MAJOR WTF ALERT :::: Pelosi: Dems Ready to Work With Bush

WASHINGTON - Days after her party lost congressional seats and the White House race, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) struck a conciliatory tone, saying House Democrats "stand ready to work with" President Bush (news - web sites) in his second term.

The message from the House minority leader, speaking Saturday in the weekly Democratic radio address, was in stark contrast to the pre-election combativeness of late September when she used the same forum to call Bush's Iraq (news - web sites) war a "grotesque mistake."


Now in the immediate aftermath of a bitterly fought election, Pelosi summoned Republican cooperation on initiatives she said both parties should support — better jobs, health care and education.


She called for "more discourse and less discord" in the Congress but still pledged to not budge on issues where the two parties diverge.

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Describing the country as one divided along partisan lines, Pelosi said the split, "rather than being an excuse for inaction, must be a call to compromise and common sense. ... I hope that in this term President Bush will fulfill his renewed promise to be a uniter, not a divider. A new term is indeed a new opportunity to bring America together. House Democrats stand ready to work with the president."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&u=/ap/20041106/ap_on_go_co/democrats_pelosi&printer=1

** Here's a transcript of her message --

“Good morning. This is Nancy Pelosi of California, Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives.

“Throughout our nation's history, hope and optimism have defined the American spirit. As a nation, we have always emerged from difficult times of war and economic uncertainty stronger, and more unified. And every generation has struggled to leave our children a world that is stronger and more secure than the one left to us. That is our legacy, and it must also be our commitment.

“President Bush faces great challenges in the days and months ahead. There is danger abroad and unfulfilled promise here at home. And as it has been for the past four years, the country is divided.

“But our partisan split, rather than being an excuse for inaction, must be a call to compromise and common sense. We stand strongest as a nation when we stand on common ground.

“I hope that in this term President Bush will fulfill his renewed promise to be a uniter, not a divider. A new term is indeed a new opportunity to bring America together. House Democrats stand ready to work with the President.

“Despite our divisions, there are many places where we should be able to agree.

“More than three years after the horrific attacks of 9/11, we know we are not as safe as we should be. As we came together after Sept. 11, 2001, we must come together now to enact the urgent recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

“We must move to address our domestic priorities: creating good jobs, better access to health care, and the best possible education for our children. Even on these crucial issues, there is broad bipartisan consensus on concrete steps we could take right now.

“To create jobs, we can begin by passing a robust transportation bill that will create 1.7 million new jobs nationwide, while modernizing our infrastructure.

“We must also reform the tax code; we must stop rewarding outsourcing. As a matter of basic fairness, no taxpayer should have to subsidize the outsourcing of his or her own job.

“Congress should take up legislation to extend health insurance to more parents and children. There is also broad agreement that one of the ways to bring down the cost of health care is to allow the safe reimportation of drugs from Canada and elsewhere.

“To improve education, we must not only keep the promise of No Child Left Behind, we must also match the reforms with the resources necessary to make them work for our children. And we must make college education more affordable, so that every student who has the motivation to continue his or her education beyond high school will also have the means to do so.

“There are places where we differ, as well, and Democrats will stand our ground. The President has proposed privatizing Social Security, which would cut the benefits that provide financial security for millions of seniors and the disabled. Democrats have always protected Social Security and we will continue to do so.

“The President also pledged to cut the deficit in half. But in the days after the election, he said he wants even more tax cuts and proposed yet another increase in the debt limit. Democrats will continue to fight for fiscal responsibility. And that begins with an honest discussion about how to reduce the enormous deficit. We must pay as we go.

“Within the Congress itself, there must be more discourse and less discord.

“Democrats and Republicans are on different sides of the aisle, but we have a shared oath and a solemn obligation to serve our country together. As elected officials, our commitment must be to build a future worthy of the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and worthy of the aspirations of our children. That is my hope for this Administration and this Congress.

“As President Kennedy said in his Inaugural Address: “Let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking his blessing and his help, but knowing that here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.”

“This is Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader. Thank you for listening, and God bless America.”

http://democraticleader.house.gov/press/releases.cfm?pressReleaseID=752

Sounds like she expects the compromise to come from both sides.

