Did you know that Pelosi protected Murtha and his plan?

That's political leadership. I see animosity toward her and it confuses me. If it's over war funding bills, that's just silly. She will never let the dems be harmed by headlines about voting against bandages for soldiers. That -or something similarly inflammatory- is what the story would be.

McGovern demands congressional investigations and gets big ups on the board. So did Pelosi but she gets blasted for not assuring impeachment. There's plenty of love around here for Dems who apologize for an IWR vote. Pelosi, with more wisdom and insight, led the House in a significant opposition. Russert behaves like a fool and she doesn't shoot him in the face? She has a problem.

I don't care if she isn't a gifted orator. That isn't a prerequisite for good governance.
She kicks ass as Minority Leader and she will as Speaker.

I agree that Pelosi is underappreciated.

Might I pick a different leader? Maybe. Might I want to see an alternate candidate for Speaker? Maybe.

But I also believe firmly and strongly that a Leader or Speaker Pelosi with a Democratic House would be a very different person than MINORITY Leader Pelosi.

She has been as effective as possible given the circumstances. Her roots in the party are more than lifelong(*) and her views are VERY much within our mainstream, if not slight to the left of **our** center.

(*)Her father was Tommy D'Alessandro, a much beloved mayor of Baltimore and her uncles were also very active in party politics. Fruit rarely falls far from the tree.

:sarcasm:

Many of our Dems are underappreciated, and some people seem to actually take some kind of glee in finding fault with them. Do I think she's perfect? No. But unlike lock-step, brainwashed Republicans, I don't need perfect. I can appreciate the unique value different people bring to the party.

on edit: meant to post this as response to OP, but I guess it works here too :)

That's a great combination for a leader.

Thank you for your post. It's very timely.

It is very interesting that more vitriol seems to be directed at Pelosi than at Russert, when he was the one badgering her throughout the segment and quite obviously trying to push her toward certain answers with his repeated question about repealing Bush's so-called tax cuts and his probing about possible impeachment. It looked to me like Russert was trying to get two sound bites from her, one on raising taxes and one on starting impeachment proceedings - both of which would likely be used by the RNC in commercials. She wisely did not give him these.

snip>Pelosi regards the demise of Bush's plan for private Social Security accounts among her greatest accomplishments. To fight the plan -- which she described as a frontal assault "on the core value of the Democratic Party'' -- Pelosi said it was necessary to hold her party united in its opposition, and stop any Democrat from offering an alternative that might provide Republicans a target.

Members would come to her and suggest raising Social Security contributions or eligibility ages, and other measures recommended by economists.

"I'd say, 'Sure, you want to go out there and get us a headline: 'Democrats raise taxes.' -- Let's see how that plays.

"What I would say to them is the following: 'When the time is right, we will have a plan. I'm the leader. We'll decide a time.' ''

A Democratic plan never came. The president's plan never made it to the House floor. Pelosi declared victory.
==============

That whole article interesting. It's from last month but there's lots I didn't know.

..... involves leading.

And sometimes that means being quiet and quietly leading. Strategically quiet ... that's a stronger brand of leadership than puffing up one's chest, pointing with one's sword, and shouting 'Charge'.

Kudos to Leader Pelosi.

and there's no doubt in my mind that's why Russert kept pushing those items. It was bait to get the quotes the RNC wanted.
The excerpt you've quotes from this article and her perfomance today show how intelligent and aware of this tactical process she is. Definitely, a wise strategy. I'm going to bookmark that article for later reading. Thanks for it.

The tax and spending meme is coming up in more areas from the press again, today with Russert and late last week in an AP report:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1111452&mesg_id=1111452

I don't think this is coincidental. I think it is a concerted effort to change the topic before the elections. And I'm glad Pelosi is smart enough not to allow it.

Everything but the quotes timmy didn't score for them- taxes and impeachment.

RNC Response to Rep. Nancy Pelosi
"Nancy Pelosi's vision for the future is one of higher taxes on working Americans, cut and run in Iraq, and a little impeachment thrown in for good measure. With such a radical leader at the helm of the party, it's no wonder Democrats go to great lengths to avoid publicly talking about their real agenda for the American people." -- Tracey Schmitt, RNC Press Secretary

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=65322

They were just hanging on the sidelines drooling over the payoff!

:woohoo:

And you're so right. TimmyPotatohead is nothing but a shill ... and has been for as long as his fat ass has warmed that once great chair on that once great show.

Doesn't it read like a blurb that would accompany quotes on taxes and impeachment?

They just have some historical info following the blurb but nothing (as far as I can tell) about today's appearance. They aren't in the habit of random Sunday afternoon press releases about Pelosi, so I'd guess it was supposed to correspond with MTP :shrug:

OMFG - They had it waiting. Just gotta believe that they were drooling for Russert to get Pelosi to crack and give him the direct quotes. My admiration for her just grew stronger.
I have to admit to momentary doubt after I had posted my rant about the AP report since no one had responded to it. I though maybe I had reacted too strongly. But when I saw MTP this morning, it all seemed clear and your find at the RNC confirms it.
Great strategic move on Pelosi and Dean's part to be united and on topic and not tempted to bite, no matter how strongly the bait was dangled. I don't see how there can be any doubt that Russert collaborated with the RNC on this. What scum.

:applause:

for Pelosi's strategy.


:applause:

Nancy is very intelligent ... she knows how to work the strategy for long term gain.

Kudos Nancy! :applause:

toward Pelosi or Reid. I think they're both strong leaders and am happy to have them.

Pelosi is my rep. Though I've never felt animosity toward her, I've sometimes wondered where she was at times. Yet, if true, this shows a great deal of leadership, media savvy, not to mention a realistic self-perception rather than the inflated ego we've come to expect.

She's totally right, you know. Should she have offered support, the story in the right wing echo chamber becomes "Pelosi" "San Francisco" "liberals" and all the not-so-veiled homophobia that inevitably follows.

Wow. Just wow.

and appreciated it. The whole article taught me more about her. I wrote the reporters last night to thank them.

When they picked Pelosi and Reid I thought, what were they thinking. Pelosi seems to always speak up but yesterday she was answering some question and I was screaming at the tv "Just say yes" but she gave some long winded answer that always irritates me and Reid also. I didn't really like Howard Dean in the beginning and I did not think it was fair about the scream but, one thing about Howard is: HE DOESN'T BEAT AROUND THE BUSH he tells it exactly like it is and this is what is wrong with most Dems, they are afraid to tell the truth which everyone already know and this is why people are losing faith in them.We need some dems like Tip O' Neil former speaker of the house and others.

See the link below. It pretty much puts the lie to the twin claims that A) the Democrats have no ideas and B) the Democrats have no plans. Actually, the Democrats have plenty of both, but having legislation, press conferences, and the like doesn't guarantee any notice being taken by the press, let alone by the public.


http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0605.sullivan1.html