 1.71-blue_mailer]

Dear Michael,

You are among a special group of committed Democrats whose sacrifice and dedication made our victories last November possible. For all you've done to support the Democratic Party and to move America in a New Direction you have my deepest gratitude.

I want to offer you and a guest a special invitation for a chance to join me at my table at our dinner with President Obama in Washington, DC on June 18th for the President's Dinner.

Contribute $5, $10, or more and be automatically entered for a chance to win a free trip to Washington, D.C. to join President Obama and me....

1. What's second prize -- two dinners with Nancy Pelosi?
2. If I don't contribute, will Nancy come to my house and waterboard me?