Pelosi's handover to Boehner: Gracious -- and defiant [View All]

Source: WAPO

Posted at 5:01 PM ET, 01/ 5/2011
Pelosi's handover to Boehner: Gracious -- and defiant
By Stephen Stromberg

Nancy Pelosi handed over the speaker's gavel Wednesday. And what a gavel. In a mostly gracious speech introducing and congratulating Speaker John Boehner, the gentlewoman from California pointed out that the hefty wooden instrument wasn't the smallest in the House -- but the one Boehner preferred. Hoots from the floor.

When she wasn't praising the new speaker, though, her valedictory address was about as subtle as Boehner's Thor-sized hammer.

Pelosi offered an unapologetic vindication of the Democrats' record over the past two years, with particular emphasis on health-care reform, using words that reminded anyone listening of just how different her view of the health-care law is from that of the new majority. It is a patients' bill of rights. An end to denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions. A pro-children law. A deficit reducer -- by $1.3 trillion over an unstated time period. An individual mandate? Not a chance that got in there, even if it is pristine policy. To the Republican lawmakers on the floor, she might as well have been describing the current weather in Vancouver.
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In her mini-State of the Union Address, Pelosi went on to explain that she would work with Republicans if they sought policies that would create jobs. (Duh.) But the loudest message to Republicans was clear: Expect more about how you're hurting "children and their families" -- a phrase she repeated -- if you try to touch what we did last year. Try to repeal health-care reform? We'll say that you're practically trying to give voters preexisting conditions. Speaker Boehner: You're going to need that gavel to fight me off.



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