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Day Around the Bay
Welcome Back! Um, Why Are You at Work Today?
You know, over here on the Right Coast we're hearing a lot about Nancy. Is she as liberal as they say she is? Is she as nutty as the rest of us? And how could she already be screwing the pooch?
We did the best we could to defend her, or at least say she's smarter than she appears and she won't blow it but, she's not helping her cause.
First there was the Murtha mess, her choosing him to be Majority Leader despite his having a reputation as being a bit of a pork-lover and a bit corrupt. Then there was her seeing Murtha go down to defeat. Now there's the Alcee Hastings matter.
For those of you not paying attention, and really, why should any of you? Hastings was her choice to run the House Intelligence Committee. This despite the seniority of Jane Harman. Now Harman and Pelosi don't get along very well. Pelosi doesn't like Harman's views on the war and the Bush eavesdropping plan (Harman is a fan of both) and there's a bit of a personal thing between them that nobody can figure out (maybe Harman showed up one day wearing the same outfit as Nancy). So Nancy wanted to promote Hastings to that role. The only problem is that Hastings has a bit of an ethical problem himself, mainly that he was once impeached as a Federal Judge for being bribed. Of course, he was acquitted of the charges but the tag "allegedly" still hangs around Hasting's neck, which hasn't stopped people from forgetting that little point. The word impeached does send people into a tizzy these days (warning, link contains Fox News type substance). Especially when you make as a campaign promise to want to bring ethics back.
So Tuesday Pelosi backed off and said it wouldn't go to Hastings. It also won't go to Harman either. Now all of Washington is atwitter about who Pelosi will nominate and how Pelosi could get herself out of the mess she's created for herself. And yes, Marc Sandalow, let us be the first one to use the phrase "cat fight" as we think the idea of Pelosi and Harman recreating that famous cat fight from "Dynasty" on the House floor would be awesome.
Oh, and for those of you hoping Pelosi will bring the liberal, bet again. She's managed to muzzle most of those known for being the leftiest of lefties and are all spouting her talking points as if they were programmed by Angela Lansbury in the Manchurian Candidate.
Thankfully, at least she can claim that she wasn't the congressional candidate whos boob was put on the internet.
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The below is from a "viewpoint neutral" source. That's enough for me. Nancy may choose whomever she wants of course. This molehill of an issue is now an anthill.
"In 1988, the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives took up the case, and Hastings was impeached for bribery and perjury by a vote of 413-3. Voters to impeach included Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, John Conyers and Charles Rangel. He was then convicted in 1989 by the United States Senate, becoming only the sixth Judge in the history of the United States to be removed from office by the Senate."
nothing will change in washington. how sad. we needed to replace all of the members in congress and the senate, not just the republicans. they are all part of the problem.
Meh. There's way too much misinformation going on about Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress. I have seen no convincing evidence of a "cat fight" between Pelosi and Jane Harman beyond Pelosi's distain for some of Harman's positions on U.S. intelligence. (And surprise, I also have distain for several of Harman's positions.)
Also, John Murtha would have made a great Majority Leader based solely on his praiseworthy anit-war beliefs, and no amount of unfairly accusing Murtha of corruption is going to change that fact.
Finally, concerns over whether the Dems are going to be too liberal, too conservative, or whatever are silly because such terms have no value beyond being comepletely subjective manners of self-identification.
As far as I'm concerned Pelosi and the Dems have done a great job so far. (1) They forced Donald Rumsfeld to resign. (2) They have all but run John Bolton out of the UN. (3) They have been handed the duty of taking care of 10 spending bills for FY 2007 that have been left unfinished. (4) The rejection of that free trade agreement between the U.S. and Vietnam promises more scrutiny of trade politicies.
Yes, a Dem-controlled Congress is a luxury.
Nancy and Harman have a thing going on. Maybe not a catfight, but it's more than a simple disagreement on a few issues.
If ABSCAM was a test, Murtha did not pass. He and Alcee Hastings both were nonstarters.
Clinton got off to a rough start as well back in 1992. No biggee.