( – promoted by buhdydharma )
Alternate title:
Will the whipped dogs bite their new master?
One of the most interesting dynamics of the upcoming Dem landslide (knock wood!) will be how the Dem leadership that has laid down, caved, capitulated, enabled, fostered, collaborated, and all but wiped Bushco’s ass will respond, now that Pavlov is about to leave the building.
Truckloads of opprobrium have been dumped on the heads of these two nefarious figures, especially upon Off The Table Nancy. Their few defenders have noted that even in the majority they have been in a somewhat a helpless situation because of the…because of….because…. Ok, I’m stumped! Even giving them every possible benefit of the doubt I think it is undeniable that they could have at the very least done more to check the worst of the many horrors, nightmares, and War Crimes of the Bush Administration. Many have gone much farther and labeled them War Criminals in their own right for their seemingly witless lack of opposition, if not slavish devotion and outright, nearly gleeful at times, cooperation with George “The Torturer” Bush. Add in Pelosi’s let them eat cake moment of disparaging anti-war sentiment, and it is easy to see why this once stalwart Lefty Dem has become the symbol of a Congress as unpopular as any in history for both sides of the political fence. Which in this polarized political environment is quite an accomplishment!
To put it bluntly, she has sucked as Speaker of the House.
How will she and Reid (IF they retain their leadership positions in the new Congress) work with Obama? How will they respond to each having huge majorities?
What will their excuse be now, if they do not work haed to pass progressive legislation for Obama to sign? They have both blamed the more narrow majority and the record number of filibusters in the Senate for their dismal showing as the “opposition” party. Without that impediment, and with an Obama mandate…what will they do?
Don’t forget that it was the Congressional Dems who killed the Clinton Health Care Plan in the early 90’s, not the Republicans. Will they now fight against Obama’s agenda for change? Or will they finally do they right thing, show some spine for once and beat back the wounded elephant that the Republicans are about to become. This should be a no brainer, but since they have both acted on several occasions as if they truly had no brains, we will have to wait and see.
It is obvious that whatever it is they serve, to them it is a “higher god” than the Will of The People…..the good of The People. Obama says he wants to serve The People, we shall see. If he does, and the good of The People diverges from the interests of Nancy and Harry…..will they fight him? Or will they work with him? To some extent Democrats have always been their own worst enemy, let us hope that this is no longer the case and that we can use the advantages we have gained (with no thanks to Nancy and Harry and their blundering) to achieve real and lasting change for The People, not The Interests that Nancy and Harry have been serving.
Setting aside the refusal to even consider the impeachment of War Criminals, in one of the bitterest political ironies ever, they both have been accused, and with good reason, that they did not end the war, as they were elected to do, in order to gain political advantage in the 2008 election. An election, as it turns out, that has had VERY little to do with Iraq. The tragedy of the thousands of deaths in Iraq since Pelosi and Reid took power after 2006 is hard to ignore. And even harder to understand. When they undoubtedly had the power to stop them….and did not. Whether it was out of of political opportunism or political cowardice.
Let that not be forgotten.
Nor should it be forgotten that Pelosi was at least partially briefed regarding the CIA’s use of torture, and turned a blind eye.
A new era is dawning and a new political climate is on the horizon. Will these two leaders be able to adjust to having now unquestionable power to bring progressive change….and to right the wrongs of the Bush Administration…. or will they continue to act as the mere craven and inept politicians we have seen to this point?
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… both Reid and Pelosi are replaced as leaders of the Senate and Congress after the election.
I hope the Dem caucuses can see the forest for the trees and make this change.
Guess it’ll depend upon how many Blue Dogs are left as well.
If Obama is bold, they’re gone. If not, well, see the Hitchens article at Truthdig.
we should tell them where to go. 😉
after all, he’s been one of the leading collaborators as well.
Not just out of the Speakership, but out of the House altogether and back to the party-throwing circuit where she belongs.
Every one of the blue dogs needs to be primaried in 2010. So does Pelosi if, god forbid, she wins this time.
the crap kicked out of her by dirty campaign tactics and well, it’s kind of hard to explain but there is this “mainstream-ness” of thought that is being institutionalized in America. It’s a new evil theme I am working on that others don’t see. I would hope Cindy beats Nancy big time but I don’t think “the Illuminati” is going to allow that.
When Obama gets to be “selectee” things will “change” but not in the real progressive way you think. The potential here is for staggering increases in the amount of government intrusion/limits into your life. Oh, and zero of the war criminals get prosecuted, they get “freed up” to sit on globally oriented organizations. Like Gary Hart.
a bit like Mr. Milquetoast to me (but I don’t know that much about him, really).
Madam Speaker, OTOH…I have been wondering for maybe two years (since we learned that everybody in the U.S. is being spied on and has been since 2/2001) what skeletons they found in Pelosi’s closet.
Every pol has a few. To get where she is today, Pelosi probably has more than a few.
Do you think a Cheney government wouldn’t unearth these things and use them as de facto blackmail?
Anyway, that’s my hunch: and certainly the last 8 years don’t make me think anything otherwise.
Jesus, they’ve spied on environmentalists in Maryland. When was the last time that happened? Um…around 1972. Wasn’t Nixon the mentor to Cheney?
I rest my case.