On May 23rd, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler 23 May

Just voted for H.R. 1911, allowing students to take advantage of low interest rates for school loans. [….] 12:24 PM – 23 May 13

Today:

Nancy Pelosi ‏@NancyPelosi 59m

Why the GOP “solution” to student debt is not even close to a real solution-in one chart: #DontDoubleMyRate [….] 2:58 PM – 5 Jun 13

Today, at a Washington press conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) schooled legacy hire Luke Russert. The exchange is so embarrassingly cringe worthy for Russert that it bears watching several times (video via C-SPAN):

Luke Russert: ….colleagues privately say that your decision to stay on prohibits the party from having a younger leadership and will be hurt, and hurts the party in the long term. [voices] What’s your response.

[voices: “Oh.” “Descrimination.” ]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D): [laugh]

[voices: “No.” “Descrimination.” Booing, Hissing]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D): Next. Next. [laugh]

[voice: “Age discrimination.”]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D): I guess. [voices: “Boo.” “Wow.”] Oh, you’ve always asked that question, except to Mitch McConnell. [laugh][laughter, applause] [voices: “Good answer.” “Next question.”]

Luke Russert: …the same thing about Mr. Hoyer. No, no, excuse me, mister, you, Mister Hoyer, Mr. Clyburn, you’re all over seventy. Is [inaudible] to stay on prohibit younger leadership from moving forward. [voice: “Oh.”]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D): So you’re suggesting that everybody step aside?

Luke Russert: No, I’m simply saying that [inaudible] delay younger leadership from [crosstalk] moving forward in the House Democratic ring.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D): I think that what you will see, and, and let’s for a moment honor it as a legitimate question. [laughter][laugh] Although it’s quite offensive, but you don’t realize that, I guess. [laughter] Uh, the fact is, [laughter][laugh] the fact is, is that everything [voice: “…be kidding.”] that I have done in my almost dec, I guess, decade know of leadership is to elect younger and newer people to the Congress.

In my own personal experience it was very important for me to elect young women. I came to Congress when my, uh, youngest child, Alexandra, was a senior in high school, practically on her way to college. I knew that my, my male colleagues had come when they were thirty. They had a jump on me because they didn’t have children to stay home. Now, I did what I wanted to do. I was blessed to have that opportunity, uh, to sequentially raise my family and then come to Congress.

But I wanted women to be here in greater numbers at an earlier age so that their seniority, uh, would, uh, start to, to count much sooner.

And it wasn’t confined, uh, to women, though I, we wanted to keep bringing in younger people. And some of the decisions that we made over the years, to invest when we won the House in two thousand and six, and then other, and races before and since, was to encourage people to come. And when they come here, to give them opportunity to serve. [voice: “Madame Leader…”] So i don’t have any, uh, uh, concern about that. that. And I’ve always said to you, you’ve got to take off about fourteen years from me because I was home, uh, raising a family, getting the best experience of all in diplomacy, [applause] interpersonal skill. [laugh] [voice: “Madame Leader…”]

No. The answer is no. [laugh] [laughter]

Flop sweat. On Wednesday:

EXCLUSIVE: Perry challenges Pelosi to debate

Rick Perry sent a letter, obtained exclusively by GOP12, today to Nancy Pelosi, challenging her to a public debate next week.

Perry, in the letter:

“I am in Washington Monday and would love to engage you in a public debate about my Overhaul Washington plan versus the congressional status quo….

Uh, isn’t Rick Perry (r) running in the republican presidential primaries for the opportunity to challenge President Obama (D) in 2012?

From House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) via Twitter:

@NancyPelosi Nancy Pelosi

Re: Gov. Perry–Monday I’ll be in Portland. Later visiting labs in CA. That’s 2. I can’t remember the 3rd thing. 17 Nov

Oops.

RBH via Twitter:

Dem Minority Leader votes thru history: Pelosi 150/Shuler 43 (10), Pelosi 177/Ford 29 (02), Gephardt 150/Rose 50 (94) #cantwaitfor2018     about 6 hours ago  via web  

At Balloon Juice:

Can We Give Them The Attention They Now Deserve

…There was a closer and more contentious vote for best Halloween costume in the 5 year old division in my hometown a few weeks ago. Can we now please ignore these political incompetents? And could they now start acting like Democrats?

