Posts Tagged ‘Nancy Pelosi’
June 29th, 2010 by John Feehery
If there is any iron rule to the political game, it should be: Expect the unexpected. Things change, and sometimes they change rapidly.
At the beginning of President Obama’s term, the conventional wisdom declared that the Republican Party was going to splinter and collapse. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) even openly mocked the plight of the GOP, saying that she hoped that the Republican Party would be strong again someday. Well, be careful what you wish for, Madam Speaker, because that day is just about here.
The conventional wisdom at the beginning of this year held that while Republicans had a shot at capturing the House, the party had no shot at regaining control of the Senate. But with the sudden passing of Senate President Pro Tem Robert Byrd (W.Va.), the declining health of some other Democratic senators and the fading political fortunes of such stalwart liberals as Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Patty Murray (Wash.), that assumption has been turned on its head. The Senate has a clear shot, while the House looks like a sure thing.
The conventional wisdom coming from Washington after the Arizona immigration law passed was that the American people would believe it went too far. In fact, many Republican strategists made that exact point. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Barbara Boxer, David Petraeus, House, Nancy Pelosi, Patty Murray, Republicans, Stanley McChrystal, Strom Thurmond, Tem Robert Byrd
Posted in Government, Politics, Theory | No Comments »
June 21st, 2010 by John Feehery
Once upon a midterm dreary, while Nancy pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten bills
While she nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one not gently rapping, rapping at the chamber’s floor
‘Tis some visitor, the Speaker muttered, tapping at the chamber floor
Only this, and nothing more.”
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying career wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly she wished the morrow; – vainly she sought to borrow
From her colleagues surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Majority -
For the rare and stunning setback whom the voters hit with a two by four -
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each blue curtain
Thrilled them – filled them with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of her heart, she stood repeating,
“‘Tis some lame duck entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late lame duck entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more.” Read more...
Tags: Cap and Trade, Congress, Edgar Allan Poe, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, The Raven, VAT Tax, Washington
Posted in Government, Humor, Politics, just made up | No Comments »
June 17th, 2010 by John Feehery
US Supreme Court / Photo credit: Jarek Tuszynski
In full disclosure, I think the Disclose Act is a complete joke, and it’s getting funnier.
What is the Disclose Act?
According to The Hill, the Disclose Act is “the Democratic response to a January Supreme Court ruling that overturns limits on spending by corporations and unions in political campaigns. It would tighten transparency requirements associated with corporate and union contributions, including forcing the CEOs of businesses to appear in ads funded by the company.”
The Disclose Act has been shepherded through the Congress by the two guys who are most responsible for electing Democrats to the House and Senate, Chris Van Hollen and Chuck Schumer.
This bill is not about high constitutional principles. It is not about protecting the freedom of the American people. And it is not about creating private sector jobs or cutting the deficit.
This legislation, as the Democratic sponsors would probably admit to you over a couple of drinks, is designed to give Democrats a better chance to win elections this year and into the future. Read more...
Tags: Chris Van Hollen, Chuck Schumer, Democrats, Disclose Act, Henry Waxman, Nancy Pelosi, National Rifle Association, Republicans, Supreme Court, The Hill
Posted in Government, Politics, Theory | No Comments »
June 11th, 2010 by John Feehery
World Cup Fans / Photo credit: Audrey & Patrick Scales
It is an overdone cliché to thank the good Lord for Friday, but this has been a particularly long week, so stringing a coherent column together might be beyond my capability today. But that won’t stop me from some Friday musings. Read more...
- Talk about Chutzpah. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seriously considering ditching the outside ethics panel that she trumpeted as one of the most important achievements of her tenure. She did it because she wanted to convince the voters that Democrats were the most ethical people in the whole, entire world. It didn’t work. Most voters still think the Democrats are incurably corrupt. According to news reports, Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are leading the charge to neuter the Office of Congressional Ethics, because that office has the temerity to look at what the members of the CBC are actually doing and ignoring what they are saying.
