Good Democrats MUST Back Pelosi

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Simulposted at Daily Kos

We have all watched the Republican attack machine turn its sights on and destroy many and various people and entities over the last eight years.

Now, one of the “leaders” of the Democratic Party has become their target. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (bio). Third in line to be President, second only to Harry Reid in political importance during this time of Change, first woman Speaker, and someone who has done as much if not more to take back the government from the Republicans and give it to the current coalition of Democrats than anyone. At any cost.

Throughout her life, Nancy Pelosi has done all she could for the powerful Democratic Machine in the San Francisco Bay Area, has worked tirelessly to promote electing Democrats in California at every level, has done an extraordinary job at the same task on the national level and has been the very definition of a team player. She has been a key force in electing more Democrats and advancing the Democratic Party’s agenda.

And now she is under attack.

We, as Good Democrats, must now do all that we can to make sure that Speaker Pelosi is paid back for all of her efforts on behalf of The Party.

Speaker Pelosi has always put the good of the party first, above all other considerations. She has consistently made the hard choices to ensure the electoral dominance of The Party. Now is the time for all Good Democrats to repay that loyalty, to back Speaker Pelosi. We owe it to her.

As Speaker Pelosi said recently in one of her press conferences, she determined on her own that the interests of the party would be best served not by publicly opposing torture, but by working hard to elect Democratic Majorities to Congress and, presumably a Democratic President. It was her determination that this was the best way to address the horrors of torture. And she did, at great sacrifice.

Will we as Good Democrats now abandon her?

It was Nancy Pelosi who, to make sure that The Republicans were held fully responsible, defeated efforts to de-fund the Iraq War, in the interests of The Party. It was Nancy Pelosi who, as many at Daily kos assiduously pointed out,  determined that the interests of The Party precluded any attempt to oppose the Bush Administration by rigorously investigating them. Knowing that that would be bad for The Party, as it would be perceived as overly partisan, as revenge. It was Nancy Pelosi who preemptively took impeachment off the table to prevent any efforts to hold the Bush Administration accountable, lest those efforts tarnish the integrity of the Democratic Congress. She determined that those efforts  might lead to endangering the chances of The Party in the upcoming elections, and she served The Party by halting those efforts.

Nancy Pelosi made the decision that the nation would not elect Democrats if they appeared to be opposing too strongly, or even in the worst case scenario, appeared to be trying to ‘punish’ the Bush Administration for its actions.

She did everything she could to make sure that did not happen.

When Dennis Kucinich laid out all of the crimes of the Bush Administration in his impeachment resolutions, it was Nancy Pelosi who protected The Party by quashing them. John Conyers had literally written a book on the crimes of the Bush Administration and was eagerly preparing to indict and impeach them as soon as the Democrats gained the majority that would allow it. In the interest of The Party, Nancy Pelosi stopped him.

Of course we can never know if Speaker Pelosi’s efforts on behalf of The Party were what made the difference in the ’08 elections. The voters were so fed up with the actions of the Bush Administration….even without having all of the information that Speaker Pelosi prevented from emerging….that they may well have turned the Republicans out of office as resoundingly as they did anyway.

We can never really know if all of her efforts were what made the difference. If she had not been so adamant in leading the efforts to let the politically unpopular war continue and to not reveal the crimes of the Bush Administration through the investigations necessary to the impeachment process, would The Party would have benefited as much as it did? So that now it could be making such a difference in these areas.

But we DO know that she, nearly all on her own, DID make those determinations.

And we do know that The Party is now in a position to address these issues as strongly as it is doing.

The Party is now in the position to enact Single Payer Health Care, or at least a Public Option. They now have that power. We know that The Party DOES have the power to make sure that Climate Change Legislation is not watered down. We know that The Party DOES now have the power to pass EFCA. We know that The Party does have the power to address the problems created at Gitmo due to the fact that people, even innocent people, were imprisoned without trial, and were tortured. And so now cannot be tried conventionally. We know that The Party now has the power to address the issue of torture itself, and the fact that torture was used to try to find justification to invade Iraq.

The Party can now do ALL of those things. We have the votes, or they are within relatively easy reach. The Party has succeeded in removing the Republicans as a political threat. Surely now The Party will do all of the things it has claimed that it could not do before this.

Is all of that due to the efforts of Nancy Pelosi on behalf of The Party?

We do not know. But we do know that Nancy Pelosi sacrificed so much…on behalf of The Party.

And now The Party needs to stand behind her, as she is being so viciously attacked, being called a hypocrite, a liar, and someone more interested in advancing politics over the larger interests of the good of the country.

There is only one way to clear her good name.

Thorough investigations of ALL of these issues.

It is time for all Good Democrats, from The President and Harry Reid at the top, to the lowliest “activists” at the bottom of The Party to strongly come out in favor of full, deep and thorough investigations of all that occurred during the Bush Administration.

Nancy Pelosi has ALWAYS put The Party first, no matter what.

Nancy Pelosi is owed for that. It is time for her to be paid back for all that she has done.