At the Great Orange Satan:

Nancy Pelosi elected House Democratic Leader, 150-43

…Nancy Pelosi was elected House Democratic Leader by the overwhelming margin of 150-43. This is a crushing, more than 3-1 defeat for her Blue Dog challengers. It’s even a bigger margin than Dick Gephardt’s post-1994 victory of 150-58. No matter how much press attention Blue Dogs got with their whining, it didn’t get them many votes…

Because obstructing the Democratic Party agenda and then losing a big chunk of your own “blue dog” caucus entitles you to repeat your disastrous strategery on a larger scale?

As if the opposition has a say:

I endorse Nancy Pelosi for Minority Leader.     12:22 PM Nov 5th  via Mobile Web  

House GOP gives Pelosi’s reelection a standing ovation!     about 6 hours ago  via ÜberTwitter  

Why should Democrats care what the republicans in the House think of Nancy Pelosi?

A double standard? *IOKIYAR!

Two years ago:

Transcript: Reps. Hoyer and Boehner on ‘FNS’

Sunday, November 23, 2008

….WALLACE: Congressman Boehner, finally, House Republicans – and I don’t mean to be unkind on a Sunday – have lost more than 50 seats in the last two elections with you as a leader, and now the leader.

Why are you the man to bring them back from the political wilderness?

BOEHNER: Well, if I thought that I was to blame for those losses, I wouldn’t have run for this job. And I can tell you my colleagues would not have re-elected me.

We’ve got a long way to go. The American people have issues. They’ve got concerns. We need solutions, solutions to the issues that the American people care about that are built on our principles.

And I believe that re-energizing our party, re-energizing the idea machine that we used to be, is a step in the right direction.

I think our fight last year on energy that lasted three or four months was a very good fight and showed us how to win, how we could grab an issue, grab the attention of the American people and succeed.

And so you’ll see a lot of effort on our part to be the party of new ideas. I don’t think we can be the party of no. There are going to be times when we do have disagreements and we do have to say no and be the loyal opposition.

But at the end of the day, I think that we have to be the party of new ideas, new solutions, and attract more Americans to our party….

[emphasis added]

“…I don’t think we can be the party of no….”

Well, that didn’t last very long, did it? Funny, I don’t recall an editorial in the local paper on this subject at the time.

An editorial in today’s Warrensburg Daily Star-Journal, High Broderism writ large:

11/10/2010 1:29:00 PM

Stepping aside best move for Rep. Pelosi

EDITORIAL

Jack Miles

Editor

….A Blue Dog Democrat, budget hawk Steny Hoyer, Maryland, would be a good replacement for Pelosi, his party and the House. Being a fiscal conservative is always a benefit to the public, especially in these times. Apparently, however, the best Hoyer can hope for is to take the minority whip spot, and even that is not a certainty with the party liberals casting ballots.

Oddly, liberals appear even stronger among House Democrats following the party’s November nightmare. The reason is as simple as the numbers: In districts held by conservative Democrats, such as U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, voters cast their ballots for Republicans, and with so many conservative Democrats ousted, what is left to dominate the party are liberals, mostly from the East and West coasts.

Democrats seem intent on going with who brought them to the party – even at the risk of political date rape – meaning where Pelosi’s agenda has taken them is bad, but could get worse in 2012….

Yep, that’s what someone wrote.

“…In districts held by conservative Democrats, such as U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, voters cast their ballots for Republicans…”

Uh, republicans cast their votes for republicans. You think maybe a few Democrats didn’t turn out in an off year election?

Two years ago:

Official Election Returns

State of Missouri General Election  – 2008 General Election

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

U.S. Representative – District 4 – Summary

Precincts Reporting 419 of 419

Parnell, Jeff REP 103,446 34.1%

Skelton, Ike DEM 200,009 65.9%

Total Votes   303,455

Last week:

Unofficial Election Returns

State of Missouri General Election  – November 2, 2010 General Election

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

U.S. Representative – District 4 – Summary

Precincts Reporting 415 of 415

Skelton, Ike DEM 101,512 45.1%

Hartzler, Vicky REP 113,530 50.4%

Braun, Jason Michael LIB 6,122 2.7%

Cowan, Greg CST 3,912 1.7%

Total Votes   225,076

So, ten thousand more voters cast ballots for Vicky Hartzler in 2010 compared with the number who voted for a post turtle in 2008. And the republicans were more motivated this year? Yeah, and Democrats stayed home.

