Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi told Larry King last night that she is now open to a vote on offshore drilling. Typical spineless Democrat, always giving into the bullying by Republicans.

"The President is wrong and he knows it!"

That's the words of Nancy Pelosi in her response to Bush's little presser this morning.

According to McJoan at Daily Kos there are a lot more House Democrats now siding with the law on this. This is great news. Hopefully the Senate will take notice and the Democrats that voted for immunity will reconsider. If not then we can always reconsider them as Senators.

Pelosi was ready for Mukasey's refusal to enforce the contempt citations. Now the next step - court:

"By ordering the U.S. Attorney to take no action in response to congressional subpoenas, the Bush Administration is continuing to politicize law enforcement, which undermines public confidence in our criminal justice system.

"Anticipating this response from the Administration, the House has already provided authority for the Judiciary Committee to file a civil enforcement action in federal district court and the House shall do so promptly. The American people demand that we uphold the law. As public officials, we take an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect our system of checks and balances and our civil lawsuit seeks to do just that."

Let's see how quickly this moves.

She raises some very good points:

Don't veto the people's choice.

"I think there is a concern when the public speaks and there is a counter-decision made to that," she said, adding quickly, "I don't think that will happen."

She said the governors, lawmakers, DNC members and others picked as super delegates are chosen through a grassroots process and are accountable to the party's voters.

"I do think that they have a respect -- it's not just following the returns, it's also having a respect for what has been said by the people," Pelosi said. "It would be a problem for the party if the verdict would be something different than the public has decided."

Then a little later:

"Well, I don't think that any states that operated outside the rules of the party can be dispositive of who the nominee is. That is to say they can't make the difference because then we would have no rules," she said.

Pelosi added, "But I do think that the best outcome for us is if one of the candidates pulls ahead and this issue is disposed of long before we get to the convention. We certainly don't want to ignore Florida and Michigan, but we can't ignore the rules which everyone else played by."

These are excellent points, and the same thing a lot of us have been saying. The rules were set out months ago, rather they were right or wrong, or if we liked them or not. To change them now would be disaster for the entire party.

Think of the precident this would also set. In the future if a state decides to break the rules of the party, then they would just have to cite Michigan and Florida in order to get their delegates seated. We could end up with a much worse primary calendar down the road.

It is far beyond time for Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to go. They are a joke as leaders. Here is their latest caving to the administration:

Senior Democrats have decided that holding a controversial vote on the contempt citations, which have already been approved by the House Judiciary Committee as part of its investigation into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, would “step on their message” of bipartisan unity in the midst of the stimulus package talks.

We have now reached a point where Pelosi and Reid are complacent in George Bush's law breaking. The amazing part is that this whole thing involves the White House putting politics above justice. Now we have Reid and Pelosi doing the same thing.

Gleen Greenwald has much more

E.J. Dionne has a great piece up today about the Democrats problem in Congress.

Democrats in Congress are discovering what it's like to live in the worst of all possible worlds. They are condemned for selling out to President Bush and condemned for failing to make compromises aimed at getting things done.

Democrats complain that this is unfair, and, in some sense, it is. But who said that politics was fair?

Over the short run, Democratic congressional leaders can count on little support from their party's presidential candidates, particularly Barack Obama and John Edwards. Both have decided their best way of going after front-runner Hillary Clinton-- who has been in Washington since her husband's election as president in 1992 -- is to criticize politics as usual.

The ending sums it all up:

Congressional Democrats are caught between two contradictory desires. One part of the electorate wants them to be practical dealmakers, another wants them to live up to the standard Obama set in the peroration of his Iowa speech when he praised those who "stood up . . . when it was risky, stood up when it was hard, stood up when it wasn't popular." Is there a handbook somewhere on how to be a courageous dealmaker? Pelosi and Reid would love to read it.

I agree that it is a hard time to be a Democrat, but it is also a hard time to be a politician in general. This country is widely divided, but that division is moving in the favor of our side. The public is sick of the Iraq war, sick of our healthcare problems and scared to death of our economic future.

I have been very hard on Pelosi and Reid lately, and they deserve it. It's amazing some of the emails I get from Democrats telling me I need to stop complaining. Well I refuse to.

Pelosi and Reid refuse to fight for anything. Take the Senate. Everytime the Republican threaten a filibuster, Harry gives in. Why not make the party that cried over a five day work week stand up and fight to block legislation they don't like? The American public, as a whole, doesn't know that the Republicans block all this legislation. Instead they view it as incompetence on the leadership. Sure it does help some to let things go through and Bush vetoing them. Then we can label Bush as the obstructionist, but the Democrats aren't running against Bush next year.

