As Congressional approval continues to drop to the pennystock realm, Nancy Pelosi, she who promised the most honest, transparent, bipartisan and fair Congress evah, defends her blatant lockout of even the most modest of Republican debate
With fewer than 20 legislative days before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, the entire appropriations process has largely ground to a halt because of the ham-handed fighting that followed Republican attempts to lift the moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration. And after promising fairness and open debate, Pelosi has resorted to hard-nosed parliamentary devices that effectively bar any chance for Republicans to offer policy alternatives.
“I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,†she says impatiently when questioned. “I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy.â€Â
“I respect the office that I hold,†she says. “And when you win the election, you win the majority, and what is the power of the speaker? To set the agenda, the power of recognition, and I am not giving the gavel away to anyone.â€Â
Does anyone doubt, come next January, that Queen Nan will make the reinstitution of the Orwellian “Fairness Doctrine” her number one priority?
Because of The Planet!!1!!1!
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 8:01 am #
I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,†she says impatiently when questioned. “I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy
This is priceless.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 7/29 @ 8:10 am #
I wonder if Cleo will pop up on this thread and make Captain Planet references. I know it is not Disney but what the hell.
Captain Planet, she’s our hero
Gonna take polution down to zero.
She’s our powers magnified
and she is fighting on the planet’s side
Comment by happyfeet on 7/29 @ 8:10 am #
She’s deranged. And she’s their leader.
Comment by alppuccino on 7/29 @ 8:17 am #
Murtha’s head still looks like a tall kitchen garbage bag full of rotten produce cinched shut with a necktie.
T. Boone Pickens wants to drill in America Nancy! You idiot!
Comment by takeshi kovacs on 7/29 @ 8:18 am #
Crikey, you have no right to show that image, that early in the morning
Comment by SarahW on 7/29 @ 8:19 am #
I have to say that brow job on her makes her head look empty except for some crazy-fluid.
Save the planet. How about save the nation, and include others in the process.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 7/29 @ 8:21 am #
I thought Bono was already saving the planet.
Comment by Silver Whistle on 7/29 @ 8:22 am #
Whatever suppository Queen Nancy is using, doesn’t seem to agree with her.
Comment by BJTex on 7/29 @ 8:22 am #
I just fifnished reading about this a few minutes and thought about what a great post it would make. Nice catch, Darleen!
i have this scenario in my head where Pelosi and Read are singing a duet to a large group of car owners stucks on the highway out of gas. Think Evita
Pelosivita: Don’t cry because you are gasless,
We’re only trying to save the planet.
Che Reidvera: Oil makes us sick, Coal makes us sicker
Pelosivita We can’t debate this, so keep your distance,
And suck on fumes!
Fade to black.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 8:22 am #
In other words:
“Respect Mah Authoritah!”
Comment by N. O'Brain on 7/29 @ 8:23 am #
Is Botox a brain poison?
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 8:23 am #
Baracky already stopped the oceans from rising. He should be able to handle this without Nan’s help.
Comment by psycho... on 7/29 @ 8:24 am #
Getting carved into a tableau vivant of Vincent Price’s 2girls1cup reaction video appears to be her #1 priority.
Comment by Salt Lick on 7/29 @ 8:29 am #
… where Pelosi and Read are singing a duet to a large group of car owners stucks on the highway out of gas.
Anyone else out there remember the political ad where a Tip O’Neill look-a-like does indeed run out of gas? All McCain needs to do is just change the actors.
Comment by MayBee on 7/29 @ 8:30 am #
If she wants to save the planet, she should probably ban drilling in other countries as well.
In the picture, is she a Planetagenet?
Comment by alppuccino on 7/29 @ 8:34 am #
I have Reid as a Tommy guy:
I’m your wicked Uncle Harry,
I’m glad you won’t see or hear me
As I fiddle about, fiddle about.
The voters left me here to mind you
So I’m doing what I want to
Fiddling about, fiddling about.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 8:34 am #
One thing for certain, she’s a nasty piece of work: “…people who don’t want to give health care to poor little children in America…”
Comment by BJTex on 7/29 @ 8:37 am #
The only good news with Pelosi, and it’s strictly for the entertainment, is that she will have to go back to her district and run against Ms. Moral Authority.
I’ll take butter and salt on my popcorn, please.
Comment by alppuccino on 7/29 @ 8:42 am #
The only good news with Pelosi, and it’s strictly for the entertainment, is that she will have to go back to her district and run against Ms. Moral Authority.
or Pelosi/Murtha sex-tape. I’ll take Pepto Bismal on my popcorn, si vous plait
Comment by TheGeezer on 7/29 @ 8:46 am #
Good one.
It looks like she’s holding her duchy close: ust be a case of Gasconey.
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 8:46 am #
Sexists.
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 8:46 am #
Genderists.
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 8:46 am #
Badplasticsurgery-ists
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 8:47 am #
Pelosi/Murtha sex-tape.
Consider yourself denounced. My minds eye, it bleeds.
Comment by Education Guy on 7/29 @ 8:48 am #
Huh. And here I thought that the Speaker of the House was supposed to focus on the interests and needs of the United States. Guess they changed the job description when I wasn’t looking.
