I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!
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It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look. To affect the quality of the day--that is the highest of arts.
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Does anyone remember Hillary's 3 a.m. ad? Although not Hillary, I am very glad it was Biden who got the 4 a.m. call about Poland, and not the Loon!
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Haha, Ruth! I’ll take two bottles, please!
*****Nancy Pelosi,Badass / NYT
When Nancy Pelosi first took up the speaker's gavel in January 2007, it was amid soaring talk of making history and breaking barriers. "For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling," she proclaimed at her swearing-in. "Now the sky is the limit. Anything is possible."
Sixteen years, four presidents, two impeachments, one pandemic and a failed insurrection later, Ms. Pelosi will soon hand over that gavel for good and step down from House leadership amid a darker, more divided political landscape than she likely imagined in those first heady days. The George W. Bush years weren't a high point for bipartisan comity and public trust in government, but they were a far cry from the violence-obsessed, conspiracymongering nihilism of Trumpism. But Ms. Pelosi has never been one to let the haters get her down, and some of her most important acts of leadership have come at some of the nation's lowest moments.
History, being reductive, will remember Ms. Pelosi as the first woman to rise to the exalted post of speaker, just two steps away from the presidency. Those who have watched her work in the House for so many years will remember her as something arguably just as notable: a total badass.
By that term, I don't mean that Ms. Pelosi is some swaggering, performative tough guy. Quite the opposite. In her two decades atop the House Democratic caucus, whether in the majority or the minority, she has been a strikingly effective leader in part because she doesn't much give a flip about her public image. What matters to her is getting stuff done — be it passing legislation, thwarting the opposition's agenda or protecting her members come election time. She is brutally pragmatic (too much so for some in her caucus) and has a shrewd sense of the political pressure points of allies and opponents alike. She doesn't hog the credit for her clever ideas, nor does she waste time publicly rationalizing or blaming others for her bad ones. No one outworks her, and aides and allies have happily cultivated the legend of her endless energy. (Key points: Doesn't need sleep. Runs on chocolate.)
Ms. Pelosi has frequently been underestimated. It is one of her competitive advantages. That whole grandmother-in-pearls thing led many to assume that she could be talked down to or outmaneuvered or intimidated. More than one Republican president and congressional leader has seen his best-laid plans shatter against her vaguely awkward, excessively bright smile. (Ms. Pelosi has never been natural in front of the camera.) Mr. Bush's second-term goal of remaking Social Security never had a prayer. Even President Donald Trump was clearly in awe of her and had no idea how to deal with her treating him like a petulant man-child. He still doesn't. The poor guy can't even come up with an insulting nickname for her that sticks.
Many have misunderstood Ms. Pelosi's political core. She has spent her congressional career representing San Francisco, fueling caricatures of her as a wild-eyed, bomb-throwing lefty extremist. But she is a political creature not of San Francisco so much as of Baltimore, where she was raised in a local Democratic dynasty. Her father, "Big Tommy" D'Alesandro, went from Maryland's House of Delegates to five terms in Congress to three as mayor of Baltimore. She and her brothers learned to count votes and knock on doors practically from birth. Constituent service was a quasi-religion, and starting at age 13, the D'Alesandro children spent several hours a week fielding constituent requests and helping maintain a "favor file" on everyone they assisted. "We dealt with human nature in the raw," Ms. Pelosi's brother Thomas D'Alesandro III (who also served as Baltimore's mayor) once told me.
The transactional, pragmatic politics of her youth have served Ms. Pelosi well as leader. When it comes time to whip votes or cut a deal, she has her own version of a favor file to consult: She knows precisely what the members need — not to be confused with what they want — and how much they can reasonably risk to take one for the team. Time and again, she has wheedled, negotiated and threatened her restive members into line to pass legislation ranging from Obamacare, which the speaker cites as her proudest legislative achievement, to last year's bipartisan infrastructure package and the Inflation Reduction Act, which is really more about reducing health care costs and tackling climate change.
Ms. Pelosi has long been a favorite boogeyman for Republicans, her name invoked to raise gobs of campaign cash and whip the base into a fury. Few figures have generated so much conservative hysteria for as long as she. In recent years, this has become a more dangerous distinction as Mr. Trump has radicalized and mobilized his party's fringier elements. Violent rhetoric and threats against lawmakers have proliferated, with Ms. Pelosi a particularly juicy target. Not that she would ever let them see her sweat. During the Jan. 6 attack, as MAGA rioters roamed the Capitol baying for her blood, she stayed calm and worked the phones. Last month, less than two weeks before Election Day, her husband, Paul, was assaulted in their home by an intruder searching for her. The speaker publicly kept her composure, refusing to let her party become distracted from the midterm battle.
Ms. Pelosi has not necessarily been a beloved leader. She plays favorites. She holds grudges. She does not suffer fools or mistakes with patient good humor. She is a demanding, micromanaging control freak who loosened her iron grip on her caucus only when threatened with internal revolt. Plenty of younger Democrats see her as too establishment, too compromised, too out of touch with the political crises of today. Some of her members have long been agitating for a leadership change. In recent years, several campaigned on the promise not to support her as leader. A smattering have tried to topple her.