Four years ago:

Official Election Returns

State of Missouri General Election  – November 2006 – General Election

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

U.S. Representative – District 4 – Summary

Precincts Reporting 437 of 437

Noland, James A. (Jim) REP 69,254 29.4%

Skelton, Ike DEM 159,303 67.6%

Holthouse, Bryce A. LIB 4,479 1.9%

Ivey, Melinda (Mel) PRG 2,459 1.0%

Palmer, Jerry L. WI 30 .0%

Total Votes   235,525

“…and with so many conservative Democrats ousted, what is left to dominate the party are liberals, mostly from the East and West coasts…”

And what are Lacy Clay (D), Emanuel Cleaver (D) and Russ Carnahan (D) in Missouri? Chopped liver?

Raul Grijalva (D) and Gabrielle Giffords (D) in Arizona? Tammy Baldwin (D) in Wisconsin?

You think maybe that Democratic voters didn’t bother to vote for Democratic Party candidates who were running away from the accomplishments of their party?

“…even at the risk of political date rape…”

That was a very poor choice of words.

What is missing in the editorial is any mention of the two years of the rhetoric on the right and their agenda of complete obstruction. How about the big bucks spent on campaign ads paid for by right wing front organizations?

There are important lessons in life. Never eat at a diner called “Mom’s”, never buy into an investment scheme promoted by a guy named “Slick”, and never ever take any political advice from a “moderate” journalist.

Besides, no one representing Missouri’s 4th Congressional District in January 2011 has a vote in that matter.

* it’s okay of you’re a republican

Back to School Sales Tax Holiday

Section 144.049, RSMo, establishes a sales tax holiday during a three-day period beginning at 12:01 a.m. on the first Friday in August and ending at midnight on the Sunday following. Certain back-to-school purchases, such as clothing, school supplies, computers, and other items as defined by the statute, are exempt from sales tax for this time period only.

For Immediate Release

08/05/2010

Pelosi Statement on Senate Passage of Legislation to Deliver Funding to States and Create and Save American Jobs

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on Senate passage of a bill to deliver critical funding to states and local communities, and create and save 290,000 American jobs – including 140,000 teacher positions and 150,000 police officers, firefighters, nurses and private sector jobs throughout our economy. The Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 61 to 39.

“Today’s Senate vote illustrates two vastly different approaches for getting America out of the economic ditch Republicans left us during the Bush Administration. Democrats support the urgent resources needed for the education of our children, the health of our families, and the safety of our neighborhoods. Congressional Republicans demean educators and first responders as ‘special interests’ and prefer to see teachers, nurses, and police officers on the unemployment line instead of in our classrooms, in emergency rooms, or on the beat.

“This legislation is about creating and saving American jobs, and preventing a double-dip recession – averting massive teacher layoffs and keeping law enforcement officers from losing their jobs. It’s about educating the students in our public schools; assisting vulnerable Americans who can’t afford medical care; and keeping families safe in their communities. It is fiscally responsible and fully paid for. By voting against this bill, Republicans chose to protect corporations that ship jobs overseas rather than strengthening our schools and securing our neighborhoods.

“With today’s action, Senate Republicans’ tactics of delay, obstruction, and political posturing will no longer deny states and communities the aid they need to create jobs and provide vital services to the American people. We will bring House Members back next week to pass this urgent legislation and send it to the President?s desk without delay.”

Projected FY 2010 Education Jobs Fund Allocations

U.S. Department of Education preliminary analysis, 7/6/2010

Missouri

Projected Allocation: $189,727,725

Estimated Jobs Funded: 3,100

Just asking.

The U.S. House of Representatives will be back in session next week to act on HR 1586.

Today, after yesterday’s disgusting incidents initiated by teabaggers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D), holding the 1965 Medicare gavel, and John Lewis (D) marched arm in arm past chanting teabaggers:

Video by Sam Stein.

That’s how you do it. That’s my kind of Speaker.

After Todd Akin’s recent diatribe – the one in which he trashed the CIA along with the rest of the “big government” bogeymen that worry him so much – we chided his fellow Republicans, including Kit Bond, for their inconsistency.  Bond, if you remember, had gone ballistic when Nancy Pelosi asserted that the CIA had lied to the Congress, but seemed content to hold his peace about Rep. Akin’s remarks.

Now it seems that perhaps Senator Bond might have learned something that led him to decide, however belatedly, that discretion really is the better part of valor. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, has confirmed five instances in which the CIA lied to Congress since 2001, including the situation cited by Pelosi. Schakowsky is pretty unequivocal about what she expects from the Republicans who ganged up on Pelosi earlier:

Schakowsky was asked on MSNBC whether Republicans now owed Pelosi an apology. “I certainly think they do,” she said.

