red states rule
12-12-2007, 06:21 AM
You can't make this stuff up. San Fran Nan makes another promise which will probably be forgotten 5 minutes into the 2008 session of Congress
Pelosi vows more civil approach — next year
By: Jim VandeHei and John F. Harris
Dec 11, 2007 09:40 PM EST
snip
Few members of either party, when speaking privately, argue that what Congress needs most is a change of party with a continuation of the highly partisan status quo.
In many ways, that’s what Pelosi represents.
Democrats bridled at being marginalized under 12 years of Republican rule, but Pelosi has treated turnabout as fair play.
Bending a promise made to voters in the last election, the speaker has shut Republicans out of many debates by limiting their ability to offer alternative ideas on the House floor and made only modest attempts to engage Republicans on many issues, notably Iraq.
This represents a probably accurate calculation about what’s necessary to keep her own party cohesive.
But polarized government has also thwarted some of Pelosi’s own objectives.
The first of those is forcing Bush to end the war. “All of the good things that we did, which were, I mean, astounding … are eclipsed by the war in Iraq,” she said in a Politico interview.
She added that she has been surprised by Democrats’ inability to peel off GOP dissenters.
“If I had to say one thing that I would have appraised differently … it would have been that I would not have expected the Republicans in Congress to stick with the president on this war this long,” she said. “Not from their personal statements to us privately or the public mood in their own districts.”
The inability to resolve the Iraq debate or tackle the other most pressing issues is one reason the number of people saying they disapprove of the performance of Congress — at 70 percent in some recent surveys — has risen 15 to 20 points or more since the start of the year.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7335.html
Pelosi vows more civil approach — next year
By: Jim VandeHei and John F. Harris
Dec 11, 2007 09:40 PM EST
snip
Few members of either party, when speaking privately, argue that what Congress needs most is a change of party with a continuation of the highly partisan status quo.
In many ways, that’s what Pelosi represents.
Democrats bridled at being marginalized under 12 years of Republican rule, but Pelosi has treated turnabout as fair play.
Bending a promise made to voters in the last election, the speaker has shut Republicans out of many debates by limiting their ability to offer alternative ideas on the House floor and made only modest attempts to engage Republicans on many issues, notably Iraq.
This represents a probably accurate calculation about what’s necessary to keep her own party cohesive.
But polarized government has also thwarted some of Pelosi’s own objectives.
The first of those is forcing Bush to end the war. “All of the good things that we did, which were, I mean, astounding … are eclipsed by the war in Iraq,” she said in a Politico interview.
She added that she has been surprised by Democrats’ inability to peel off GOP dissenters.
“If I had to say one thing that I would have appraised differently … it would have been that I would not have expected the Republicans in Congress to stick with the president on this war this long,” she said. “Not from their personal statements to us privately or the public mood in their own districts.”
The inability to resolve the Iraq debate or tackle the other most pressing issues is one reason the number of people saying they disapprove of the performance of Congress — at 70 percent in some recent surveys — has risen 15 to 20 points or more since the start of the year.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7335.html