nancy pelosi – Page 8

As ye sow, Nancy, so shall ye reap.

Ace of Spades HQ gives bravery props to the Speaker for snapping back at the Code Pinkers; I don’t. A mad scientist who can’t face her own creations is no mad scientist at all.

And ‘created’ is meant deliberately. Code Pink was carefully nurtured and developed to spew hatred on command towards the Republican party in general, and George W Bush in particular, the better to elect Democrats who would turn around and not end the war, but would loot the treasury blind. And so it was done; but since we don’t have an euthanasia program in this country, the Democrats instead fairly callously threw them and the rest of the antiwar movement aside like a used prophylactic once they were no longer needed*.

And now they howl and throw things at Democratic functions. I wonder what the next step’s going to be? And I wonder whether Nancy Pelosi will ever accept responsibility for anything… untoward… that happens accordingly?

*The fact that I despise the antiwar movement myself, and am currently enjoying watching flail around literally howling their betrayal (listen to the audio on that YouTube video again), doesn’t actually excuse the Democrats’ behavior. It merely adds to the antiwar movement’s humiliation.

The implication of the House Rules Committee.

The House Rules Committee. People usually call this one of the most important House committees out there, which is in my opinion untrue: it simply is the most important House committee. The reason that I say that is because the Rules committee has ultimate control over how and in what way a bill is presented and debated; add that to its ability to dictate appropriate amendments leads to an effective result of Rules being the gatekeeper for House legislation. The membership is deliberately skewed heavily in favor of the majority party (currently over two-to-one), and majority party membership on that Committee is at the discretion of the Speaker of the House. In other words, if a Member of Congress disapproves of the way that the Rules Committee operates, the only way to show disapproval is to vote for somebody else for Speaker of the House.

The Democratic vote to re-elect Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House for the 111th Congress was 255 For, 1 Not Voting. Every action – and every flawed piece of legislation – that made it past the Rules Committee since then is thus the responsibility of those 255 Members of Congress who authorized giving control of the American legislative agenda to Speaker Pelosi.

And that is why there is no such thing as a “conservative” Democratic politician. That first vote defines all the rest.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Quote of the Day, insulting analogies edition.

(Via neo-neocon, via Instapundit) Nancy Pelosi:

”It’s like the back of the refrigerator. You see all these wires and the rest,” said Pelosi. “All you need to know is, you open the door. The light goes on. You open this door, you go through a whole different path, in terms of access to quality, affordable healthcare for all Americans.”

So, you know, never you worry about the fact that the wires seem to be hooked up to a baby. Which is crying. And on fire.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, she really thinks that you’re this stupid. Sorry.

Crossposted to RedState.

The name you’re trying to remember is ‘Tim Mahoney.’

He was the guy that the Democrats put into FL-16 to replace Mark Foley over an inappropriate email scandal… and then Tim Mahoney was the guy that tried to pay off his mistress with campaign money, got then-DCCC Chair and current WH CoS Rahm Emanuel to cover it up in 2007… and who then couldn’t quite make it to Election Day 2008 without anybody noticing. So Madam Speaker threw Mahoney to the wolves, and the media let her. So… sex scandal, leadership finds out, internal cover-up, public revelations, quick abandonment of the now-radioactive Congressman.

Why, yes, that does sound familiar, doesn’t it?

Moe Lane

Quote of the Day, Jim Geraghty edition. #rsrh

On Speaker Pelosi:

Today her way of handling the problem of the rebellion of Bart Stupak and the other pro-life Democrats was to declare, “Let me say this: This is not about abortion!” Ma’am, to them it is. And until they get language that assures them that federal money will not be used to facilitate abortions, they’re not going to sign on. This can’t be as hard to grasp as you make it seem.

It’s not, but there are certain things that the Speaker of the House does not dare say, and ‘We have to at least pretend that we concede pro-lifers to be actual human beings’ is one of them. This can lead to interesting verbal gymnastics.

Congressional Democrats still wondering who the sucker was at yesterday’s summit.

