Pelosi's attitude towards Repugs and DINO's: 'Screw 'em."

[geek tragedy]

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=3462A90F-18FE-70B2-A8D9A04CF32FE005

None of this was entirely unexpected, but the window of opportunity is closing fast for Republicans. And a handful of Democrats who defied her on the stimulus, especially Reps. Paul E. Kanjorksi of Pennsylvania and Heath Shuler of North Carolina, may also find themselves shut out, Pelosi associates and Democratic aides tell Politico.


“I think the take-away here is ‘screw ’em,’” half-joked a House Democratic aide.

“Remember, you have a speaker who has dealt with that for a couple years. She dealt with it as minority leader, she dealt with it as speaker ,” another staffer close to Pelosi said.

“What she realized with Obama coming in was that, yeah, we can go through this dance, but at the end of the day, this was going to be a tutorial for the Obama folks,” the person added. “They’re all going to vote against you and then come to your cocktail party that night.”

“Obama is at 70 , we’re at 30 ,” noted a top Senate Democratic aide, referring to the even lower approval rating the Congress gets as a whole. “Of course they’re going to drive a wedge between us.”

GOP leaders have other more substantive reasons to prefer Obama over Pelosi. She is much less supportive of tax cuts, persuading Obama to scale back his original tax cut plan from more than $300 billion to around $275 billion. And she’s signaled she might push back if the White House insists on allowing the Bush administration’s tax cuts for the wealthy to expire at the end of 2010, instead of repealing them sooner.

For her part, Pelosi has publicly embraced the role as Obama’s besieged field general on the Hill, even if a little resentment leeched through after a week of absorbing the attacks that would have been aimed at a less popular president.

One metaphor-mixing aide said Pelosi has become the “whipping horse for Obama, she’s taken all the punches on this, when aren’t going to vote with Obama in a million years.”

Another staffer, another mixed metaphor about Pelosi’s self-sacrifice: “She’s willing to take a bullet for . ... And the White House was perfectly willing to let her take all the hits.”

Yet for Pelosi, last week’s victory was a sweet one. She was clearly delighted in her comfortable margin of victory and even a little tickled by Republicans’ inability to change the outcome despite their unanimous opposition. The speaker was in a jubilant mood late on the morning after the vote, and echoes of applause, mixed with cheering, reverberated from her office into the Capitol Rotunda.

Moreover, Pelosi took careful note of the 11 Democrats who voted no, particularly Shuler and Kanjorski, whose narrow victory in November came after a big push by the Pelosi-allied Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“Oh, she’s not going to forget that one,” said a Pelosi confidant of Kanjorski’s vote.

[oldnslo]

1. I support her POV

[geek tragedy]

2. Yeah, and I think a lot of people here are falling

for the Drudge game of Pin the Blame on the Speaker.

[camera obscura]

3. I've always said that for all her faults, Pelosi has more guts than Reid - although that's not hard.

[blueclown]

4. It's about time, Nancy.

Show some spine and those approval ratings will go way up.

[roguevalley]

18. bout time. I hope she does something to those 11 idiots.

[tavalon]

5. Oh, waahh Pelosi, buck up, grow a spine and just do your fucking job!

[geek tragedy]

7. She is doing her job. She's the one fighting the Republicans.

Instead of having cocktail parties with them and naming 20% of her staff as Republicans, unlike a certain other Democrat.

[backscatter712]

14. I'll give Pelosi credit.

This time a couple years ago, she was saying "Impeachment is off the table!" and the House Rethugs were obstructing with motions to recommit.

Since then, she's been getting better - while Reid's still spineless and legislation in the Senate still tends to stall due to Rethug filibusters, that same legislation tends to cruise through the House, especially now that the House leadership has fixed the rules on motions-to-recommit so House Rethugs can't use it to block legislation.

Most of the compromises in the stimulus bill have been made by Obama, as part of his strategy, and aside from that, it sailed through the House, even though every single Rethug voted against it. Pelosi's figured out how to get legislation through the House.

I'll say it - she's improving. It's usually the Senate that's the big obstacle these days.

[ClarkUSA]

6. Not sure why so many DUers dislike Pelosi considering she reflects tough progressive values.

It may be a herd mentality based on childish "Rage Against Authority" tendencies.

[AndyA]

9. No, it's impeachment is off the table.

Pelosi and Reid have best been White House door mats for the Bush Administration since they came into power. Checks, balances, and accountability all went out the window for a few years. It's now time for them to make up for lost time.

[tavalon]

12. Nope, it was her adament anti-impeachment stance

that went from collaborative to downright co-conspiratorial. I think she would have to climb a hundred progressive mountains for me to find my forgiveness bone. She kept us from being able to impeach the Bush administration and that is damn hard to dismiss, certainly not 15 days into her turnaround.

[Warren DeMontague]

15. Yeah, and we all were for impeachment. Except her logic was that it might detract from the fight to

get a Democratic Congress AND a Democrat in the White House.

And now, we have a Democratic Congress, and a Democrat in the White House.

So it is entirely possible that she was tactically correct.

[tavalon]

16. Never going to know, now are we. But we are a nation of laws, not of men, are we not?

She failed on her imperative. It wasn't her job to get the Democrats elected, it was to uphold the constitution. Epic fail. Not forgiven. Not even close.

[Warren DeMontague]

21. Did I suggest that you need to 'forgive' her?

No, I don't think I did. I'm merely floating one perspective on the situation.

Of course, she's still the SOTH and she will remain so for the forseeable future, so I suppose it's up to all Democrats to decide for themselves as to whether their personal priority is to eat our own or to try to work together.

[tavalon]

23. I'll let them do their work in relative piece unless they fuck up

My current focus is on the massive coconspiracy within the fourth estate and of course, hoping to get war crimes tribunals. Nation of laws, you know the refrain by now.

[Harry Monroe]

17. You are spot on. That is something I will NEVER forgive her for

no matter how much she improves as Speaker of the House. We had a chance to do the ethical and Constitutionally correct thing and she refused.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. I always wonder who they think would do a better job.

Oh, yeah, Dennis. :eyes:

[AndyA]

8. Nancy's finally waking up and smelling the coffee?

I hope it's a strong cup. She needs to come to her senses.

[IntravenousDemilo]

10. "Leeched"?

I think they meant to say "even if a little resentment leached through after a week of..." Or if they didn't, they should have.

[gratuitous]

11. I hope Pelosi has a memory like an, er, elephant

Because if there's no penalty for crossing the caucus, you won't hold it together very well. As Speaker, Pelosi is in what is traditionally more of a non-partisan role, since she is the Speaker of the entire House of Representatives. But I dearly hope that the House Majority Leader, one Steny Hoyer, keeps the names of the 11 turncoats on a card in his pocket at all times. When it comes time to convene the Democrats, Hoyer should consider keeping those 11 in the back of the room, ignored during the caucus and given a little re-taste of what life was like when Democrats were the minority party in the House.

Democrats are powerful enough and have enough money in the party coffers to protect caucus members in weak districts. And I hope they have the judgment not to protect caucus members who drop turds in the punch bowl from the very first big vote.

[Ian David]

13. Pelosi suddenly finds "courage" when there's someone bigger than her to back her up. n/t

[marshall]

19. Reaction to Limbaugh's "bend over" comment?

Tongues are wagging.

[Ardent15]

20. The Republicans

are on the wrong side of history.

Screw them.