Comment by TheGeezer on 7/29 @ 8:49 am #
Tudorphobes.
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 8:50 am #
She is busy saving the planet, Education Guy, FOR THE CHILDREN !!!!
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 8:50 am #
“…On the far side of the environmental curtain China already mines and burns more coal than any other country. Together, China and India control more than one-fifth of the planet’s vast coal reserves. Dar predicts–very plausibly, in my view–that the two countries may fire up a new coal plant as often as once a week for the next 25 years, adding about twice as much coal-fired generating capacity as the U.S. has today. Persian Gulf states are planning significant coal imports, because coal generates much cheaper electricity than oil or gas. …”
Peter Huber, “The carbon Curtain” Forbes, 7-17-2008
Comment by TheGeezer on 7/29 @ 8:51 am #
Actually, judging by the hairline, she a Turdor.
Comment by TheGeezer on 7/29 @ 8:53 am #
At least the Republicans are getting some attention for the neurotic and paganistic petrophobia of the Democrat libs. SOCCERMOMS: IT IS THE DEMS THAT WON’T LET YOU HAVE DECENT GAS PRICES FOR YOUR SUVS!!!!!
Comment by The Lost Dog on 7/29 @ 8:55 am #
Beautiful, Darleen. Kudos.
If Queen Nan wants to save the planet, she should stick a 44 magnum up her butt and pull the trigger. If she could get her head out of the way, that is.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/29 @ 8:56 am #
Drilling oil makes jobs for the mommies and the daddies of the poor sick children, Nancy. Why won’t you let their mommies and daddies work?
Comment by BumperStickerist on 7/29 @ 9:00 am #
I am not giving the gavel away to anyone.â€Â
that doesn’t rule out Nancy selling the gavel to the highest bidder.
-
Comment by The Lost Dog on 7/29 @ 9:00 am #
Comment by Mr. Pink on 7/29 @ 9:04 am #
If anyone is bored right now you can make yourself laugh by reading her remarks when opening the 110th Congress. The agenda items that she sets out either all have failed, are completely wrong, or been scrubbed by her own doing.
“It is the responsibility of the President to articulate a new plan for Iraq that makes it clear to the Iraqis that they must defend their own streets and their own security, a plan that promotes stability in the region, and that allows us to responsibly redeploy American forces.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,241558,00.html
Comment by alppuccino on 7/29 @ 9:05 am #
I’m not sure that you guys understand that Pelosi/Murtha sex tape is a special kind of duct tape that keeps floppy body parts from causing injury during sex.
Comment by SevenEleventy on 7/29 @ 9:15 am #
The last time I saw eyebrows positioned like that on a forehead, was in an Arts & Entertainment music video featuring Marlene Dietrich singing Where Have All The Flowers Gone.
Comment by afall on 7/29 @ 9:27 am #
“And after promising fairness and open debate, Pelosi has resorted to hard-nosed parliamentary devices that effectively bar any chance for Republicans to offer policy alternatives.”
The minority is a really good position from which to offer your own policy. NOT.
Comment by Kirk on 7/29 @ 9:29 am #
So, is there something really special about the oil we’ve placed in the strategic oil reserve that makes burning it produce less carbon than what we would get out of the oil still in the ground?
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 9:29 am #
alppuccino is an evil vile man.
Racist.
FatsurrendingCongresscritter-ist too …
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 9:30 am #
afall – I thought that bipartisanship was some lofty ideal. Apparently only when the Speaker is a Republican.
Comment by N. O'Brain on 7/29 @ 9:37 am #
“#
Comment by TheGeezer on 7/29 @ 8:51 am #
In the picture, is she a Planetagenet?
Actually, judging by the hairline, she a Turdor.”
Ok. That’s it.
Anyone who makes puns should be hung, drawn and quoted.
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 9:38 am #
N.O’Brain – That was kind of punny.
Comment by afall on 7/29 @ 9:38 am #
“afall – I thought that bipartisanship was some lofty ideal.”
Don’t tell me you caught the herp, i mean, hope.
“Apparently only when the Speaker is a Republican.”
You’d think they’d get their policy proposals in then.
Comment by N. O'Brain on 7/29 @ 9:39 am #
Bipartisanship:
“A state of affairs in which Republicans betray their supporters in order to mollify their political enemies and the editorial boards of The Washington Post and New York Times. Cf., capitulation, professional suicide.”
-Tony Snow
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 9:40 am #
it reminds me of alphie, afall does.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 9:51 am #
“…The minority is a really good position from which to offer your own policy. NOT. …”
So that Madison guy was a fool, right? Those minority fellows should just Fut the Shuck up and leave off with the offering.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 9:57 am #
“…Isn’t it funny that news reports this morning showing that Sen. Harry Reid will in fact allow a drill, drill, drill amendment to come to the Senate floor seem to have triggered a $3 drop in oil to less than $122 a barrel. Is this a coincidence? I don’t think so. More like cause-and-effect. …”
Larry Kudlow, at the Corner. Current NYMEX quote on Crude: $121.83, down $2.90
Comment by afall on 7/29 @ 10:05 am #
“So that Madison guy was a fool, right?”
My understanding is that his concerns about faction are included in our system. He’d be a fool not to have done so. You think he was?