Instead Harry needs to force the Republicans to filibuster every single time. The media loves filibusters, and the news networks would be riddled with pictures of the fold-out cots being wheeled in for every filibuster. Then the American public would know that the Republicans are the obstructionists, instead of just the political junkies understanding that fact.

Even though a lot of Democrats are fed up by the status-quo of their party, it is not a problem unique to them. Republicans are fed up also. They have been living through broken promises for years. The Republicans promise to downsize government, yet it grew at historic rates under their leadership. They have promised to get rid of abortion, yet that is still around. These are promises that have been broken to the Republican base for decades now.

Over all it isn't that people are fed up with one particular party - they are fed up with Washington. We really need a purging of Capital Hill and a flood of new blood coming in on both sides of the aisle. We need politicians who stand up for their beliefs, instead of legislating for the next election. We need to return this to being a government by the people, for the people.

Now it appears the Pelosi and Reid aren't even going to try and fight for ending the Iraq War:

Democratic leaders in Congress are quietly preparing to give President Bush essentially everything he wants to keep the Iraq war going for at least another six months without forcing any change in course.

Swept into power on the votes of war-weary Americans last year, Congressional Democrats have so far failed in all their attempts to curtail Bush's war efforts. As they consider the president's latest request for $200 billion in supplementary war funding party leaders have pledged not to hand over another "blank check."

But, as Roll Call reports, a "blank check" is exactly what appears headed for the Pentagon.

This lack of leadership by the Democrats is disgusting. I guess they are afraid the right might call them names. Pelosi and Reid are two that must be forced out of power. They have betrayed the American people and broken their campaign promises.

Oh and to the DNC - please stop asking me for money. I will not give you one red cent until we have a true Democratic Party. If you were the last hope for this country then we have failed.

While Bush and Republicans were assailing Nancy Pelosi for meeting with Syria last month, did it in fact backfire and prove that Pelosi's approach was the right thing to do? Check out these couple of key paragraphs from CNN:

The Bush administration has shunned Syria, which it considers a state supporter of terrorism, and last month President Bush assailed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for making a trip to Damascus, saying it sent mixed messages to the Syrian government.

But the White House has been under pressure to talk with Syria and Iran, another U.S. opponent in the region.

[SNIP]

In Baghdad, U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said Syria had tightened its borders and reduced the number of foreign insurgents crossing into Iraq -- a chief demand of the United States.

"There has been some movement by the Syrians. ... There has been a reduction in the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq" for more than a month, Caldwell said.

So has this reduction been "for more than a month" or possibly in the last month, since Pelosi made her visit? I would have to go with the later. After all, the administration was going after Pelosi for meeting with Syria and talking about their support of the insurgency in Iraq just a month ago. So either they lied back then, and if you take Caldwell's word for it then that is exactly what they did, or Pelosi made some progress. There is no other answer to that.

Either way you look at it, we once again see that the Republicans put political rhetoric above national security and foreign relations. If they are so scared about Iraq brining them down in 2008, then why didn't they break with Bush on the smear campaign? On top of the further damage they did to themselves, they also proved something else - the Democrats are much stronger on foreign relations, and will put the well being of the nation above politics. That is something the Republican have shown they are incapable of.

Nancy Pelosi goes to Syria and gets branded a traitor and gets accused of "bad behavior" and possibly "criminal activities". The media sure did eat up on this. Now fast forward to today and Condi Rice is heading over to Syria to meet with them:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Syria's foreign minister in the first high-level talks between the countries in years, a U.S. official said Thursday, and the chief American military spokesman in Iraq said Syria had moved to reduce "the flow of foreign fighters" across its border.

But a substantive meeting between the United States and Iran — another U.S. opponent in the Mideast — appeared less certain. The Iraqi government is pressing for Rice and her Iranian counterpart to meet during the gathering, saying Washington's conflict with the government in Tehran is only fueling Iraq's instability.

"We expect that there will be a discussion between Secretary of State Rice and the Syrian foreign minister about Iraqi security issues," said a senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was still being arranged.

Aravosis asks the important question about this:

So does Pelosi get credit for the breakthrough in relations, or is Condi a traitor too?

I believe the media needs to ask this question to everyone who attacked Pelosi for her trip. I would start at the White House. Don't forget to ask Cheney if Condi is now exhibiting "bad behavior".

Since these things seem to not gain the attention of Bush speaking, I decided to post it and share it.

