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 Pelosi’s Balancing ActPosted on Apr 8, 2009By E.J. Dionne “I give Republicans credit for this: They vote the way they believe. ... I think that they vote with more integrity than they get credit for.” That review of Republican motivations and commitments comes not courtesy of a partisan blog but from Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House. During an interview at the Capitol shortly after Congress broke for its recess, Pelosi spoke a simple truth too often ignored in the tiresome laments about the loss of bipartisanship in Washington. “If you can’t find common ground, that doesn’t mean you’re partisan,” she said. “It just means you believe two different things.” The congressional break comes at a moment when one cliché about Pelosi should be disposed of for good—that a San Francisco liberal was imposing her agenda on our pragmatic new president. How many times earlier this year did you hear a variation on “Obama let Pelosi write the stimulus”? As Pelosi noted, “Anybody who knows Barack Obama knows that he’s going to have the recovery package that he wants.” Advertisement  By comparison with her recent predecessors, Pelosi is a strong speaker of the House. She has not centralized power as much as Newt Gingrich did in the 1990s, but she has far more control than did Tom Foley, the previous Democratic speaker. She also faces a Republican Party much more conservative and Southern than it used to be. It’s easy to forget how dramatic the shift has been over time—and therefore easy to miss how much of the current nostalgia for bipartisanship is unrealistic. In the Congress elected in 1960, there were 174 Republicans. Only seven came from the 11 states of the Old Confederacy, while 35 came from New York or New England, the heartlands of moderate Republicanism. In the current Congress, 72 of the 178 Republicans come from the Old Confederacy. Almost all of them are deeply conservative. There is not a single Republican House member from New England, and only three are from New York. Yet Pelosi knows that her own majority still depends upon members elected from relatively conservative rural and suburban districts. Of the 254 Democrats in the House—it takes 218 to form a majority—49 come from districts carried by John McCain last year, according to an analysis by Congressional Quarterly. Pelosi wants to protect those 49, and the best evidence for how she is executing her balancing act came in the House budget resolution that left open the possibility that health care reform, but not a cap-and-trade plan on carbon emissions, would pass under “reconciliation” rules. This sounds technical, but it’s actually political. The reconciliation rules, set by agreement of both houses, would allow health care reform to get through the Senate with only a bare majority of 51 votes. But cap-and-trade will need 60 votes. Why the different treatment of the two issues? “The priority, of course, is to pass health care,” Pelosi said without blinking. She still hopes it will pass with an expansive bipartisan majority, but added: “We cannot abandon the effort if we don’t have 60 votes.” On the other hand, Pelosi knows that energy issues do not divide neatly along partisan lines. Regional differences, notably among coal states, oil-and-gas-states and the rest of the country, often count more than party. “There are enough Democrats who are for health care reform,” she said. “You don’t know where those Democratic votes are on cap-and-trade.” Her view is that unless both houses can forge a broad compromise that will get at least 60 votes in the Senate, the whole effort will die anyway. As she talked, she called attention to a small statue of a coal miner that she has always kept in her office. It was a gift to her father from the late Jennings Randolph, who represented West Virginia in the House and Senate. She said she points to the statue when she discusses energy and environmental questions with her mining-state colleagues. “They need not fear what I would write as a bill, [that I would] say, ‘Let’s write a bill without coal,’ ” she said. “You can’t.” Those are not the words of an ideologue. In fact, that’s the one thing Nancy Pelosi isn’t. E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is postchat(at)aol.com. © 2009, Washington Post Writers Group Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig. Add Your Comment
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House Passes Health Care Bill
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By Leefeller, April 13 at 7:52 am #
“I voted against it, but I hoped it would pass” or “I voted for it and hoped it would not pass”. Well, that covers everything in the “Politicians Integrity Handbook”.
Report thisBy PSmith, April 12 at 8:32 pm #
PELOSI - HOW MUCH?
Gore Vidal - Afshin Rattansi - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjCBR-vABMc
Report thisBy Wilberforce, April 9 at 10:36 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Pelosi and the dems are idiots. Their economic strategy is a joke.
Report thisLet’s see. The government is buried in debt, so let’s bypass fiscally responsible Clintonomics and put forward a Keynesian hog fest from 70 years ago. We’ve got a spectacularly successful, neo liberal economic agenda. And after the republians’ grotesque failures, we could easily roll over them and put it through. Instead, we’ll bend over for tax cuts, throw in a ton of pork, and give the republicans a huge opening to attack us.
No one will care. The public are out to lunch as usual. They barely noticed the Clintons’ successes and didn’t bother with the details. They’re hopelessly selfish and too lazy to study the issues. And they could care less about the millions loosing their jobs, homes, and healthcare.
Please see Stimulus Redux at http://a-civilife.blogspot.com
By Paracelsus, April 9 at 8:30 pm #
If you keep good with Pelosi, EJ, she might appoint you groom of the stool for her rear bottom. Think of the access you will have while cleaning her dingle berries.
Of course I have the usual reasons to revile her:
1. Impeachment is off the table.
2. There isn’t a constitution breaking security measure she is against.
3. Free trade so that Americans can compete with the Chinese at 10 cents an hour.
4. Cap and trade, because slowing down the real economy isn’t enough- you have to utterly destroy it.
5. God bless illegal aliens, because Mexico depends on us to stop real reform.
Report thisBy tropicgirl, April 9 at 12:55 pm #
How’s that water jug, E.J., heavy today? I bet.