Comment by ThomasD on 7/29 @ 10:13 am #
afall is sure starting to sound alot like Barrett Brown.
Comment by Pablo on 7/29 @ 10:14 am #
Minority. Heh.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 10:16 am #
I certainly don’t.
When you find yourself in the minority you will also find yourself in the only position from which to offer your policy prescriptions. If the only position from which, then a perfectly good position from which to offer, unless, that is you think that being in the majority is the only measure of good, in which case, I’ll be giving you a wide berth as a power mad sort the like of whom I’ll consider a danger to myself and my society.
Comment by afall on 7/29 @ 10:26 am #
“Minority. Heh.”
You do understand we’re talking about minority/majority in terms of Congress. Quite apropos, since Sdferr brought up Madison. He wanted to prevent things from being passed just because they pleased a majority of the population.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 10:29 am #
He wanted to prevent the permanent tyranny of the majority.
Comment by Education Guy on 7/29 @ 10:31 am #
So what exactly is Nancy’s solution? Our cars and buses aren’t going to run on her smug satisfaction that she is trying to ’save the planet’.
Comment by SevenEleventy on 7/29 @ 10:32 am #
Consensus-ist!!!
Comment by afall on 7/29 @ 10:41 am #
“He wanted to prevent the permanent tyranny of the majority.”
Federalist 10 goes into a bit more detail. But on the issue of domestic drilling, as Pablo pointed out, the majority (measured like in a democracy) wants drilling. If I were a proponent of domestic drilling, I wouldn’t be so concerned. The case for it will only grow as world supplies dwindle, making domestic sites more attractive, more beneficial. The net result of us thwarting the pro-drilling masses will be that we’ll end up drilling later when the benefits are greater. Oh Madison you genius!
Comment by Pablo on 7/29 @ 10:42 am #
You do understand that we’re talking about both the congress and the electorate. The latter is extremely unhappy with the former, and I find myself hoping that the former stays the course. Pissing in the faces of your employers is not a terribly good idea. I hope they keep it up.
Comment by Pablo on 7/29 @ 10:44 am #
Oh, but it will take 10 years, remember? That was the same reason we couldn’t do it 10 years ago. How long until it will be a good idea to start? 10 years? 20 years? When will the benefits, which we’re told are negligible, manifest themselves and how so?
Comment by Pablo on 7/29 @ 10:51 am #
How much of our trade deficit can we drill our way out of?
Comment by TheGeezer on 7/29 @ 10:54 am #
I just saw a new Obama ad.
No drilling, mind you, but alternative fuels will be put on the fast track and the mandated mileages for all vehicles will be incereased. Because that’s the way to make it happen, right?
More Obama magic: a wave of the hand and we all get more mileage and corn cobs per mile.
Maybe Pelosi is right and a majority of Americans believe this crap? I hope it isn’t true since I don’t deserve what we’ll get in November!
Comment by TheGeezer on 7/29 @ 10:55 am #
Pardon my typing. incereased</I. is supposed to be increased.
Comment by maggie katzen on 7/29 @ 11:04 am #
Does anyone else here giggle whenever she blames the Senate for her agenda not getting passed? BUT YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER GAVEL!!!
hee hee.
Comment by TmjUtah on 7/29 @ 11:07 am #
I realize that in the halls of power there are certain rules – forms that are followed, nuances that are practiced and niceties observed.
But if George Bush were to give a prime time speech explaining the case for drilling our own domestic petroleum supplies, and just what the STRATEGIC petroleum reserve is for (hell, it’s not like we could actually refine enough of that to matter, any way) and maybe include the words “dumb ass communist moonbat” or “pop eyed skirt incapable of beating a sack of hammers in a checker game” I’d probably be forced to send fifty bucks to John McCain just to acknowledge at least one person in the Republican party was willing to stand up…
… even if he is going (did already?) to sign the Fannie/Freddie bailout… which will just stave off the collapse of our economy until after the election, but will have a positive long term impact in that it will most definitely bring about the collapse of the Federal kleptocracy in my (47 now) lifetime.
The Bush administration things its going to be a Dem. Go figure.
Comment by TmjUtah on 7/29 @ 11:09 am #
*sigh*. “ThinKs”.
Comment by China on 7/29 @ 11:10 am #
Oh, offshore drilling? Don’t worry we’ll “take care of that for you”.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 11:20 am #
“…When a MAJORITY is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens. To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, IS THEN THE GREAT OBJECT TO WHICH OUR INQUIRIES ARE DIRECTED. Let me add that IT IS THE GREAT DESIDERATUM by which this form of government can be rescued from the opprobrium under which it has so long labored, and be recommended to the esteem and adoption of mankind. …”
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 11:21 am #
A bit more detail from Federalist 10, courtesy James Madison.
Comment by SevenEleventy on 7/29 @ 11:22 am #
Oh, offshore drilling? Don’t worry we’ll “take care of that for youâ€Â.
Are you going to use Tibetan monks as drillbits?
Comment by BJTex on 7/29 @ 11:26 am #
TmJ: You’ve hit the nail on the head. The one think about President Bush that had frustrated me to a screaming point is his seeming disinterest in rallying the American people to a cause and sustaining that rally.