Pelosi did a great job in her response - especially calling Bush out on his hypocrisy. Hopefully the press corp will push that during tomorrow's briefing.

Well it is about time we get someone on TV telling the truth about the Pelosi Syria trip.

 The Horse's Mouth has more.

On Late Edition, Wolf Blitzer had Arlen Specter and Joe Lieberman discussing Nancy Pelosi's Syria trip. Today we got Specter, a Republican, defending Pelosi's trip, while Lieberman, the man who claims to be a Democrat, bashing Pelosi.

(video just uploaded so it will take a minute)

Lieberman played his usual role as mouth piece for the Bush White House. He even resorted to the old play book tactic of blaming your enemies for 9/11 (that's right - Lieberman thinks Syria was behind 9/11 now). Luckily Wolf Blitzer quickly called him out on that. Specter ended up winning this debate hands down. Specter even pointed to accomplishments the Clinton White House made talking to Syria. Now that is a big change.

Via Atrios:

For much of the past week, CNN and its White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux have offered a steady stream of inaccurate and incomplete coverage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) trip to the Middle East and her April 3 meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Please join Media Matters for America in demanding that CNN and Malveaux stop misinforming viewers about Pelosi's trip and present all the facts. CNN's contact information can be found in our "Take Action!" sidebar on the right.

Since April 2, Malveaux has wrongly and repeatedly claimed that Pelosi had no "standing" and was not acting in an "official capacity," has attacked the trip as "political theater" and a "political stunt," and has parroted the Bush administration's attacks on Pelosi for going to Syria while ignoring the fact that a Republican-led delegation met with Assad on April 1. Most recently, Malveaux asked whether Pelosi's trip was a "big wet kiss to President Al-Assad."

Other CNN personalities have joined in as well. Lou Dobbs devoted an entire segment to "Pelosi's bad trip," while the April 3 edition of Anderson Cooper 360 featured a segment on Pelosi's trip titled "Talking to Terrorists."

After several days of inaccurate, one-sided coverage, it's time to tell CNN enough is enough. It's time to take action.

Use the contact information in our "Take Action!" sidebar to contact CNN, Malveaux, and Dobbs -- and be sure to tell your friends.

Take Action!

Contact information:

CNN
CNN
One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: 404-827-1500
Fax: 404-827-1906

When contacting the media, please be polite and professional. Express your specific concerns regarding that particular news report or commentary, and be sure to indicate exactly what you would like the media outlet to do differently in the future.

You can take action at Media Matters' website by clicking here.

Everyone has been blasting Pelosi for going to Syria, but there has been no critisism of Republicans doing the same. Today, Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) is in Syria meeting with Damascus. Now Boehner is giving the Republican excuse of why Democrats can't go to Syria:

Boehner declined to criticize [fellow Republican Rep. David Hobson] for joining Pelosi, saying her stature gave the visit an imprimatur it didn’t deserve.

“It’s one thing for other members to go,” Boehner said, “but you have to ask yourself, ‘Why is Pelosi going?’ She’s going for one reason and that is to embarrass the president. She is the speaker of the House. She’s giving (the Syrian) government more credit than they deserve. They sponsor terrorism. They have not been at all helpful. I wish she wasn’t there.”

There you got it - the old Republican double standard. Boehner showed his true colors. He believes that Republicans should have the only say in our government and Democrats shouldn't. John Boehner has once again proven his hatred for democracy.

Pleosi has released the following statement:

Today’s guilty verdicts are not solely about the acts of one individual.

This trial provided a troubling picture of the inner workings of the Bush Administration. The testimony unmistakably revealed – at the highest levels of the Bush Administration – a callous disregard in handling sensitive national security information and a disposition to smear critics of the war in Iraq.

Harry Reid has also called on Bush to not pardon Libby:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today released the following statement on news that a jury has found Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice.

"I welcome the jury's verdict. It's about time someone in the Bush Administration has been held accountable for the campaign to manipulate intelligence and discredit war critics. Lewis Libby has been convicted of perjury, but his trial revealed deeper truths about Vice President Cheney's role in this sordid affair. Now President Bush must pledge not to pardon Libby for his criminal conduct."

So now what? I say since Libby is guilty of trying to interfere with an investigation into the outing of a CIA agent and Bush wanted to know who leaked, Bush should demand further investigations. Of course that won't happen, so Bush is, in a sense, complicit.

That leads us to the obvious. It is time for serious congressional hearings into this matter. Dick Cheney must be forced to testify under oath before Congress. We are dealing with some of the highest crimes in the land here and they merit such attention.