{"id":188,"date":"2005-12-16T23:32:51","date_gmt":"2005-12-17T05:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/?p=188"},"modified":"2005-12-16T15:34:43","modified_gmt":"2005-12-16T21:34:43","slug":"in-praise-of-pelosi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/in-praise-of-pelosi\/","title":{"rendered":"In Praise of Pelosi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pelosi Hails Democrats’ <\/p>\n

Diverse War Stances<\/a> by Dan Balz, Washington Post<\/p>\n

Pelosi, one of the most liberal Democrats in the House, opposed the <\/p>\n

war<\/strong> and, as the senior Democrat on the intelligence committee before the invasion, argued that Saddam Hussein posed no imminent <\/p>\n

threat to the United States. She served as Democratic whip when Congress authorized Bush to go to war, and she rallied 126 <\/p>\n

Democratic votes against the measure<\/strong> when then-Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.), the Democratic leader, supported the White House. <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

In a wide-ranging interview, Pelosi labeled the Republican-controlled Congress “the most corrupt in history”<\/strong> <\/p>\n

and repeated her assertion that Democrats will make ethics a central issue next year. She said that the issue and ethical climate in the <\/p>\n

country point to Democratic gains next year, and noted that if the elections were held today, Democrats would take control of the House.<\/p>\n

If Democrats are able to win the majority next year, Pelosi pledged aggressive oversight of the administration<\/strong> <\/p>\n

on issues including the war, intelligence and how the government responded to Hurricane Katrina.
\n=====<\/p>\n

Time for a House-Cleaning<\/a> By David S. <\/p>\n

Broder<\/p>\n

If the House of Representatives were a person, it would be blushing these days. Unfortunately, the House is beyond <\/p>\n

embarrassment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Its once (and maybe future) majority leader, Tom DeLay, is under indictment on money-laundering charges in <\/p>\n

Texas. One of its more colorful members, Randy “Duke” Cunningham of California, resigned last week after pleading guilty to shaking down <\/p>\n

lobbyists and contractors for $2.4 million in cash and gifts.<\/p>\n

DeLay’s former press secretary, lobbyist Michael Scanlon, has <\/p>\n

copped a plea and is busy explaining to federal prosecutors how he funneled money to perhaps half a dozen other compliant members of the <\/p>\n

House. Scanlon’s former partner, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is at the center of separate investigations that could implicate still other <\/p>\n

legislators of both parties. …<\/p>\n

The place needs a good scrubbing, and that is what it would get if the leadership were somehow to <\/p>\n

embrace a set of rules changes put forward this week by several longtime members. But because the authors are Democrats — and in some <\/p>\n

cases liberal as well — the receptivity of the Republicans managing the House is not likely to be great.<\/p>\n

The four members <\/p>\n

involved — David Obey of Wisconsin, Barney Frank of Massachusetts, David Price of North Carolina and Tom Allen of Maine — held a news <\/p>\n

conference on Monday at the Center for American Progress<\/a> to introduce their 14-point plan. It is <\/p>\n

strong medicine — a stiff enough dose of salts that even a watered-down version would mark a major change in the ethical environment of <\/p>\n

Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n


\nA Proposal to Make Congress Work <\/p>\n

Again<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pelosi Hails Democrats’ Diverse War Stances by Dan Balz, Washington Post Pelosi, one of the most liberal Democrats in the House, opposed the war and, as the senior Democrat on the intelligence committee before the invasion, argued that Saddam Hussein posed no imminent threat to the United States. She served as Democratic whip when Congress … Continue reading In Praise of Pelosi<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dump-duhbya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}