He’s certainly capable of it, as evidenced by his speeches after 9/11. He seems to lack a sense of leadership presence, an understanding of what it takes for a head of state to inspire the masses. Now would be the time to stand up, get prime time coverage, and make the case for rescinding the offshore drilling ban, opening ANWR and the shale oil fields, build about 40 or more nuclear power plants and work towards energy independence. He might even get McCain elected in the process.
Instead we are left with Republican legislators having to carry the water and it just ain’t right. I don’t get it.
Comment by China on 7/29 @ 11:27 am #
Are you going to use Tibetan monks as drillbits?
Indeed, and also probably some refugees from the Darfur region.
Comment by SevenEleventy on 7/29 @ 11:32 am #
Indeed, and also probably some refugees from the Darfur region.
Equal opportunity is always a good policy!
Comment by N. O'Brain on 7/29 @ 11:34 am #
“…the mandated mileages for all vehicles will be increased.”
So the Democrats want to kill more of the Childrenâ„¢?
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 11:45 am #
Tmj; BJ: Before you get all morose and down in the dumps, read this little piece by the Messrs. Greenwald(s).
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/07/29/blue_dogs_die/index.html#
The Progressives aren’t happy with the Democrats either and see them as caving into everything the Bush administration wants. Consider that in light of your own complaints and observations. Is it that nothing is being done or rather the Administration has different priorities than you do and is letting some things slide to concentrate on other things? Read the Greenwal(s)’ complaint and try to see this through their eyes. The view from the other side of the hill can be very informative.
Comment by TmjUtah on 7/29 @ 11:53 am #
BJTex -
“Instead we are left with Republican legislators having to carry the water and it just ain’t right. I don’t get it.”
With respect, BJ, if the Republican legislators had exhibited a scintilla of leadership, or failing that, even the appearance of conservative prinicpled stewardship of their public trust over the last decade, we wouldn’t be on the edge of the abyss that we so clearly teeter on now.
I damn Bush for the foreign policy failures implicit in failing to reform LEGAL immigration and control our frontiers. It is a national embarrassment that we pretend to fight “terror” yet continue the fifty year fellation of the terrorist entities known as Saudi Arabia and in later decades the Palestinian Authority. As we say in Texas, some people just need killin’. Condoleeza Rice did not deserve to be a cutout, but that is what she’s been reduced to; kudos to her for her strict, if misguided, sense of duty.
Bush laid out the Doctrine, and has executed it faithfully for the last seven years. I give him credit for that. I give him credit for doing what he thought was possible – while half the congress and a third of the nation actively sought defeat at any cost – and I understand, I think, why he stopped trying to bully pulpit the nation early on.
He measured the capabilities of the military and found that they could get the job done without the expected pop advertising campaign. He also recognised the opposition for what it is – shallow, petulant, and acting in the worst faith possible – and decided that if he could get done what he needed to get done… then he could just as well not waste the time fighting the entire monolith of MSM or pretending to take the disloyal opposition – OR the milktoast Republican nonentities he’d inherited – and get on with the adult priorities of his presidency.
I disagree with a lot that has happened. But on the whole, excepting immigration and particularly Mexico, I support the goals…
He’s given up on Congress, though. And McCain. Signing the bailout preserves the fiction that 2008 is just another election. It’s not; the next president is going to have to preside over the most widereaching reform and restraint of the Federal government ever.
Just my two cents, you understand. I am sick of being sick; it gives me way too much time to pay attention. Y’all have a fine one.
Comment by TmjUtah on 7/29 @ 12:10 pm #
Mikey NTH -
Mr. Greenwald seems to think the nutroots by themselves constitute something approaching a national polity. They get top billing at the movies, the most minutes on MSM, the most column inches on paper and most certainly the kindest words from The Best And Brightest…
But having voting clout, nationally, against the backdrop of the electoral college mechanism. It is to laugh discreetly.
Not even close.
The Blue Dogs are the only reason, despite the spectacular abandonment of conservative principles on the part of the Republicans, that the Democratic Party are in the majority in congress. By all means, eighty six those impure DINO’s, and further require every Democrat legislator to attend their public duties attired in assless chaps and Che tshirts, and practice strict vegan diet practices.
It goes without saying they should practice symbolic Islamic prayer as a gesture toward understanding root causes of Muslims’ predeliction to explode…
The Prog Democrat polity that keeps on reelecting Pelosis and Schumers and Wexlers and Reids out of their little enclaves (and into their crony empires) couldn’t elect anybody to dogcatcher nationally, and Mr. Greenwald pretending such a foolish fantasy is just a (further/continuing) demonstration of the latitude of interpretation granted to the definition of “journalism”.
In a real world, Pelosi would be shoved aside by a Democrat who recognizes that failing to protect our energy supply, and by extension our economy, would be failure for the party held responsible. I wonder how Ellerson would feel about a Blue Dog speaker? Pelosi has already effectively burned her bridges to Sane America by her “Save the world” remarks. Time fills.
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 12:12 pm #
Can someone make that hideous picture go away? It is staring at me.
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 12:13 pm #
I think I just saw licking its fingers, and then rubbing its nipples.