Nancy Pelosi is repulsive on every level. As an enabler of the torture, she forbade the American people from pursuing justice to save her own sorry guilty ass. She has failed the American people over and over on every level, from the “stimulus” to the “bailouts” to the “budget”. She loves herself, no doubt, and is able to hire many PR “scrubbers” to clean her pro-Israeli-killing machine bad rep.
Nancy Pelosi is a neoliberal, which is the same as a neocon. Her partisan fighting is so that the right and the left hate each other and never figure out that the NEO’s are playing them. Real liberals and conservatives have a lot in common that NEO’s don’t, such as environmentalism, fiscal responsibility, clean food, jobs, family values.
Real liberals and conservatives DON"T want a one world order, government control over everything, spying, torture, empire building around the world, and off-shoring and outsourcing jobs. They don’t want us united but we should be.
Pelosi is the ever-lovin’ creepin’ crud.
Report thisBy samosamo, April 9 at 11:45 am #
“”““The priority, of course, is to pass health care,” Pelosi said without blinking.”“”“
I thought the economy was priority. Pelosi is a classic blue dog and izraeli collaborator. I well remember her lying speech last september on the first vote of the bailout. Breathing fire and brimstone, she said it was NOT to be passed because it did not protect the taxpayer from having to pay for it and it did not provide for the oversight, regulation and transparency that was needed to prevent just what actually happened when a week later she got her colleagues and herself(she voted for it both times) to vote for it. Now think the bonus’ it provided for those crooks that were supposedly required to account for the handling of the money. This putting off of passing the bailout could have been her efforts that izrael got a piece of the pie.
Report thisNo, pelosi IS one of the top 3 most DANGEROUS people to the security of this country. Evidenced by the continuing flow of taxpayer’s money into pockets of those responsible for our current plight and her total lock on NOT prosecuting the previous administration. This country will never turnaround as long as she represents those conservative constituents in her district, all hiding under the democrat flag. That is how sly and tricky the republicans are.
Politics have never sucked as bad as it does now. Never has there been such obvious unity in congress, presidency and corporated america where there is not a real difference in either party.
By Purple Girl, April 9 at 10:42 am #
Where Real Dems meet Real Republicans.
Report thisWho now is the Party of reducing or eliminating Gov’t interference in Personal Choice or Freedoms.
Which party is no the advocate for average people having access to the Free market, instead of just fortune 500 corps.
Which party now demands to the reduction of influence and power of for profit Corps in Gov’tal decisions
which party not only Demands legislation ‘For & By the people’ with the adage ‘Don’t Tread on Me’
want to know why the Neo Cons have watched their supporters dwindle- they have not adhered to the very basic principles Persoanl Rights and Freedoms- they have relinquished these to Corps and Religious fanatics.
Want to know why the Dems are beginning to also see this schism- Same reason. The ‘conservaDems’ are doing exactly what their Repug predeccessor did- bowing down to corp influences- over and above the people…EFCA will be a dividing line within the Dem party. Those who readily support it will be hailed- those who oppose it will be voted out.There is a reason the majority of Americans support EFCA on both sides- We both see it as the Right of Every citizen to sell their ‘wares’(labor) in the Free market for th ebest price available.Because you see we realize the Founding Documents were the Sole Rights of ctiizens and not any Brick & Mortar entity.There is a break up coming..three party ideologies - One who adheres to the Rights and Freedoms of the people (in all it’s diversity), The other which supports the Corp Control and the other Which adhere to purely Religious doctrines. The last two innately opposed to the ideology of Our Founders.Fro Real americans there is no ‘Third Way’..Only one- the first group. The second might as well be called the ‘Royal Loyals’ and the third ‘The Inquistors’.
Our Founders had confidence in the wisedom of the people to control their own destiny. The other two negate such self determination, preferring a Logo or an emblem make decisions for them.Is it Fear of Freedom, or a form of Stockholm syndrome?
I’ll risk it and stick with the confidence and Faith our Founders had in ‘We the people’...I’d Rather gamble on the ‘Great Experiment’ then return to the systems they were willing to sacrific their lives to free US of.
the line in the sand has been drawn either ‘Yes We Can’ or no we can’t.So either we decide to Say ‘God Bless America’ or choose between God bless the Queen (family crest or logo- same shit) or the Pope (or whatever self ordained ‘moral’ authority)
By Jason!!, April 9 at 8:57 am #
Pelosi is trying to repair her poor image and I expect more of her handlers will try to push more articles like these.
The woman is the epitome of Elitism.
Report thisBy mmadden, April 9 at 6:50 am #
All Hail Queen Pelosi.
And the republican party - the Got zero Plan party better start thinking about the country for once and stop voting like a herd.
Report thisBy Steve E, April 9 at 4:04 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Pelosi is a disgrace. She has of late been declaring her wish ” to prosecute wrongdoing” in regards to the Bush Administration’s illegal actions, torture, wiretapping, an illegal invasion of Iraq, etc., etc.,. She has calculated that none of this will go forward anyway, especially considering Obama’s stall tactics on court cases revolving around the Bush Administration’s criminal activity. Hence she can act with great ” Bravado “. All this in the light of her previous spineless performance leading Congress away from impeachment proceedings of G.W. and Company as pointed out by the Shift in the previous post. Pelosi is only concerned about ‘her” future not the American People’s.
Report thisBy Shift, April 9 at 1:03 am #
Pelosi is no Lazerus. She failed the American People in not calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. She cooked her own goose and nobody’s buying into her resurrection.
Report this