Tags: Blackhawks, California, Congressional Black Caucus, Ireland, Nancy Pelosi, Office of Congressional Ethics, Proposition 14, South Africa, Stanley Cup, World Cup
Posted in Government, Politics, Theory, sports | 1 Comment »
May 20th, 2010 by John Feehery
“We got them just where we want them.”
That was my initial sardonic reaction to the fact that Republicans lost a not very close race in the 12th District of Pennsylvania.
It is hard to spin this loss as anything more than a set-back for the GOP.
The only thing I can really come up with is that it may make the Democrats over-confident about their prospects in November. And there is some evidence that the Majority Party is letting their guard down a bit.
For Republican Congressional leaders, this election was a wake-up call. Something is not right in the way the GOP is contesting special elections. I say that because Republicans haven’t won a special election in a long time. And special elections usually give you a pretty good sense of how things are going to go in the general election.
Perhaps the message was all wrong in a district that is overwhelmingly Democratic. Instead of making fun of Nancy Pelosi, a close friend of John Murtha, an older woman of Italian descent, and a Catholic, maybe the Republicans should have made this election a referendum on Barack Obama. After all, Obama got beat pretty soundly in this district by both Hillary Clinton and by John McCain. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Conservatives, Democrats, election, GOP, Majority party, Nancy Pelosi, Pennsylvania, Rand Paul, Republicans, Tea Party, voters
Posted in GOP, Politics, Theory | 1 Comment »
March 26th, 2010 by John Feehery
Republicans can learn much from Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
When a bipartisan majority in the House and the Senate passed the prescription drug benefit in 2003 (after a painful three and a half hour vote on the Conference report), Pelosi, who was then Minority Leader, promised immediately to repeal the legislation.
Democrats even briefly toyed with using that as one of their campaign themes, but it got lost in a Presidential campaign that focused mostly on national security and John Kerry’s flip-flopping ways.
But that didn’t mean that Mrs. Pelosi forgot about her pledge.
This health care reform package is notable for many reasons. It took a long time to get done. It spends a lot of money. It will immediately raise premiums. It promises to give better access to health insurance to those with pre-existing conditions. It makes people who don’t want to buy or can’t afford to buy health insurance buy it anyway.
And it repeals two parts of the original and most offensive (from Pelosi’s perspective) portions of the bill. It destroys the Medicare Advantage program, which Democrats irrationally feared would lead to the privatization of the Medicare program. And it makes the prescription drug companies fill in the so-called donut hole, which was put in place to keep the original bill within its budget parameters. Read more...
Tags: health care, House, Nancy Pelosi, prescription drug benefit, repeal, Senate
Posted in Government, Politics, Theory, health care | No Comments »
March 15th, 2010 by John Feehery
(Washington DC) JMU News Service reports that House Speaker is considering a variety of different procedural and intimidation tactics in order to win passage of the President’s health care bill later this week. The tactics, according to well-informed sources, include hiring a voodoo specialist, jerry-rigging the voting-machines on the Democratic side to give off an electric shock when the “nay” button is pushed, and employing never-used parliamentary maneuvers, including one called the “olde three-card monte”, and another being dubbed the “close enough for government-work” rule.
According to sources, the voodoo specialist has already been casting spells on Democrats who have said or have voted against the health care bill in the past. Some have hinted that Eric Massa’s abrupt resignation was a sign that the voodoo campaign was already working. “Can you imagine how shocking it must have been for Massa to think he was being whipped in the shower by a naked Rahm Emanual, only to find out that he was the victim of a voodoo attack,” the Democratic source giggled. Read more...
Tags: health care, just made up, Massa, Nancy Pelosi, Voting
Posted in health care, just made up | 1 Comment »
March 6th, 2010 by John Feehery
The resignation of Congressman Eric Massa complicates the life of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And her life is already pretty complicated.
Of course, it means one less vote for a health care bill that Congressional Democrats are trying to get through a reluctant House.
And one vote is a big deal, because it looks like pro-life Democrats aren’t going to swallow what the Senate passed late last year.