Comment by BJTex on 7/29 @ 12:22 pm #
Mikey: I see your point but would put forth the following:
All of the things that the gleens listed as “allowing Bush to get his way” were items that either reflected the will of the American people or represented abject cowardice by Democrats.
The problem that the gleens and others like Markos and Hamsher have never understood is that the majority of the American people do not share their absolutist vision of our current government and its policies. They’ve been operating under the assumption that the 2006 elections was a complete and utter repudiation of both Bush and the Iraq war and the GWOT.
Um … no. Never was, isn’t now.
The nuance lost to these ideologues is that there is a significant difference between voters voicing a dissatisfaction with things in general and the war in particular and supporting the “cut and run” and “don’t protect us, FISA” recommendations of the far left. The majority of Americans may be sick of Iraq but aren’t ready to declare it “lost” and run away if you pin them down. Ditto the FISA and immunity kerfuffle, where, again, a majority doesn’t see this program as affecting them in any way.
Thus the Dems could have had the stones to simply cut off funding in Iraq and forced the issue, just as was done to the Vietnam war. It didn’t happen because most Democrats in Congress knew that there would be hell to pay if they left soldiers in the field without Congress’ financial backing. The gleens are focusing on the Blue Dogs as the scapegoats but those Dogs are the smart ones and one could say, arguably, that they are protecting the Democratic Party from an electoral bloodbath.
The rest of the stuff is just smoke and mirrors. Even their presidential candidate caved on FISA because he knows the majority of Americans want to be protected and aren’t the least bit concerned that someone will be listening when they call great Aunt Nellie in County Down.
Ed Driscoll gets it, the gleens and his ilk do not. All Bush has to do is come forward front and center and make the case for a reasonable, well thought out, balanced energy policy that takes in all of the resources available and has a both short and long term approach. There’s no way that the Reid/Pelosi/gleens et al can stand against it as they are vulnerable to people saying, ultimately, “F*#k the Planet, get me energy!”
The wallet is mightier than the ideology when it’s being squeezed in a gasoline and food vise. Many, many Democrats already understand this and Pelosi can bitterly cling to her gavel all the wants, in the long run it won’t matter because the Dems can’t pass anything without the Dogs. Being as most of them come from traditionally conservative districts, they would probably laugh at Markos running another Lamont style mentos campaign against them.
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 12:24 pm #
Racist oppressor of the badly surgically enhanced.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 12:25 pm #
Yep, Tmj – the nutroots do think that they are the majority in the party because they yell the loudest and get the most attention from nanny.
The point I was trying to make is to pull back and see things from different viewpoints. Whereas you may think that you are getting hammered because you aren’t getting everything, the other guy may be ready to panic because you are getting some big things and all he’s really trying to do is hold back the tide. Where you sit does matter because it affects what you can see and whether you perceive the tide flowing with you or against you.
Messrs. Greenwald(s) are fit to be tied because they perceive that on the one front that they have bet everything – the GWOT – they have lost all of the main battles. Every other issue has been tossed over by them, essentially abandoned, as they have pursued that one fight. And they lost. And now they see another front opening with energy issues. The tide is now running in favor of drilling offshore and in the continental US. This was an issue that they did not have to invest any effort in to maintain the status quo. Now they have to work to hold ground – and the political credit in Congress is pretty exhausted.
That is what I am seeing, and that is why I say do not be morose.
Comment by BJTex on 7/29 @ 12:26 pm #
TmJ:
I can’t disagree with this statement. Let’s just say that Republicans and Mr. Bush share a leadership vacuum when it comes to certain conservative principles. I largely agree with the rest of your rant … er … opinion. :-)
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 12:27 pm #
Let’s just say that Republicans and Mr. Bush share a leadership vacuum when it comes to certain conservative principles
That is like calling water wet.
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 12:31 pm #
Make it stop, please.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 12:34 pm #
BJ – you are correct that the majority of the American people do not share the vision of the Messrs. Greenwald. But they may not share all of your vision either.
And that does not mean that the Republic is doomed. It may mean that the issue has not yet reached its time or its proponent. If you look over the history from 1930 forward, heck if you just look at where we were in 1980, you will see changes – some beneficial some not.
Comment by BJTex on 7/29 @ 12:37 pm #
I know, JD, stating the obvious is what I do best.
BTW: I heard somewhere that there’s been a rash of tiny clowns sneaking into people’s homes and popping up unexpectedly in their toilets, some suburb of Indianapolis or some such. Have you heard anything about this?
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 12:37 pm #
I think you are right Mikey, the Dem leadership have chosen manifestly suicidal positions both on the war and on the economy (read energy) from the point of view of practical politics, violating one of the prime rules of politicians, ie., don’t paint yourself into a corner. They’ve bet the ranch and the die have rolled a’gin’ ‘em and now they’re screwed.
Which points to the thing I can’t understand. How could they be that dumb?
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 12:49 pm #
Sdferr, I think they picked the positions of their most vocal progressives and did what would be most pleasing to that constituency. That constituency has a deep, visceral hatred for anything Republican (explaining why MoveOn.org hasn’t yet moved on) and has fastened that hatred to George Bush. Anything that George Bush promotes becomes the locus of their hatred, and the GWOT is the one big thing Bush has promoted.
