Who should be Speaker in the next Congress?

[jgraz]

In response to the wildly successful "Who should be Majority Leader" poll (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3430959&mesg_id=3430959), here's one for Speaker of the House.

Edit: Given the number of House members, I'm bound to leave many good people off a 10-slot list. Apologies in advance if I omitted your favorite pick.

[AndyA]

1. Who SHOULD be Speaker? Kucinich.

But he's too radical for our timid Dems. (He'd absolutely be the best thing that could happen to this country as Speaker, though.)

I voted for Waxman. Still a long shot, but far better than what we have now.

[TBF]

28. I voted for Kucinich. He should be the speaker now.

I'm done placating. Yes, we will always have to compromise. But if we start in the center then there is no place to go but right. Why don't we start at the far left and see if that works better.

No more enabling. Kucinich for speaker!

[Cant trust em]

2. There are 435 members of the house.

434 would make me pretty happy.

[cali]

3. Why not ask who would be a good speaker, rather than who should be?

Because we all know Pelosi will be speaker. That's just reality.

[jgraz]

4. I'm kinda missing the nuance here... aren't those two statements equivalent?

[seemslikeadream]

5. Pelosi is complicit

She must recuse herself. She has no constitutional authority on the impeachment issue.

[L. Coyote]

20. Complicit in what. Easy to trumpet a generality and a falsehood.

He does have "constitutional authority on the impeachment issue" just like every other Congress member.

And, she is exercising the discretion she has on the issue too!!

[jgraz]

27. Easier to trumpet it when there's documentation

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/08/AR2007120801664_pf.html

[Mountainman]

6. I would like to see Kucinich he would bring up liberal bills,

the Dem house approves them and Obama signs them into law. Sweet!

[FiveGoodMen]

7. I see 5 freepers voted Pelosi

[Cant trust em]

8. You see the votes, but you don't see the OPs.

I'd love for someone to tell me why Pelosi is so great.

[elleng]

9. Can't.

Please pardon my ignorance, but over time I've been MOST impressed by the several African American women on board. And I'm not thinking of the decent men.

NONE of the named, tho.

[Captain Hilts]

11. Name-calling doesn't help. nt

[bryant69]

14. Yep - I just voted for her too - after seeing this idiotic response.

I felt like I had to.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[terrya]

40. I almost feel like doing that. Except my voice on what actually happens is meaningless.

[Captain Hilts]

10. Barney Frank. Smart, funny, knows Roberts Rules of Order better 'n anybody. nt

[jgraz]

15. Kicking myself for not including Barney. I hope he challenges Pelosi.

[rucky]

21. Another vote for Barney

[texasleo]

12. Bobby Wexler

[ORDagnabbit]

13. whoever publicly says "I will impeach Pelosi for obstruction of justice"

[LWolf]

16. Kucinich, of course.

As I've been saying for years now.

[jgraz]

17. As much as I love Dennis, I'm not sure he's a natural choice for Speaker.

He strikes me as more of an individual fighter than a field marshal.

[LWolf]

18. It's hard to tell, when so many

of his own party are complicit with the enemy. Given a position of leadership, I think he would lead.

[KharmaTrain]

19. How About A Poll On Majority Leader???

Many put their ire at Pelosi where some is deserved in the direction of the Majority Leader...Steny Hoyer...the man who really controls what goes on inside the House. Look at the games he's playing with FISA...if he says OK, the Bill moves to the floor, if not, it gets stuck in committee or conference. It's always been the real seat of power for either party in their caucuses. Remember, it was DeLay, not Hastert who set the agenda...and it's a position where all others flow...such as committee assignments.

Remember, Pelosi wanted Jack Murtha, not Hoyer as Majority Leader...and might be a position that gets a bit more scrutiny.

[EstimatedProphet]

24. No! Pelosi is EEEVUL!

She's singlehandedly keeping Bush from being impeached, because she's sleeping with him! And she killd Vince Foster!

[mmonk]

25. Anyone who doesn't serve our constitution and laws is unfit

for office period. Those who put party before the constitution, I don't how you do it without a twinge of conscience.

[EstimatedProphet]

31. How I do what? Make fun of your rants? It's easy.

[jgraz]

29. Knock yourself out.

[EstimatedProphet]

22. Other -

whoever House leadership picks for the post. We don't get to choose.