I hope she doesn't wilt under the coming pressure.




Err, are people rating this story DOWN? That would be shooting the messenger. We need to thank them for exposing things like this.

to do something about the issues Americans care about.

best to at least give the perception that the olive branch is being offered now, so we can lambast chimp and his band of radical henchmen for being too extreme and rejecting compromise in the end. I guess...

The Dems ARE ready to paint bush* as being unwilling to work with Dems.

:tinfoilhat:

to challenge Bu$h about his request for "unity". Just because he wants something doesn't mean it will be granted.

Are our Democratic leaders just pretending to be behind us? Are they as crooked as the Republicans? I am really starting to wonder. I mean if they're just a bunch of hired crooks on Diebold's payroll then that absolves me of any need to send anybody any campaign donations from now on out.

You Don't "WORK" with an insane person. Period

I expect the Republitards to fuck us over. I never expected our Democratic "leaders" to fuck us over. I am beyond digust.

The repugs work in lockstep. The dems bicker - and half of them vote with the repugs on issues completely contrary to democratic ideals. Maybe I should say former democratic ideals since Pelosi seems ready to embrace the conservative agenda of dismantling the government and its services/programs for the needy and giving pork-barell giveaways to big business. What a sad, depressing state we are in.

I'd say we no longer have a democratic party but rather a party of centrist republicans.

and to BushCo, working with them means total capitulation to their agenda . . . anything less is unacceptable at best, treason at worst . . .

it is inherently practical. How to obtain and keep power and how to achieve social objectives.

IMHO, we would all be better off if political issues were not made into idealogical mandates.

Because if the water in the * admin is too hot, then they should withdraw immediately and toss in ice cubes.

on the issue of jobs, healthcare and education. I don't see her saying we will work with him on tax reform, social security or SCOTUS appointments. On the contrary, it sounds like she is saying if we don't agree with you, we aren't budging. Is that the diplomatic way of saying we will put up a fight?

Edited to add: Nancy Pelosi doesn't strike me as one who would easily be brought to her knees. Not easily at all.

...that was only for public consumption. She has to say that. In reality, there is no chance that the Republicans are going to become more bipartison in the coming months! Hell, they think they got a mandate from God to create a theocracy.

We should, however, write our politicians frequently and remind them that we will not put up with a further move of the Democratic party to the right.

Gephardt, LIEberman, Pelosi, and on and on. These people are not representative of 'the opposition', but rather the status quo. That they are willing to work with theives and war criminals says alot about their true ethics, IMO.

We need to emphasize separation of church and state, not reinforce it...

You don't get far by appearing obstructionist. When you're the minority, you need to frame the goals for the people, then tell them you're looking forward to working with the other side to achieve them. Then, when the other side stops you, you point at them and say, "See, we were willing to work together towards these things for all Americans, and they're not willing to work with us because of their own selfish agenda." Remember, that's how Clinton was able to put the blame on the GOP Congress for the budget shutdown of the 90's. It works.

of the 9-11 Commission basically imply that "we, the people" are the enemy and recommend national IDs and internal passports a la the old USSR, in short, a police-state disaster of the type and degree our founders would more than willingly take up arms against. It is important to realize how little they revolted over compared with what we are being subjected to now.

If more Patriot Acts and the police state is all the two parties can agree upon, I may be outta here sooner than I thought. I was willing to give it a few more years. But that's what the Germans were saying in 1938 also.

They are as interested in dissolving Democracy as the Republicans are. More money for them.

'Nuff said.

Her support of HR2239 may have made a difference. She never cosponsored: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:HR02239:@@@P

Give Bunnypants everything he wants so that when the shit hits the fan, he won't be able to blame "obstructionist" Democrats.

Didn't she call him "an incompetent President" a few months ago on national TV?

And the people blasting her have no idea how to read between the lines. Getting angry at her because of half-quotes in news articles is not smart.

Sounds like get along go along on the surface. Kind of like bushs speech about reaching out to the other side of the isle to those who agree with him. We will get some fireworks if we frame ourselves well. Our side has to work as a team now. Its conservative America vrs. liberal and moderate America.