I think that is part of the picture. They aren’t paragons of public courage; when taking invading Iraq was popular, they were all on board. when the popularity waned, they called for retreat. When the nutroots screamed the loudest and threatened the loudest, they caved in as fast as they could.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 12:56 pm #
Does anyone remember the early, heady days of 2001, when the major, major scandal was how the Bush Administration was going to add arsenic to our drinking water?
Consider everything that has happened over the past seven years in light of that search for something, anything, to hit George Bush – the arch-conservative Republican and his dark puppeteer Dick Cheney – with. The one big issue became the war, so all has been fastened there (unless a target of opportunity pops up). Thus they have poured everything into that front. And thus the horror and dismay when they find every attack has been beaten off with losses, and the enemy is coming on.
How do they disengage from the quagmire they have gotten themselves into?
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 12:59 pm #
Now, off to the dentist.
Comment by BJTex on 7/29 @ 1:09 pm #
Mikey: I don’t expect that the majority of American voters reflect my personal positions but I’m reasonably confident that they don’t reflect either Reid’s or Pelosi’s.
The Dems made their own bed when they decided that these two idiots would be their front and center (not that the Rep’s did any better.) Too many people are beginning to figure out that Chimpy McHitler Burton is actually a more reasonable and balanced political individual than those two morons.
That sort of realization is horrible news for the gleens and bad news for Dems in general. Obama, to his credit, understands this and it may not be too long before Barcky the Morphing tosses the environmental lobby under the bus for the drilling, baybee!. Far fetched? Maybe, but we’ll see.
Comment by kelly on 7/29 @ 1:58 pm #
“Which points to the thing I can’t understand. How could they be that dumb?”
They’re stalling. That’s all I can come up with. The MSM echo chamber they live in has assured them that they will pick up seats in Nov. So they’re playing a game of chicken with the electorate. If they can run out the clock, pick up seats plus the WH, then they can keep licking the genital areas of the hard core leftie constituency that loathes the fly over states. That’s why they won’t even allow bringing drilling votes to the floor.
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 2:07 pm #
: I heard somewhere that there’s been a rash of tiny clowns sneaking into people’s homes and popping up unexpectedly in their toilets, some suburb of Indianapolis or some such. Have you heard anything about this?
Pure unadulterated evil. You can add public restrooms to the ever-growing list of things that spook me, so now you are messing with the bathrooms that did not scare me, up to this point. Thanks, my oppressor friend.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 3:08 pm #
Mikey: I don’t expect that the majority of American voters reflect my personal positions but I’m reasonably confident that they don’t reflect either Reid’s or Pelosi’s.
I expected that response BJ; you are more reasonably centered than Messrs. Greenwald(s) and the rest of the merry crew of progressives that are busy wailing and gnashing their teeth. Politicians will weathervane on public opinion (to a greater or lesser extent based upon their personalities and the positions of their constituents) and a Harry Truman is rare indeed.
Don’t stop promoting and agitating for the issues that are important to you; once the public tide starts to run with you your progress will amaze you. Just no despair until that time – it isn’t permitted!
*ahem* ;)
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 3:12 pm #
The Dems made their own bed when they decided that these two idiots would be their front and center (not that the Rep’s did any better.) Too many people are beginning to figure out that Chimpy McHitler Burton is actually a more reasonable and balanced political individual than those two morons.
Yeah, the Dems seem to have drawn a pair of duds with Pelosi and Reid, but that is the way the Congress works. It is awful frustrating, but each representative and senator has to be seen as an individual actor with an individual personality and political stage they have to act upon, despite the job calling for votes on bills and all of that (and American political parties are weak organizations with positions on issues left deliberately fuzzy to deal with the reality that the Constitution created – we are not a parliamentary system).
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 3:18 pm #
Kelly – if they bring drilling votes to the floor, then the hard left constituency will scream so loud it will be heard on Mars – vacuum of space and all. Read that Salon article I linked and imagine what would be written if off-shore drilling came up for a vote and was passed?
As you said, they are running out the clock and hoping to hold the line until November – the tide is running against them right now on that issue, but sometimes tides turn – and I bet they are praying for that turn.
Comment by Ric Locke on 7/29 @ 3:29 pm #
To elaborate somewhat on Mikey’s point… every Representative comes from a District. Voters in the District select the candidate that (at least in theory) best represents them. If a Democrat wins in a formerly Republican district, one can conclude that that district was at least somewhat conservative and probably remains so because sea-changes are rare. That district will therefore elect a[n at least somewhat] conservative Democrat.
Conservative districts may or may not become disgusted with ineffective or corrupt Republicans and select Democrats instead; they do not morph into radical Progressives overnight. If the Democrats do, in fact, pick up large numbers of seats in the Congress the new Members will almost all be “Blue Dogs”. Greenwalds will be terribly disappointed, I think.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 3:39 pm #
My befuzzelment is due to my general worldview, I think. Take taxation.
I don’t believe, for instance, that distant politicians know enough about the details and particular interests of the individual taxpayer to make better decisions about how to spend that taxpayers money than does the taxpayer herself. She knows her interests best. She values the money more, having been the one to sweat to earn it. But she could be mistaken, someone may say.