Will Senator Bond be big enough to step up and offer a public apology? I don’t know about you, but I’m not holding my breath.

*corrected

Nancy Pelosi was in town Saturday to do a fundraiser for Russ Carnahan, which event seems to have come off uneventfully.  Uneventful, though, does not mean that the presence of such a visceral target of right-wing fury went unremarked by the local fringe-wingers who put on their best Saturday night bib and tucker to celebrate the Speaker’s visit. High points of the eventing:

–Ed Martin, who is running for Carnahan’s congressional seat, held his own wannabe populist chic “shadow” event, which he called the “‘Welcome to St. Louis Speaker Nancy Pelosi’ Pork and Beans Party!”  This guy belongs to the same party as Kit Bond and Roy Blunt and he’s calling Nancy Pelosi out about pork?  

That wasn’t all he got wrong, since the  pièce de résistance at his pork and beans banquet was his claim that Pelosi was flying in for a political fundraiser on a military plane. Unfortunately for Mr. Martin’s credibility, the claim was false. Pelosi traveled to St. Louis in a commercial plane paid for by the campaign.

–The ubiquitous, local teapartiers infiltrated the Carnahan fundraiser. Local fringe diva, Dana Loesh, has posted what I suppose one could call contraband video of Pelosi’s comments on her Webpage, where one can enjoy the added bonus of parsing Loesh’s rather startling use of language – evidently her kinship with Sarah Palin goes beyond the political.  

Loesh, who seems to be hunky-dory with those Republicans who were almost too eager to march in lockstep with BushCo as it decimated the United States’ prosperity and reputation, captions the video thusly: “Wherein Nancy Pelosi praises Russ Carnahan for following her lead instead of leading on his own.” Irony or what?

I do wonder, though, if any of the “infiltrators” paid the $250 charge for tickets. If they didn’t, would Loesh’s video, demonstrating her presence, justify sending her a bill for the price of entrance?

–Finally, the funniest – and the most chilling – response to Peloisi’s visit was posted on the St. Louis Tea Party Webpage prior to her arrival by Bill Hennessy. He issued a somewhat half-hearted call to arms, including this hilarious list of Dos and Donts for anti-Pelosi protestors:

•Be in groups of 2 or more, never alone, from the time you park to the time you pull away.

•Pick an end time and stick to it.  Trouble starts late and with stragglers.  The other side won’t (usually) try anything in a large crowd.  (They’re brave in a funny way)

•Carry a camcorder and photograph or video everybody – not the “celebrities,” the people

•Don’t be surprised if the other side inserts plants to start trouble to be blamed on us

•Don’t give in to taunts

•Pray before the event, by yourself or in groups, for courage, patience, and resolve

•If there is a theme, stick with it.  If it’s hippie, dress like a hippie.

•Don’t worry about being called AstroTurf.  Don’t. We’ve already won that battle, and the whole world knows that the people with the printed signs are the AstroTurfers.  Coordinated, planned protests are not AstroTurf-they’re just street theatre.  We can use some of that.

•Don’t spread yourselves out-stay packed.  Safety is more important than appearances at this point.

You can laugh all you want about the teapartiers willingness to sacrifice their usual revolutionary war hero shtick to go underground as hippies – these folks do love a good theme party – and about the level of self-delusion manifest here. Hennessy seems to think the teapartiers have shed their association with Astroturf after all – but am I the only one that gets the chills at the level of paranoia that permeates this list?  

Although it does animate my own paranoia, I admit, when I read that the biggest group of gun nuts in the state is being told to ” Carry a camcorder and photograph or video everybody – not the “celebrities,” the people.”  The people – that, my friends, is you and me and who knows what these fools are capable of.

Last Monday, Jake Zimmerman, the Democratic rep from Olivette in St. Louis County, spoke at the West County Dems meeting.  But he had nothing of substance to say.  He announced that to begin with.

He and Rachel Storch are heading the House DCCC, and, on the assumption that he was speaking to people who already understood the importance of getting Ds elected in this state, he spoke not about policy issues but about his new responsibility to be “a cynic”, to calculate coldly what moves will get the most Democrats elected to the Missouri House in 2008.

What follows is close to being a transcript of the first ten minutes of his talk, but his words and mine are so intermingled that I gave up on putting in quotation marks.

The last election showcased a grand strategic debate within the Democratic Party at the national level, and that debate is important to understand, not only for its national implications but also because the same debate is currently playing out at the state level.  

