Pelosi Carries on Democratic Tradition
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007Democrat Nancy Pelosi has been using the word bi-partisan in almost every speech and news conference she’s had since before the mid-term elections. If you go to her website and do a search for the word bipartisan you get 236 hits. However, now that the Democrats have won the majorities in both Houses of Congress, promises made during the campaign are just empty statements:
As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking.
House Democrats intend to pass a raft of popular measures as part of their well-publicized plan for the first 100 hours. They include tightening ethics rules for lawmakers, raising the minimum wage, allowing more research on stem cells and cutting interest rates on student loans.
But instead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, Democrats now say they will use House rules to prevent the opposition from offering alternative measures, assuring speedy passage of the bills and allowing their party to trumpet early victories.
Nancy Pelosi, the Californian who will become House speaker, and Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, who will become majority leader, finalized the strategy over the holiday recess in a flurry of conference calls and meetings with other party leaders. A few Democrats, worried that the party would be criticized for reneging on an important pledge, argued unsuccessfully that they should grant the Republicans greater latitude when the Congress convenes on Thursday.
Well, that didn’t take long, did it? Turns out that Nancy Pelosi’s idea of bipartisanship is to prevent Republicans from making any suggestions or additions to bills, and then passing the bills on partisan votes. All of those campaign promises the Democrats made during the campaign? Just another example of how Democrats will lie and say anything they think they have to in order to get elected, and then do whatever they want. This tactic is also known as “moving to the center.”
Democratic leaders say they are torn between giving Republicans a say in legislation and shutting them out to prevent them from derailing Democratic bills.
“There is a going to be a tension there,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the new chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “My sense is there’s going to be a testing period to gauge to what extent the Republicans want to join us in a constructive effort or whether they intend to be disruptive. It’s going to be a work in progress.”
Translation: “We have to see whether or not Republicans will cave and agree to each and every bill we pass before we decide whether or not to let them have any voice in the governing of this Nation.”
Welcome to what the Democrats think is the era of “openness” in Government. As long as you agree with them, you’ll get to say and do whatever you want. Otherwise, don’t bother to show up.
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January 12th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Of course Pelosi can’t shed her San Francisco ways, but more interesting to me is the Senate “leadership” attempting to block her ethics and earmark reform bill.
Reid and Durbin would make the Liberal ilk on the Left Coast proud.