Blind Rage At Bush On The Hill

When Nancy Pelosi was chosen as House Democratic leader nearly a year ago, she vowed to sharpen her party's butter-knife message into a gleaming, lethal stiletto. "I am prepared to lead with the clarity and firmness that the task requires," Pelosi declared last November. But, in the struggle over President Bush's $87 billion budget request for Iraq, she hasn't shown much of either quality.

Take the press conference Pelosi held with Capitol Hill reporters last week. The power-suited San Franciscan began by noting the White House's latest P.R. offensive to shore up public opinion on the war's aftermath. "I think offensive is probably a pretty good word for it," she said through clenched teeth. The administration's efforts to favorably spin the Kay report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD), she huffed, were "lame." Overall, she said, Bush's actions in Iraq amounted to a "failed policy." What Pelosi thought the Democrats should do about this, however, was impossible to deduce. At one point, she seemed to argue for thoroughly rebuilding Iraq: "e need to energize the country, turn on the lights, the water, ... so Iraq can get moving again." But, moments later, she made an apparent about-face. After noting with disdain an administration boast that electricity in Iraq has been restored to prewar levels, she continued, "Well, what else are we supposed to do? ... Wasn't that our responsibility? Now are we supposed to take them to another place, in terms of their power and all the rest, power generation in Iraq? Aren't we just supposed to honor our responsibilities there, not make a gold-plated country by giving no-bid contracts to their friends in the United States?"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/16/opinion/main578499.shtml

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This commentary from The New Republic was written by Michael Crowley..

Yep. I do feel better.

A muddled message from our fearless leadership...and leave it to our friends at the New Republic to be there first to point it out.

We don't need the Republicans to destroy us, we're doing a fine job on our own.

Democrats have the votes to filibuster this in the Senate and to have a strong vote against it in the House.

I think the time has come to choose between firing our party leadership, or to begin a real second party in American politics.

There is a failure of so many elected Democrats - not just the leaders of the party, but those who would be leaders if we kicked out the current leaders.

Who are the future leaders in the party? Why is Daschle still the head Democrat in the Senate? If he wasn't the Senate Dem leader, who would be able to do a better job?

It's like a problem with a whole generation of Democrats. No fight, no vision, nothing.