Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Speaker Is in the House



"Democrats have a genius for knitting nooses for themselves."
King James Bible

Proverbs 26-27

Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

Nancy Pelosi is a bit like Britain's Margaret Thatcher in reverse. Mrs. T. was tough and steely in her public role as prime minister, but womanly, flirtatious, even gossipy, in private. (One of her cabinet members once told me he harbored erotic thoughts about Maggie as she walked past him, trailing a "whiff of Chanel.") In Pelosi's case, it's the other way around.


When I first talked to her at her office on Capitol Hill in the third week of April, she had just come from a sisterly ceremony, sharing a platform with Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton to unveil a bust of the legendary slave, abolitionist and suffragist Sojourner Truth at Emancipation Hall. The specter of briefings on the netherworld of the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques" could not have been more at odds with the aura of lunch-club femininity the Speaker projected with her lilac Armani pantsuit, professional gracious smile and freshly coiffed hair. ("She always was put together," one of the five Pelosi offspring, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, told me. "She never drove carpool in her pajamas, she always got dressed.")

But when the door to the Speaker's office closes, she is fast-talking, formidable, high-energy and supremely self—confident—more Baltimore's Little Italy, where she was raised in a powerful political family, than latte-sipping San Francisco, where she has lived for 40 years as the wife of a rich financier.

Leaning forward in a straight-back chair, she refers several times for emphasis to a small laminated bookmark listing the eight major bills her leadership has pushed through the House in Obama's first 100 days. "I'm disciplined. I keep informed. I know the policies. I understand the people," she rattles off, when asked how she has consolidated her power base in the House.



The only moment she gives a mildly beseeching glance at her press secretary is when I ask her when and what she knew about "waterboarding."

It's a fact that on Sept. 4, 2002, she was briefed by the CIA on its "enhanced interrogation techniques," along with Republican Porter Goss (the GOP's Richard Shelby and Democrat Bob Graham, the other two members of the "Gang of Four" intelligence--committee leaders, were briefed separately, three weeks later). What's very much in dispute is what they heard. Pelosi insists that she was briefed just this one time, and only on the fact that administration lawyers had concluded certain techniques were legal—not the truth that emerged later, which was that Al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah had already been waterboarded 83 times following his capture in Pakistan in March 2002. "Any contention to the contrary is simply not true," she said.

Democrats have a genius for knitting nooses for themselves. Nancy Pelosi was having it pretty much all her way in Congress until President Obama released the Bush administration's legal memos on torture.

Cont.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/197890


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© Janet Crain

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5 comments:

Lee Hazel said...

Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and Harry Ried are a trio that can only be compared to the Three Stooges for sheer comedy. The only thing missing is the "bonker".

All of this would be hilarious if it weren't serious to the point of out and out dangerous.

The fact that out of these three two are in direct line for the POTUS and arguably are the three most powerful pols in W District of Corruption aka WDC is terrifying on several levels.

PC is Thought Control
LEE

JBoombostick said...

The republicans have an over all base of less than 20% of the population making them a minority less than African Americans.
It obviously hurts given the way you all cry like you do.

Keyboard Jockey said...

Well Stick,

Let's see, the Black population is stated to be 13% so how does that work out to being more than 20%? Product of the American Public School System are You?

The Hispanic population has topped the Black population in this country does that mean our next President will be a Hispanic?

I am not a Republican - and I wouldn't vote for a Progressive Democrat Candidate if someone put a gun to my head. You left out the size of the people identify Independent. That isn't surprising a Progressive picking and choosing what stats to use.

I don't know what the size of the African American Population is in this country? How many naturalized people from Africa are there in the U.S. who are voting Democrat? Remember everyone who is born in Africa is not necessarily Black for example Senator John Kerry's wife.

Keyboard Jockey said...

Paul Begala this morning on Imus in the Morning. Paul thinks Nancy Pelosi is telling the truth about the C.I.A. briefings.

http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/05/imus-guest-paul-begala-guru.html

Keyboard Jockey said...

http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/05/british-are-comingthe-british-are.html

Must watch Video warning Americans that The United Kingdom is reaping the failed socialist policies of the last 10 years.

The British Are Coming -The British Are Coming.