Sure, she may be. But aggregate a couple hundred million of her and show me why they would all be mistaken in the same instance.
So with professional politicians. They alone ought to know their own interests best. They are the ones with the experience of politics. They are the ones with “skin” in the game. It is their asses on the firing line. Who better to calculate their long term interests than themselves?
Now just like the individual taxpayer, it is easy to imagine this one or that one getting something wrong. But in the overwhelming aggregate? Not so likely (while, obviously, in this case, possible) I think. Hence the aforementioned befuzzlement.
Perhaps the problem is with my worldview? We’ll see I guess.
Comment by Ric Locke on 7/29 @ 3:59 pm #
Sdferr, the problem is that there aren’t enough of them
435 Congresscritters, or one for roughly every seven hundred thousand people. The chance that any of those are “representative” of the voters in their district is minuscule. What they are representative of is the relatively small group that they are able to be acquainted with and which has the git-up-and-gumption to make contact — and that last requires significant funds; you don’t even get to meet a Congresscritter unless you move in the upper crust. The average Congresscritter probably represents a maximum of ten, maybe fifteen thousand people.
There ought to be four thousand Congresscritters. (Actually, there ought to be twenty thousand of them.) If there were, the individual ones might have a chance to be representative (more properly, they’d be forced to.) They’d need a bigger hall; so what? — there’s an unused ballpark sitting right down the road. Keeping the Congress small is the same sort of incumbent protection as gerrymandering.
Your suggestion depends on Congress being a statistical Universe. It’s not. It’s too small, given the means by which its members are selected.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 4:06 pm #
Thank you, Ric, for stating succinctly what I was babbling around the bush about.
Example – John Dingell is a Democrat, but he and Nancy Pelosi are about as far apart on environmental and economic issues as can be and still remain within the same area code, let alone the same solar system.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 4:07 pm #
I don’t disagree as to the cure for the problem. I’m still hung up on what I imagine to be going on in the mind of a Blanche Lincoln, Bill Nelson, Ben Nelson, Tim Johnson type when they are deciding to take sides against the interests of the Marine on the ground or the truckdriver at the diesel pump. It just doesn’t make sense to me that they don’t understand the consequences of the positions they take when they, and not their “leaders” nor their social circle, are the ones who will pay for them.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 4:13 pm #
I ought not to be picking on the Democrats alone either. I got started on this puzzle last Nov wondering at the Dems insistance that all was ill in Iraq when it was clear the tide had turned and the thing was winnable. I ought to think on the stupidities of Republican stances doomed from the outset as well. As for instance, Medicare part D.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 4:17 pm #
Will Dingel vote to drill given the chance, Mikey? If so, f’ing hurray for him.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 4:25 pm #
Sdferr – that I do not know, but as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee it would fall under his purview. Considering the importance the automobile industry still has for Michigan I would be surprised if he didn’t approve drilling – with conditions to appease his Ann Arbor constituency, of course.
Each representative is an individual, with a particular stage to act on.
Ric: 435 house members, 100 senators. There are 535 egos in congress, 535 stages that have to be taken into account. Just a quibble.
Comment by Ric Locke on 7/29 @ 4:33 pm #
But they won’t pay for it, Sdferr, because “their ‘leaders’ [and] their social circle” think the same way!
The vast majority of the people in the United States don’t give a damn for, or pay attention to, politics because they have no contact with politicians. There aren’t enough politicians for that to be possible. Imagine having to shake the hand of each and every one of 689,500 people. Suppose you could do each one in three seconds. 229833.3..3 seconds, 63.84 hours, two days fifteen hours and fifty minutes! Reckon your hand’d get sore? And then suppose each of them had an “elevator pitch” — you’re alone with the guy and you’ve got thirty seconds to interest him in your proposition. That’s almost a month, not counting time for sleeping, eating, or the occasional defecation.
Each politician has direct contact with a few hundred people, and indirect contact with a few thousand more — and it’s that core that decides whether he stays or goes, and what policies he will support. Everybody else has contact only via the news media, which is getting less and less trustworthy all the time. You guys have given thor a bad rap, you know, although it’s largely his fault because of intemperance — his point all along is that Obama is a celebrity candidate, not a political one; people react to him the same way, and for the same reason, as they do to J-Lo or Britney Spears, and if even a fraction of them go to the polls the man’s a shoo-in. What may not be evident is that all the politicians are in that boat. And the ones who don’t appear in the tabs don’t exist in the minds of most “voters”. Their core will carry them, with everybody else along for the ride on the basis of name recognition and nothing else.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 4:37 pm #
#101 Sdferr – your comment about the marine on the ground touches on what drives me the most. My oldest nephew got out of marine boot camp and has gone back for AIT (he is actually to be a clerk in a JAG office); and my little brother is an army major. Nathan will end up at Camp Lejeune; Matt is going back to Ft. Bragg.*
That one issue is my overriding concern, to the back-burnering of everything else. But I know that isn’t everyone else’s issue.
*JAG office or Ft. Bragg – things can change, and if Uncle Sam says ‘change of plans – you go here’ then you go. Nathan could still end up carrying a rifle on patrol, Matt could still end up in a sticky place again also. I want the president to be a guy who won’t break faith with them, and only one major party candidate fits that description for me.