When Hot Air and the Daily Beast are giving the same review – Republicans looked good, the President looked all right, other Democrats looked bad – you have to end up wondering whether the President actually minds. Jonah Goldberg fairly accurately sums up what Obama has to work with, after all:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi relied on the Democrats’ favorite rhetorical gambit: policy-by-anecdote. Invoking the sad plight of some person no one knows can be effective, but we’ve been hearing such stories for a very long time; support for Pelosi’s solutions has still plummeted.

But it was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, mugging for his doomed reelection bid at home, who put the ugliest face on the Democratic party. Cranky, mean, and short-tempered, Reid seemed like he was sitting on a carpet tack throughout the discussion. He snapped that “no one is talking about reconciliation” — a reference to the arcane parliamentary procedure Democrats are considering as a means to ram their unpopular bill through Congress.

That’s true, save for the more than 100 House Democrats and more than 20 Senate Democrats who have already signed letters calling for reconciliation. His crotchety dyspepsia, combined with his arrogant dishonesty, made the leader of the Senate seem like the sort of oldster who would pinch little kids for fun if he could get away with it.

Imagine for a moment a world where the 112th Congress is not being run by Pelosi and Reid. Do you think that the President might end up with a health care reform bill that… forget ‘he can happily sign to show how bipartisan he is.’ At this point, the President will settle for a bill that he can actually sign. Which was the ostensible point of this summit to begin with; and the only event of real note there was a rather pointed refutation of the Democratic lie that Republicans have no health care ideas or plans. Not even David Gergen wants to run with that meme anymore.

I’ve noted this before, and I’ll note it again: both of the two major American political party are really two mini-parties. There’s the legislative one, which concerns itself with Congress and the state houses; and then there’s the executive one, which deals with the Presidency and the governorships. The two groups are usually more-or-less working in tandem; but they don’t always have congruent, or even parallel, objectives. Put it less pretentiously: what’s good for President Obama isn’t necessarily good for Speaker Pelosi and SML Reid. And if the President comes out of this looking good, he may not care about how badly his colleagues look in comparison…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Great moments in Democratic recycling, February 2010. #rsrh

I meant to link to this Hawaiian good-luck symbol from (I believe) the NRCC yesterday:

…and I also remember seeing somewhere someone pointing out that back then the unemployment rate was around 6% and change. On the bright side, we’re probably not going to see double that this year.

[pause]

I think.

Pelosi’s 100 grand bar tab with the USAF. #rsrh

That’s ‘in-flight expenses.’ The full cost for ferrying around the Speaker and the House by the USAF was 2.1 million. Some details:

Speaker Pelosi used Air Force aircraft to travel back to her district at an average cost of $28,210.51 per flight. The average cost of an international CODEL is $228,563.33. Of the 103 Pelosi-led congressional delegations (CODEL), 31 trips included members of the House Speaker’s family.

One CODEL traveling from Washington, DC, through Tel Aviv, Israel to Baghdad, Iraq May 15-20, 2008, “to discuss matters of mutual concern with government leaders” included members of Congress and their spouses and cost $17,931 per hour in aircraft alone. Purchases for the CODEL included: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.

You know, when it comes to air travel, most jobs require you to fly coach. And pay for your own booze. How fortunate we are to have Congressional leadership who are prepared to rise above such picayune considerations…

Moe Lane

PS: Via Dan Collins, who is upset about the Corona. Eh, stick a lime slice in it and it’s drinkable enough. That being said, what the hell is wrong with Pyramid Breweries? They’re from freaking California!

Pelosi fine with jailing the uninsured.

I fiddled with cutting down this video…

…of Speaker Pelosi admitting that she’s fine with sending people who don’t want to be insured to jail (H/T: Infidels are Cool); but I’m not all that happy with the results. Which is interesting, because I’m also not happy with the notion of throwing poor people into jail just because Speaker Pelosi wanted to raid taxpayer wallets and pocketbooks for the benefit of the Democratic Party’s various special interest groups.

Again.

See also Hot Air, AoSHQ – and probably everybody else soon enough.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Crowder has far too much fun with this stuff.

Although the way things are going perhaps neither the Vice President nor the Speaker of the House is going to be too distressed about the way this turned out.

I mean, in their shoes I wouldn’t sign my work if I could possibly help it.

Via Hot Air.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.