Pelosi Reverting To Partisan Tactics?
I’m shocked…shocked I tell you…to find out that the House Republicans’ voting against the ‘Mother of all Porkfests’ is causing Speaker Pelosi is reverting to her time-tested partisan tactics. Here’s what Politico is reporting:
When the book is written on Nancy Pelosi’s reign as speaker of the House, the thinnest chapter just might turn out to be: “Bipartisanship and the 111th Congress.”
To hear her aides and associates tell it, Pelosi entered last week on her best bipartisan behavior, hoping that billions in tax cuts would be enough to lure six to 10 Republican House members to vote for the $819 billion stimulus plan.
To Republicans, it was a typical Pelosi pose, and they accused her of ramming one of the biggest spending bills in history down their throats while scaling back President Barack Obama’s tax-cut proposal to fund 40 years’ worth of liberal wish-list items.
In the end, the GOP unleashed a Rush-and-Drudge media campaign on funding for contraceptives and resodding of the National Mall tucked into the package, and Pelosi was genuinely surprised that every single Republican House member voted against it.
As a result, the speaker’s public commitment to bipartisanship may quickly yield to a depressingly familiar pattern of partisan combat that comes along with her new role as Obama’s human shield.
None of this was entirely unexpected, but the window of opportunity is closing fast for Republicans. And a handful of Democrats who defied her on the stimulus, especially Reps. Paul E. Kanjorksi of Pennsylvania and Heath Shuler of North Carolina, may also find themselves shut out, Pelosi associates and Democratic aides tell Politico.
It isn’t difficult to argue that Speaker Pelosi is a vindictive person if you cross her. The Politico’s reporting that Heath Schuler and Paul Kanjorski are in Ms. Pelosi’s doghouse supports the theory that crossing Ms. Pelosi is the fastest ticket to politically irrelevancy.
There’s another message behind Ms. Pelosi’s putting Rep. Schuler in her doghouse: It’s fine to be a Blue Dog. It isn’t fine voting like a Blue Dog.
Speaker Pelosi has essentially said that Rep. Schuler is a token moderate, that he’s a ’show-and-tell’ piece. Ms. Pelosi’s saying that Democrats are the big tent party. It’s unfortunate that their tent is filled with doghouses for those that don’t reflexively obey Ms. Pelosi.
It’s worth noting that Speaker Pelosi’s brand of bipartisanship is cutting a number of tax cuts that President Obama wanted, then getting upset with Republicans for not following like lemmings. That isn’t small D democratic rule. That’s autocratic rule, which has typified Ms. Pelosi’s reign as Speaker.
If this reporting is accurate, Speaker Pelosi might be get a private doghouse in the West Wing:
“Remember, you have a speaker who has dealt with that for a couple years. She dealt with it as minority leader, she dealt with it as speaker [under President George W. Bush],” another staffer close to Pelosi said.
“What she realized with Obama coming in was that, yeah, we can go through this dance, but at the end of the day, this was going to be a tutorial for the Obama folks,” the person added. “They’re all going to vote against you and then come to your cocktail party that night.”
Speaker Pelosi playing chicken with a president with 60+ percent approval ratings is a surefire way of winding up in the political hospital. Maintaining an attitude that the Speaker would tutor President Obama also speaks to Speaker Pelosi’s arrogance.
The only way a politician can successfully attack President Obama is with logic, sound policies and with an absence of condescension. Speaker Pelosi’s actions suggest that Speaker Pelosi foolishly believes she’s running DC and that President Obama is her underling.
My final analysis is that Speaker Pelosi’s partisanship and arrogance is giving friend and foe alike justifiable justifications for abandoning her.
Technorati Tags: Porkfest, Nancy Pelosi, Partisanship, President Obama, Paul Kanjorski, Heath Schuler, Blue Dogs
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
February 2nd, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Nancy Pelosi has had lower ratings than President George W. Bush (whom she still insults on a regular basis) and SHE’S STILL IN POWER! That horrible little man, Harry Reid, who plays her Congressional sidekick - he’s still there too. In fact, shameless corruption, gross negligence and utter incompetence are the proud attributes of the Democrat (European-Specialist) Party leaders. So what can the rest of America do, short of losing its collective mind, to kick Pelosi and her blood-sucking cronies out of office? Why do Democrats get to keep rewarding their own criminals?