PDA

View Full Version : Nancy's Follies


thedrifter
04-07-07, 08:18 AM
Nancy's Follies
by Martha Zoller
Posted: 04/06/2007

We wanted to give her a chance. After all, she is the duly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, but we should have known better. First, it was the so-called 5 day work week which never materialized. In fact, the Speaker’s idea of a full day in session is something akin to a working lunch in most circles. Then, there was the “First 100 Hours” with a clock that stopped and started more than the last two minutes of a football game with timeouts left. Then there was the hiring of extra lawyers, outside the government, to help with all the new investigations. If there is one place you shouldn’t need any more lawyers, it’s on Capitol Hill. The list goes on and it all can be chalked up to pure politics.

Nancy Pelosi wasn’t dangerous until she started meddling in the execution of the Global War on Terror, a phrase that Democrats don’t want to use anymore as if not using the words makes the threat go away, through convoluted votes on “supporting the troops without supporting the war.” If she actually talked to active duty military personnel, she might learn something about the men and women who serve this great nation. Instead, when the president exercises his constitutional authority by warning Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid that he will veto any bill for troop support that has artificial deadlines or strings attached to the money, Ms. Pelosi responded with the condescending and disrespectful taunt, “Calm down with the threats, there's a new Congress in town…We respect your constitutional role, we want you to respect ours." It is not the constitutional role of the House of Representatives to wage war. With all the throwing around of the Constitution by the left, you would think they have read it. The Congress (the House and the Senate) is the branch of government co-equal to the Executive Branch. Speaker Pelosi is not a co-equal to the President of the United States.

Apparently, Nancy Pelosi thinks more of dictators than our fighting men and women. I have made two trips to Kuwait and Iraq (July 2005 and January 2007). Her first trip to Baghdad after becoming Speaker of the House was about the same time I was in Baghdad in January. She didn’t meet with the troops. She flew in and out for photo ops within controlled circumstances. My guess is, she didn’t want to risk sitting practically by herself in the mess hall like Senator John Kerry did when he visited in the fall. That was a sad sight indeed. She has no problem going to our enemy, Syria or advocating for a National Holiday for Cesar Chavez. Who is this woman’s constituency; it’s clearly not average Americans.

She doesn’t understand Arab culture either. You would think that 5 and a half years after 9/11, Nancy Pelosi would understand our enemy. She’s been in the leadership all of that time and has been privy to the information about the culture. Isn’t that what leftists always want us to do, understand other cultures? I have been to Iraq twice and dined with Iraqi women and talked to Arab women from various backgrounds. Brigitte Gabriel, author of “Because They Hate,” commented that Nancy Pelosi’s actions will be seen by the “Arab street” as going behind the back of a man (George W. Bush) in charge to further he own agenda. She won’t be seen as a reasonable person, she will be seen as a woman who doesn’t know her place. Terrorist have praised her but they won’t take her seriously.

Again the left shows that they don't want America to win, they want their own agenda to win, which is not an American agenda. Look at the world today;. There is violence in Somalia and Mogadishu today because we didn’t finish the job in 1993. Lebanon continues to be unstable because we didn’t finish the job there. We are back in Iraq today continuing the Global War on Terror because we didn’t recognize the threat and finish the job in the first Gulf War. If we do not beat back evil completely, we will be fighting this battle again in a few years. History teaches this lesson and if Ms. Pelosi understood the history beyond the last election looked farther ahead than the next election, then she would understand that. We wanted to give her a chance but now that the party is over it’s time to get back in the trenches to communicate the truth to the American people. We must win this Global War on Terror; this war against radical Islam. Defeat is not an option.

Ellie

thedrifter
04-07-07, 08:21 AM
Not With Nancy
by Robert Novak
Posted 04/07/2007 ET

Three Republican congressmen, who visited Damascus three days before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived, were eager to disassociate themselves from the Democratic leader and make clear they did not even know she was going to Syria.

When President Bush assailed Pelosi for her Syrian mission, she noted that Republican Reps. Frank Wolf of Virginia, Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania and Robert Aderholt of Alabama made the same journey. Some news reports gave the false impression that they all were on the same congressional delegation. While Wolf stressed that he and his two GOP colleagues support Bush's Iraq policy, their mission to Damascus violated the president's policy, as did Pelosi's.

A footnote: Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, a senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was with Wolf, Pitts and Aderholt in Israel during the Easter recess and wanted to join them in Syria. He could not be added at the last minute.

Thompson's Campaign

Fred Thompson's progress toward becoming a Republican presidential candidate will take a step with the return of Congress from its Easter break when he meets privately with a large group of Republican House members.

GOP House leaders had prepared last year to board George Allen's campaign wagon before his defeat in Virginia for re-election to the Senate eliminated him from presidential consideration. They had been moving toward support of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, led by former Speaker Dennis Hastert's endorsement. But many have stepped back from Romney and are looking hard at Thompson. One member of the GOP leadership who had been prepared to endorse Romney is holding his fire while he considers Thompson.

A footnote: Thompson will hit the campaign trail next month in advance of any formal announcement with a May 4 speech in Orange County, Calif. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has led GOP presidential hopefuls in lining up California support.

Easter Egg Politics

Parents taking toddlers to the White House Monday for the annual Easter Egg Roll are scheduled to be handed a brochure instructing them on how to enroll their children in government-funded child-care programs.

President Bush's staff requested that the Department of Health and Human Services supply 50,000 brochures for the traditional Monday event.

That might seem an unusual undertaking for an administration avowedly dedicated to limited government. The added irony is that many of the participants in the Easter Egg Roll are well-heeled supporters of the president unlikely to be interested in government child care.

Patent Politics

Efforts to save a Massachusetts pharmaceutical company upwards of $1 billion for failing to file a drug patent extension on time resumed March 29 with the introduction of a bipartisan bill and a high-powered lobbying campaign.

Democratic Reps. Marty Meehan and Jim Delahunt of Massachusetts and Republican Rep. John Duncan of Tennessee dropped a measure to extend the lapsed deadline for The Medicines Co. The company's lawyers were a day late in 2001 filing the extension for the blood-thinning drug Angiomax. A last-minute relief bill quietly passed the House late in 2006 but was derailed by Senate objections.

The renewed effort is being run by the DLA Piper lobbying firm, which received $1.7 million from Medicines last year. Its lobbyists include former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

Disavowing Jeb Bush

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, the only new Republican governor elected by a major state in 2006, is a major disappointment to party leaders in the state.

"Charlie has succeeded in just three months in getting rid of just about everything Jeb Bush [his two-term predecessor as governor] accomplished," a key Florida Republican told this column. He contended Crist has abandoned Bush's conservative reforms, particularly in education.

Crist, the former state attorney general, has been considered a possible candidate for vice president in 2008 in view of Florida's importance to Republican chances of retaining the White House.

Ellie