The Democrats have constructed a complicated scheme to pass health care, overly complicated in my view. The House has to somehow pass a Senate bill that includes a huge new tax increase on labor union health plans and abortion language that is still unacceptable to Bart Stupak.
Then they are going to pass another follow-on bill that will somehow reverse that labor union tax with so-called “reconciliation” instructions that the Senate then will theoretically take up and pass with 51 votes.
But first, the Senate has to hope that the Senate parliamentarian decides that whatever the House passes somehow fits in with the Senate rules, not a certain proposition.
And if the Parliamentarian decides that it is not kosher, well, then, Joe Biden has to step in and create a new precedent that will give the Republicans ample cause to shut the Upper Chamber down for a while. Read more...
Tags: abortion, Bart Stupak, Bill Clinton, Charlie Rangel, Congress, Democrats, Denny Hastert, Eric Massa, health care, House, Joe Biden, Mark Foley, Nancy Pelosi, Republicans, Senate, Tom DeLay, Ways and Means Committee
Posted in Government, Politics, Scandals, election | No Comments »
March 4th, 2010 by John Feehery
Charlie Rangel is not crazy. He may be liberal. He may be corrupt. He may be a partisan. But he is not crazy.
The same cannot be said of Pete Stark, the man who will take Charlie Rangel’s place.
This reminds me a little bit of when Tom Foley had to find a replacement for Dan Rostenkowski during critical moment in the Clinton health care push, and put Sam Gibbons in the Chairman’s Chair. Gibbons was not nearly as crazy at Pete Stark, but he wasn’t nearly as competent as Rosty, and Hillary’s health care died as a result.
Pete Stark is certifiable. He has a penchant for disparaging just about everybody.
He once told a constituent: “I wouldn’t dignify you by peeing on your leg, it wouldn’t be worth wasting the urine.” He Called Blue Dog Democrats, the folks he needs to pass his health care bill, “brain dead.” He said the Bush Administration sent soldiers “to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement.” According to Gannet, during the run-up to the Persian Gulf War, he called fellow liberals Tom Lantos and Stephen Solarz ‘hostile militant guys,’ suggesting their votes were ‘as a matter of convenience’ for Israel.” He claimed that the children of one of his African American colleagues were “all born out of wedlock.” Read more...
Tags: Bill Clinton, Charlie Rangel, Crazy, Dan Rostenkowski, Nancy Pelosi, Pete Stark, Sam Gibbons, Tom Foley, Ways and Means Committee
Posted in Government, Politics | No Comments »
March 3rd, 2010 by John Feehery
“The times, they are a changing.”
That anthem of the 60’s should always be in the minds of all Hill ethics counselors.
Charlie Rangel’s troubles with the Ethics Committee follow a familiar path.
I remember well in November of 1994, when an obscure challenger named Michael Patrick Flanagan knocked off a powerful Ways and Means Chairman who had delivered billions of dollars back to his hometown of Chicago.
Before 1992, Dan Rostenkowski’s picture was right next to the definition of power-broker in the Congressional dictionary. Two years later, his picture was next to the word “crook”.
Rosty did what he had always done. He used his office as a way to get a little extra money for his family. The particular crime he was charged with was cashing in the stamps that his office had bought and using the money for his own personal pleasure.
It was penny-ante stuff. Minor corruption with a little bit of legal graft.
But after the downfall of Jim Wright, what passed for minor graft no longer passed the muster in the country or the media.
Everybody loves Charlie Wilson now – thanks to the book and the movie — but Wilson’s antics wouldn’t have survived in this ethics environment today. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Charlie Rangel, Charlie Wilson, CODELs, Congress, Fundraising, Jack Abramoff, Jim Wright, K Street, Lobbyist, Nancy Pelosi, Republicans
Posted in Fundraising, Government, Politics, Scandals | 2 Comments »
If there is any iron rule to the political game, it should be: Expect the unexpected. Things change, and sometimes they change rapidly.
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