Comment by Akatsukami on 7/29 @ 4:48 pm #
Once again: does not the Congressional ban on offshore drilling expire on 30 September?
Comment by B Moe on 7/29 @ 5:19 pm #
Does anyone doubt, come next January, that Queen Nan will make the reinstitution of the Orwellian “Fairness Doctrine†her number one priority?
To be honest, the Fairness Doctrine is sliding rapidly down my list of concerns.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fastfood23-2008jul23,0,6631786.story
Julia Ansley, 66, a retired elementary school teacher who has lived in South L.A. more than 40 years, attended the meeting and said afterward that she was encouraged by the vote. “It’s much needed,” she said of the proposed ordinance. “Our community has been neglected by city planners.”
Miss Julia wants her Community Organized, dammit!
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 5:27 pm #
If the Congresscritters go home for recess without having passed an energy bill that expressly commits to drilling for oil and gas in US holdings they’re in for a noisy and rude awakening. The “get the speculators” BS they’ve put up in the Senate won’t cut it. The current Democrat stance on energy is tantamount to a proposal to murder the economy.
My hope, and not just for the sake of the political tweeking it’ll give ‘em, is that the President calls Congress back to Washington in August (and Washington is hell in August, I know, I lived there for thirty-five years) to tackle the oil question in particular. It needs to be done.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 5:59 pm #
I just want to say that comparing Elizabeth I Tudor to Nancy Pelosi is a great insult to Elizabeth. She forgot more about politics between breakfast and lunch than Rep. Pelosi will ever know, and Elizabeth Tudor lived in a world where a political failure meant you were losing your real ‘I am using this to breathe now’ head, not just being sent home to your estate.
Henry VIII’s daughter was no fool, and suffered none gladly; as many other monarchs learned to their chagrin – and many English nobles learned to their utter dismay.
Lesson – Do Not Tick Off A Red-Head – Especially A Tudor Red-Head. A bit from Blackadder:
Lord Percy: [Catches the frisbee] Howzat.
Queen Elizabeth: Percy, who’s Queen?
Lord Percy: [Throws it away] Butterfingers.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 6:21 pm #
Of course there was this, when QEI downed a mug of beer:
“First I’m going to have a little drinkie, and then I’m going to execute the whole bally lot of you.”
Comment by Ellen on 7/29 @ 7:13 pm #
Scary picture, and very funny responses! Now how about one with Nan as Charleton Heston saying “They’ll take my gavel when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers!” Who knows, maybe the NRA will make her an honorary member.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 7/29 @ 7:44 pm #
That’s a funny Photoshop, but I have to agree that it’s a shame to sully Gloriana with this association with Nancy.
Pelosi is more like this woman or this one.
Comment by Challeron on 7/29 @ 7:50 pm #
Ric (Locke, just in case the Pre-fesser shows up), in re your statement on how D’s or R’s would still be representative of the People’s Wishes, I guess you didn’t hear about our (far-northern IL) long-time Moderate-Right, and actually fairly-accessible, Republican Representative Phil Crane getting turned out two years ago by Democrat Melissa “Let’s Put Anti-RPG Technology On Domestic Airliners” Bean (who, when asked “Who will pay for it?” replied, “Oh, the Government will”); and it doesn’t look like she’s going to be turned out this time.
Has something to do with all those taxed-into-leaving Chicagoans moving up here to Lake County … and still blindly pulling that “D” lever (sigh)….
Comment by Ric Locke on 7/29 @ 8:45 pm #
Challeron, you mistake me quite.
Our Representatives are not representative of the whole population of their Districts. We have always had what are beginning to be called “low information voters”, and if the Obama campaign establishes nothing else it is that voters who do so only on Party affiliation or name recognition are now running the show.
Rep. Bean, from all I can discover, is simply a fool, a low-key McKinney. She is, in fact, a contrary example to my argument, but I didn’t say the principle was invariable — local conditions apply, and up there in Lake County you are close enough that the tentacles of the Chicago Machine cannot help but begin reaching you, and there is no defense. (If you think that’s bad you should live in Arizona, where the Californians have moved in and promptly begun converting it to LA Lite.) ::shrug:: move to Minnesota. At least you could vote against Al Franken.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Challeron on 7/30 @ 12:59 am #
No thanks, Ric, I usedta live in Minnesota (I worked for Control Data Corp about 30 years ago), and I had quite enough idiocy from Prairie Home Companion….
Actually, the “LA Lite” phenom is exactly what’s happening up here; the “pop-up towns” were popping up so fast (trying to attract apartment-dwellers from Chicago) that the Lake County Board Of Commissioners had to put a moratorium on future construction, due to the fact that “major roads” up here are mostly two-lane, and sometimes more than a mile apart, and traffic was getting ridiculous: It’s probably a good thing that the Housing Bubble burst; it took the pressure off of the still-mostly-Republican Board ….
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/30 @ 6:16 am #
I would note, Challeron, that in your descriptions and Ric’s the population changed and the representation has changed along with it. Nothing real surprising there.
Comment by Christopher Taylor on 7/30 @ 1:44 pm #
Once again: does not the Congressional ban on offshore drilling expire on 30 September?
Unless extended by the Democratic congress, yes.
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