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Ear to the Ground

‘Whatever Nancy Wants, Nancy Gets’

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Posted on Nov 12, 2008
speaker.gov

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at work with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Nancy Pelosi isn’t as showy as some of her predecessors, but according to a profile in the Politico, the most powerful woman in American political history is firmly in control of her domain. Tom “the Hammer” DeLay says she is “the most powerful speaker in a generation—she will be able to do anything she wants.” As one anonymous lawmaker put it, “Whatever Nancy wants, Nancy gets.”

Pelosi hasn’t wowed with legislation, but she’s had to contend with a weak Senate and an opposition White House. That is about to change.


The Politico:

As Pelosi enters her third year as speaker, by any measure, she has become the most powerful woman in U.S. political history and is now preparing to wield her gavel in a way that few, if any, recent speakers could match. Even former Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the architect of the 1994 Republican Revolution, pales in comparison. Pelosi is being mentioned by observers in the same breath as the legendary Sam Rayburn and Tip O’Neill, although she has yet to assemble a legislative record to match theirs.

[...] From top to bottom, she is a controlling presence in the House — Pelosi forbids her staff to use the word “I” in speeches. Pelosi has called politics “a free hedge-clipping service,” meaning that any pols who seek too much attention will get their head handed to them.

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By ConcernedCitizen, November 19, 2008 at 11:24 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

“Whatever Nancy wants, Nancy gets.”

If this is TRULY the case than in simpe terms, the rest of us are screwed!

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By mill, November 13, 2008 at 8:23 pm #

I join many posters in a skeptical view of Speaker Pelosi.  What power? 

The war in Iraq over?  Financial system regulated to a reasonable extent?  No child really left behind?  The country’s ports secure?  Chemical plants attack-resistent?  Federal budget near solvency? 

The Democrats have a very short window in which to prove they can govern better than the Republicans ruled.  Soon-President Obama will be like Reagan - all teflon, nothing bad will stick.  But Congress .... If the Dems don’t put forward a united policy agenda that actually helps Americans in the near term,  they’ll be toast as fast as vp candidate Palin

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By PatrickHenry, November 13, 2008 at 7:55 pm #

I wish Sheehan had won.

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By Alan, November 13, 2008 at 2:09 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Like the current Richard Daley of Chicago,
Pelosi comes from a long tradition of machine politics.  Her father was mayor of Baltimore.
She is more about running the political machine
than anything else.  The “impeachment is off the
table” comment shows that she is unprincipled.
Yes, she is a skilled political tactician and
strategist, but to what end?

Report this

By RdV, November 13, 2008 at 10:33 am #

Enough of the breathless revisionist history. Pelosi has been a timid girl—evidenced by the scared deer-in-the headlights nervous look. She has asked for nothing, gotten less and given away more.
It was she that stated that “impeachment was off the table” claiming the country didn’t have the appetite for it after the country voted in the Democrats to oppose the runaway Republicans. Later, on “The View”, when confronted, Nancy responded, “If anyone can show me evidence of a crime…”
Congressional ratings are dismal, not because of the party leadership, but because the leadership was delinquent in doing their constitutional mandate.
  She is a disgrace to this country.

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By Thomas Allen, November 13, 2008 at 6:54 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Pelosi is a Republican wearing a Dem t-shirt.  She is right there at Bu$hie’s butt.  Pelosi is a vain, power-hingry, w***h on a broom, copy of Chicago’s old Mayor Daly.  Pelosi is part of the corrupt political machine system that is so much a disgusting disgrace.

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By skulz fontaine, November 13, 2008 at 3:22 am #

Nancy Prance wants war and more war. Bushco style war with loads of gristle. Blood flowing freely and filling the trough. Mounds of dead children and rotting cadavers. Nancy Prance is that classically defined princess of ghoul. War ghoul. Nancy Prance likes that war profiteering same as her home-girl Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein taught the Nancy Prance quite adeptly. War is profit and more profit is grand. Come on Amerika, give up those children of yours and let’s make war for a fiscally sound future. Nancy Prance dances naked by the light of a nuclear conflagration.

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By Outraged, November 13, 2008 at 1:50 am #

Do you think Pelosi… using all her power could find it in her soul to pass HR 676?  Just as a signatory gesture to the unwashed masses’ taxpayer dollars? 

How many more thousands will be REQUIRED TO DIE OR NEEDLESSLY SUFFER before taxpayers dollars are allocated back to the payers?

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By mud, November 13, 2008 at 1:29 am #

GOOD! Get George and Dick behind bars and make it snappy.

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By P. T., November 13, 2008 at 1:06 am #

If Nancy is so powerful and wants out of Iraq, why are we still there?

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By squeaky jones, November 12, 2008 at 11:34 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Nancy Pelosi to me is the get away driver to the Bush/Cheney crime scene. When America starts punishing war crimes, hopefully she will still be around so she can go to Devils island with rest of these war criminals. Squeaky.

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By lichen, November 12, 2008 at 11:14 pm #

Too bad she wants so little; not living wages, not an immediate end to the war, not impeachment, not economic justice, not fair trade, not civil liberties or civil rights.  What she wants is to raise money to win more elections for dimrats, but that won’t last forever.

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By Naz, November 12, 2008 at 10:25 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Bush took an oath to “...preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution…” which he blatantly violated while calling the Constitution “just a goddamn piece of paper.” But the great Nancy Pelosi ignored her responsibility to the people and the country by taking impeachment “off the table.” Washington, D.C. is the seat of greed and corruption in the U.S.A. Pelosi is like that woman in the bathtub in “The Shining”, if you know what I mean.

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By troublesum, November 12, 2008 at 9:57 pm #

Her husband is a billionaire business man.  She’s everything that’s wrong with the democratic party.  Her worst nightmare is a bad hair day.  My congressman lives under her desk and doesn’t come out until he’s told to.  How did she gain control of the House?

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By knute, November 12, 2008 at 9:31 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Unfortunately what Nancy appears to be more interested in is Nancy’s legacy as the first women speaker instead of whats good for the country. If it were the latter that she was working for then she, along with the other democratic leadership would quit standing in the way of holding the criminals in this white house accountable. They talk about not being distracted from all the good things they will do. That must be in conjunction with the plethora of accomplishments since gaining their slim majority two years ago. Or was that “trickle-down” legislation ?

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By samosamo, November 12, 2008 at 9:26 pm #

Pelosi is nothing but a republican. All her actions from 2006 through the bailout debacle to now is nothing but placating corporations, just what the country does NOT need.

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