And then there's impeachment. It is no secret that Ms. Pelosi resisted impeaching Mr. Trump, especially the first time around, worrying about the political fallout. Even after bowing to her caucus and moving ahead, she insisted on keeping the investigation narrow. Both times, Republicans in the Senate refused to convict. And there will always be those who question whether, if she had allowed the process more time and space, things might have turned out differently. But this is the kind of second-guessing the speaker has little use for.
Ms. Pelosi is stepping back from leadership while her political stock is high within her party. Despite House Democrats losing the majority, pretty much everyone acknowledges that they dramatically overperformed this cycle, given the political fundamentals at play. And her personal brand has been burnished by her cool handling of the assault on her husband and the recently released video showing her poise during the Jan. 6 insanity. (With Congress under attack, she was ripping open a beef stick with her teeth? Ice-cold.)
The modern House is not known for producing great statesmen or even effective leaders. (Note to the incoming class: Belligerence is not the same as strength.) Recent decades have seen the Republican conference led by a series of unsteady, uninspiring figures — Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Denny Hastert. Oof. And the current minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, who is best positioned to be the next speaker, promises to be even weaker and more feckless. The only leader who even approaches Ms. Pelosi in terms of effectiveness (if little else) may be from the other chamber: Mitch McConnell, the long-serving chief of Senate Republicans.
Ms. Pelosi is an original, and we are unlikely to see another leader of her ilk any time soon. She elbowed her way to the tippy top of the congressional boys' club, then set about distinguishing herself as the most formidable, most effective House leader since the middle of the last century. Love her or hate her, you have to acknowledge the fundamental badassery.
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Nancy Pelosi with John F. Kennedy
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Pelosi article was fantastic. The picture though -- two people I look up to and admired for a long time. I am sorry she won't have a major role, but glad she is staying put. I think it was mainly progressives at first who didn't want Nancy to re-take the gavel. I thought it was a great mistake to even consider having anyone else due to its being Trump in the WH.
Rather ridiculous now these Republicans many who are bent on some of the same vengeance their former leader has, seems like it is a small group and I wonder how many will really want to go along. They have already shown that they barely want to do anything much for people and would rather hold investigations. I'm wondering what investigations. they can do since there is nothing knew about the people they seem to want to punish for the sheer looks of it.
There are an awful lot of people who will be very upset if that is mainly all that gets done. I'm not even sure it is highly doable for them. A lot of people may never forgive them. Who but themselves and some die-hards for Trump , and there is not enough of them, would be happy. I'm sure at least some of the Reps. won't be happy about it either. Maybe they can call their investigative team.
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Always something new to learn when I'm reading here. I understand a little more clearly what the Reps. have in mind. I feel concern about how they will try to use the investigations.
November 17, 2022
Nov 18
Yesterday, midterm results gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives after a campaign in which they emphasized inflation; today, Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who has received his party's nomination to become speaker of the House, along with other Republican leadership, outlined for reporters their plans for the session.
"We must be relentless in our oversight of this administration," the number 2 Republican in the House, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, told his colleagues. They plan to begin a raft of investigations: into President Joe Biden's son Hunter, the origins of Covid-19, the FBI, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and so on. But not, apparently, inflation.
Republicans have relied on congressional investigations to smear the Democrats since 1994, the year after the Democrats passed the so-called Motor Voter Act, making it easier to register to vote. After that midterm election, they accused two Democratic lawmakers of being elected thanks to "voter fraud" and used their power in Congress to launch long investigations that turned up no wrongdoing but convinced many Americans that the country had a problem with illegal voting (which is vanishingly rare).
House Republicans also led six investigations of the 2012 attack on two United States government facilities in Benghazi, Libya. That attack by a militant Islamic group while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state left four Americans dead. After several committees had found no significant wrongdoing, Republicans in the House created a select committee to reopen the case, and Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity: "Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping."
And then, of course, there were Secretary of State Clinton's emails before the 2016 election, and former president Donald Trump's attempt in 2019 to force Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into a company on whose board Joe Biden's son Hunter sat in order to weaken Biden before the 2020 election.
House oversight of the executive branch is actually a really important part of the House's role, and yet it is one that Trump Republicans have rejected when Democrats were at the helm. Just yesterday, former vice president Mike Pence did so, saying that Congress had "no right" to his testimony before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. In fact, presidents and vice presidents have acknowledged their responsibility to testify to Congress back as far as… George Washington.
It is not clear, though, that upcoming Republican investigations will have the teeth the older ones did. True believers are demanding the investigations—and some are already hoping for impeachments—but this tactic might not be as effective now that Americans have been reminded what it's like to have a Congress that accomplishes major legislation. Democratic strategists are also launching a rapid-response team, the Congressional Integrity Project, to push back on the investigations and the investigators.