[jgraz]

26. Yes. God forbid the people should have a voice in government

That might result in ... democracy! :scared:

[EstimatedProphet]

30. Like it or not, we don't pick the speaker

We don't pick presidential cabinet members either. Does that mean we don't have a voice in governemnt?

[jgraz]

34. Your assertion seems to indication that we have no voice because the members do the voting

They do the voting on EVERYTHING, yet we certainly have a voice in it. I plan on calling my member of Congress and asking her to support someone other than Pelosi for Speaker. Hopefully, by the time the vote comes up, Pelosi will be so disgraced that she'll step aside.

[EstimatedProphet]

39. You can do that all you want

But in the end, they are the ones, not any of us, that make the decision. I have no qualms about not being able to elect someone to a non-elected position.

[terrya]

32. That's correct.

Hell, *I* don't have any say-so about it. I could call my Congresswoman's office until my fingers are numb and I STILL would have zero say-so in who is to be the next Speaker of the House. Why would I say that, you may ask? Because...I am NOT A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENATIVES! I post in caps because I would have thought that reason was fairly obvious.

[EstimatedProphet]

33. It's lost on the Great Hulking Stupid that has parasitized DU

[jgraz]

36. As opposed to Great Hulking Arrogance?

There is nothing stupid about the people using their voice to affect the selection process. You seem to enjoy the idea of citizens being shut out of the process.

[EstimatedProphet]

37. Do you not get the fact that we don't pick the speaker?

In what way is the sentence "We don't pick the Speaker of the House" difficult to understand? This is not a right that we have lost under Bush. We have never picked the speaker. We don't have a voice there because we aren't supposed to, any more than we are supposed to pick the Deputy Assistant Director of Interstate Commerce.

[jgraz]

41. It's called "Representative Democracy". Look it up.

We have as much voice in the selection of the Speaker as we do in any vote taken by Congress. Well, slightly less so since it's a secret ballot, but I have no problem asking my Representative exactly who she plans on voting for.

[EstimatedProphet]

42. If you're talking about asking your rep, then go for it

[jgraz]

43. Of course. What else would I mean?

No one is saying we have the ability to directly elect the Speaker (though that would be awesome). But calling our Reps and getting them on the record about their vote is a good way to apply pressure.

[EstimatedProphet]

47. There's a lot of people that say that, that's the problem

I've heard a great many times that we needed to back the person running in the primary against Pelosi, so that she would win and become speaker. Add to that all the posts claiming that we need to impeach Pelosi. In general, people here don't seem to understand how the system works.

[jgraz]

49. I always took the "Impeach Pelosi" posts ironically. I think I made one or two like that.

When Shirley Golub was running against Pelosi in the primaries, that's what we were telling people. In our case, "Impeach" was a joking reference to voting Pelosi out of office.

It never occurred to me that anyone would use it seriously.

[terrya]

38. Hey, no one is deterring you or anyone to do that.

My congresswoman is Jan Schakowsky, Illinois 9th District. I am privileged and honored to have her representing my district. I trust her implicitly to do what she thinks is best in choosing the next Speaker of the House. I can't offer her any input nor, in my opinion, should I because I'm not a member of the House. I will call her office on national and international issues that I am concerned about and I will make my voice heard then. But on issue such as who will be House Speaker or House Majority Leader, I'll leave up to the elected Representative of my district.

But that's just me.

[uberllama42]

45. We don't get to choose the Academy Awards, either

That doesn't mean we can't have an opinion. The question is who should be the next speaker. It's no different than having an opinion on whether a certain law should pass.

[jgraz]

50. Also, the Academy voter won't take our calls. Our representatives will.

[mmonk]

23. Simple. The patriots on the list.

DK, Wexler, or Lee have the temperament to face constitutional enemies.

[El Pinko]

35. Barbara Lee.

She's worked hard for it, and has worked hard for her district.

She's in the right place ideologically, but she's not all about grandstanding.

[jgraz]

44. To bad you can't have Co-Speakers. I'd pick Lee and Woolsey.

Maybe one can be Speaker and the other Majority Leader.


Hey, I can dream...

[nolabels]

46. She is too independent and votes against popular interests

Voting against invasions, wars and the Patriot Act shows she has no foresight :sarcasm:

[Fireweed247]

48. Stop the war, cancel the patriot act, real healthcare for all

ending the drug war, canceling NAFTA, hand counted paper ballot elections, stop the lies about Iran...

I think I'll take KUCINICH!! If only our representatives cared what we think.