Pelosi For the Win

In defense of Nancy Pelosi.

I thought as Speaker she was brilliant at managing the process of bringing votes to the floor, both in terms of timing and whipping votes. Like all Speakers she was a typical partisan-friendly Speaker on many issues, especially in her first session as Speaker when George W. Bush was president. This had her not wasting time on big issues which couldn’t pass the Senate and president in spite of our pressing concern they get address.

One example of her succeeding in stopping a bad bill was how she brought the hammer down on her party to vote the caucus party line in an effort to stop President Bush’s initiative to let Wall Street pillage the Social Security trust fund. Mr. Bush’s initiative would have social security payers would be paying hefty fees to Wall Street firms while incurring far more risk for a miniscule chance of a slightly higher rate of return. However the list of moderate/anti-conservative bills which passed the House as well as the Senate and president’s office was impressive even during Bush’s last two years. That also helped set the stage for the 2009/2010 Congress to focus on big things as Democrats bet they’d enjoy majorities in both chambers and have a Democratic president.

I thought she especially distinguished herself as a great Speaker when it came to getting bills passed which I thought were clearly in the country’s best interests which were not favored by liberals or conservatives. In honor of liberals, many joined her in spite of having to vote for non-liberal bills, e.g., passing TARP, Obamacare without a public option.

Unfortunately Rep. Pelosi is as ignorant as her conservative colleagues on the Constitution along with being ignorant of the best policy arguments as understood by experts. I cringe every time she speaks about such matters, even when my position is equivalent. Her argument is one based on ignorance and pretty soundbites which either don’t sufficiently apply to the matter or don’t sufficiently address the core issues. Perhaps one of the worst examples was her arguing we have a right to healthcare where she framed it as a negative (inalienable, reserved) right by referencing the DofI rather than making a case for gov’t subsidized healthcare as smart policy in the nation’s economic interests.

I appreciate each Congress-person will bring their own talents and specialities to the Congress, that’s a good thing. We should acknowledge she excelled at one of the primary responsibilities of being Speaker – whipping votes and setting the agenda. However I think we should also demand all members of Congress have at least an elementary understanding of history, economics, science, and what experts think about the big issues – best arguments for and against along with other worthy considerations. On a normative standard Rep. Pelosi fails miserably, she’s simply not well-read nor has she thought deeply about these issues. It’d be easier to condemn her and others more vociferously for this lack of education if our system didn’t force them to spend an inordinate amount of time campaigning for money which only the rare talents can minimize, e.g., Barack Obama, Henry Waxman (the latter also largely helped by the demography of his district). We should want our congressional representatives studying, not begging for money.

However I think we should also demand all members of Congress have at least an elementary understanding of history, economics, science, and what experts think about the big issues

That would be pretty difficult, considering that one party seems to be making it a major plank of rejecting what the experts think out of hand and remaining as ignorant as possible about all those subjects.

Michael Heath @ # 1: … [Pelosi] excelled at one of the primary responsibilities of being Speaker – whipping votes and setting the agenda.

Which makes it even more inexcusable that she refused to do her clear Constitutional duty when confronted with overflowing evidence of impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanors” in the Bush-Cheney White House.

Michael Heath, surely you know this famous quote from Keynes:

“Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”

“Newt Gingrich is a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.”

The problem is that all the REAL smart people keep telling them that they are wrong! Newt tells em that they are right all the time – right about a 6000 year old earth, right about woman being less than people, right about everything!