The switch in control of the House of Representatives has brought another historic change.
Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced she is stepping down from party leadership, although she will continue to serve in the House. "The hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic Caucus that I so deeply respect," she told her colleagues. Democratic majority leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) is also stepping away from a leadership position. Both of them are over 80.
Pelosi was elected to Congress in a special election in 1987, becoming one of 12 Democratic women (now there are more than 90). She was first elected speaker in 2007, the first woman ever to hold that role. She was speaker until the Democrats lost the House in 2011, then was reelected to the position in 2019, and has held it since. Jackie Calmes of the Los Angeles Times tweeted: "As an ex–Congress reporter, I can speak to the records of 8 of the 55 House speakers, 4 Dem[ocrat]s & 4 R[epublican]s back to Tip O'Neill. I'm not alone in counting Pelosi as the best of the bunch. 2 Dem[ocratic] presidents owe their leg[islati]v[e] successes to her; 2 GOP presidents were repeatedly foiled by her."
Pelosi began her speech to her colleagues by remembering her first sight of the U.S. Capitol when her father, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., was sworn in for his fifth congressional term representing Baltimore. She was six.
She called attention to the Capitol in which they stood: "the most beautiful building in the world—because of what it represents. The Capitol is a temple of our Democracy, of our Constitution, of our highest ideals."
"In this room, our colleagues across history have abolished slavery; granted women the right to vote; established Social Security and Medicare; offered a hand to the weak, care to the sick, education to the young, and hope to the many," she reminded them, doing "the People's work."
"American Democracy is majestic—but it is fragile. Many of us here have witnessed its fragility firsthand—tragically, in this Chamber. And so, Democracy must be forever defended from forces that wish it harm," she said, and she praised the voters last week who "resoundingly rejected violence and insurrection" and "gave proof through the night that our flag was still there." Despite our disagreements on policy, she said, "we must remain fully committed to our shared, fundamental mission: to hold strong to our most treasured Democratic ideals, to cherish the spark of divinity in each and every one of us, and to always put our Country first."
She said it had been her "privilege to play a part in forging extraordinary progress for the American people," and noted pointedly—because she worked with four presidents—"I have enjoyed working with three Presidents, achieving: Historic investments in clean energy with President George Bush. Transformative health care reform with President Barack Obama. And forging the future—from infrastructure to health care to climate action—with President Joe Biden. Now, we must move boldly into the future…."
"A new day is dawning on the horizon," she said, "And I look forward—always forward—to the unfolding story of our nation. A story of light and love. Of patriotism and progress. Of many becoming one. And, always, an unfinished mission to make the dreams of today the reality of tomorrow."
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If it can be verified, we don't need faith. . . . Faith is for that which lies on the other side of reason. Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys.
Madeleine L'Engle0 -
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I love her for many reasons; one of which is her razor sharp wit. She really delivers on the 'mic drop' statements.
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Also Ruth, I loved the look on Pelosi's face, when behind his back, she tore up Trumps House speech papers. Pelosi has to give an invite to the Pres. to come to the House and make a State of the Union address. She did what she was supposed to, and by norms had too. I know she knew what it was going to be like, and she strongly showed what she thought. Actually, she a naughty look (who do you think you are it seemed to say, ) and she looked straight into the rows set aside for the Reps. when she did it. Had I been there I would have clapped till my hands stung from it.
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Just read Rafael Warnock won on the suit in Ga. to remove first week-end voting.
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The Republicans are such obstructionists. Glad Warnock won the suit.
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Nancy Pelosi - She Was Worth the Trouble
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Nancy Pelosi, and trouble. More than worth it.
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Wow, for this morning. The worst thing about cable news (while loving that I can get it when I want it or have time) is the repetition factor. Every show has an emcee presenting a slightly different view. So actually, turns out there is disagreements (done quietly and not with the hysteria of the Rt.) as to the wisdom of Merritt Garland having put in place a Special Counsel. Yesterday was not too different.
Do think Garland is right. No amount of how deserving Trump may be for being indicted and tried, will help. The Reps. will use it to the max. I have also heard how destructive the behaviors they say they will enact (already being started as we speak) may to a real backfire. People voted for Pres. Biden because the Loon was so able at chaos and destruction. Some of that went on before he showed up, but he made sure it got to a wholly dangerous level, trying to use armies.
I dearly hope that the Special Counsel is in place, and he is very good, to achieve much but having a situation along the way where our DOJ can't be used as a bludgeon having it out for the Loon.
Still have my fingers crossed on Warnock too. I do hope if we can nullify either Mansion or Sinema, it will make both of them far less hard to deal with -- there is something in this case, about being the only holdout on things most of the constituency desire.
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Again:
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I think John Lewis's statement about "good trouble" could be applied to what Nancy Pelosi was able to accomplish as speaker and her years in Congress. She was a force to be reckoned with and brought 45 to his knees on many occasions. What a lady and what an inspiration to women; second only to RBG.
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