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Flashback: Nancy Pelosi Channels Bob Mankoff
Filed under: The Squib Report Tagged: Bob Mankoff, cartoons, Nancy Pelosi, politics
I’m glad to see Nancy Pelosi get her due. Her detractors, who have at times been legion, never seem to notice that the Democrats have had an unusual streak of good fortune since she assumed the leadership of the House. She’s the first woman to reach the second slot in the line of succession; a Wikipedia list of “women who have been in the United States presidential line of succession” makes for interesting and inspiring reading.
The New Republic article I’ve linked to above is a salutary reminder of a seminal moment in Pelosi’s tenure: the brilliant job she and Harry Reid (and Josh Marshall) did fending off George Bush’s attempts to reform/kill off Social Security. Atrios recalls a terrific anecdote, new to me, which occurred at a critical moment in that fight, when the Democrats refused to be bullied into offering up their own plan to reform/kill off Social Security in the name of appearing “reasonable.” Asked when the Democrats “were going to release a rival plan,” Pelosi responded, “Never. Is never good enough for you?”—which will surely remind many New Yorker readers of this Bob Mankoff classic.
Comments
Nancy Pelosi lost me until she finds it within herself to internally and publically realize how deeply she owes herself and We The People of these United States of America her plea for forgiveness for hubristically ass-uming for we liberal radical and centrist Democratic Party voters that, as I believe Nancy has been reported accurately to have put it, “We’ve (the Democratic Party Congressional leadership) have decided (forusall) that it’s more important for us to win in ‘08 than to respond in any way to all of the impeachable charges on all of the blogs on the www. by holding any formal investigative hearings into any impeachment of G.W. Bush’s presidency.” Is this, basically, what Nancy had the unmitigated gall and amnesia as to the oath of office she took to uphold, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution? Or have I heard tell of what she actually did say, incorrectly? Seems precedent after precedent of assuming-the-position keeps going on, whether self-imaged leaders are doing it for themselves (like Al Haig after Nixon’s resignation saying, “I’m in charge.”), or by most of We The little working paycheck to paycheck U.S. citizens ever footing the bill for multi-trillion dollar undeclared and illegal wars of invasion since WWII, along with our working class mens’ and womens’ burden (of all ethnicities) of keeping our larger mulit-national corporations on the Welfare dole (do any of you know of the aging folksinger Tom Paxton’s classic song, “I’m changing my name to Crysler.”?~~~did any mainstream press (print or audio/visual) ever notice that no special Congressional legislation was even proposed to be reported on to bail out the Enron workers who were robbed of their livelihoods and their investitures in Enron’s IRA plans?
Will Obama be empowered by us to take our chance in the next 8 years of standing up together for a truly Green sustainable economy national investiture, as Well as a human services based national economy. Wathcing the Euro rise and the dollar set, this lifelong 54 year old Democratic Party voter is weary of hearing self imaged liberals calling a national treasure such as Ralph Nader “a spoiler”. Democractic Party leaders spoil themselves and we along with them; especially-so just about every 4 years or so. Maybe 8. Anyway, the divide and conquer genius of a Carl Rove needs, I think, to meet its match in a truly democratic-socialist ‘08 Democratic presendential Party platform in order to Unite U.S. and to win one forusall.
Thank you kindly for listening in here,
TR Stone
poet-writer-& mgr. of a self help center for adults with MI’s in an eastcoast state of mind in Middlesex county New Jersey
agape4usall@optonline.net
tonucki@cspnj.org
Nancy is certainly a better woman and a better man than Clinton. As for the embittered Clinton feminists — they don’t need any help being bitter! That’s the problem with bitter feminists. Who wants bitterness to win the day? Not Obama supporters, who want optimism. Optimism, not “we have this coming.”