The debate involves three universes of people. The first universe is represented by Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel.  Their goal before the 2006 election was short term, to get the Democrats into the majority in the House.  The only thing we care about, they’d have said, is immediate victory, because if we control the House, we can stop the Bush agenda and change the direction of the country.

The second universe of people is represented by Howard Dean, who was intent on building a movement for the next thirty years. With so many citizens furious at G.W., Dean said we had an historic opportunity, the best chance in a generation to get the names of people who care passionately and who will take the fight to Republicans even on their own turf in states like Mississippi and Utah.

The third universe of Democrats is represented by someone like Nancy Boyda in Kansas.  She was in between the pure numbers-oriented focus of Pelosi and Emanuel and the vision of Howard Dean.  She was a perceived long shot, running against a Republican incumbent who hadn’t done anything remarkably wrong.  Not many figured she had much of a chance, but she was working hard anyway.  She’d have said to the other two groups:

Listen to me.  Give me a chance, right?  I can do this.  You gotta take me seriously, people.  Don’t brush me off, Rahm and Nancy, just because I’m not on your list of twenty districts that look like the best possible opportunities to flip.  But, Howard, don’t go wasting your money on just a bunch of field organizers here in Kansas.  Send me something.  Send something to my campaign.  Get me some professional assistance because I can do this thing. And even if I can’t beat this guy, Jim Ryan, I can make him work his tail off.  I can keep him busy in his home.  I can prevent him from helping out all those other Republicans.  I’m good for you in those other districts.

The tension among these three groups, common in many elections, played out particularly loudly in 2006, with a nasty public spat between Emanuel and Dean. Dean was in charge of the DNC budget, and when he announced that he was going to put field organizers in Mississippi and three people in Salt Lake City to canvass all of rural Utah, Pelosi and Emanuel went batpoop.  Why, they wanted to know, are you spending millions of dollars there when you could split that money into $300,000 increments and portion it out in the top ten congressional races.  That money could get you five more congressional seats.  It could be the difference between a Democratic majority and a minority, the difference between whether we sustain or override Bush vetoes.

Dean’s attitude was that last year was about something bigger than just that election.  

And there was Boyda saying, Don’t forget about me.  If it’s really about opportunity, then don’t constrain yourself.  Don’t just look at those top twenty opportunities.

A tense compromise ensued, with Dean funding the field operations as he had planned and with Pelosi and Emanuel raising astounding amounts of money just before the election.  Most of that last-minute money didn’t come from the true believers because their money was already in.  Oh sure, there were the last desperate appeals to the party faithful: We can do this if you’ll just send a check to …. fill in the blank.  We’ve all gotten so many of those, we could write them ourselves, right?

No, the big money that poured in at the end was the cynical money from lobbyists for, say, coal companies, who suddenly realized, hey, these guys might end up being in charge.  Better send them some love. And the coal company money went to fund many of the second and even third tier candidates like Boyda (who won, by the way).

That three-universe scenario that played out at the national level last year is also playing out here in Missouri for the coming election.  Jake pointed out that there were examples of all three types among the people attending the West County Dems meeting.

Joe DeLuca, for example, could represent Pelosi and Emanuel.  Joe, who is president of the Creve Coeur Township Democratic Club, is fighting to see that Jill Schupp gets House DCCC money in her run to keep Sam Page’s seat (district 82) in the D column.  It’s an open seat with about a fifty-fifty shot at winning for each side.  Dems need to hold that seat, both to show that they are competitive in the Creve Coeur part of St. Louis County, to hold this new bastion for Democrats and possibly to give themselves the incumbency advantage for the next eight years.

Susan Cunningham, the departing West County Dems president, lives in Republican territory-Franklin County–and plays the role of Howard Dean.  She would say:  You know what you forget about?  You forget that there’s lots of good Democrats out in this ex-urban area, and the way things look now may not be the way they’ll look in five years, ten years.   They’re especially likely to look different ten years down the road if you put some resources out here now. We need to build the party out here, and the way to make a change is to take advantage of the fact that people are angry with Republicans now. 2008 is the year to do it because it looks to be a great year for Democrats.

The Nancy Boyda figure locally could be Deb Lavender, who is running in Kirkwood (district 94).  She’d tell the HDCCC:  Don’t forget about me.  I’m running against an incumbent who is a little too conservative for his district, who won reasonably well in a close election last time around, but I can do this.  You didn’t take me seriously six months ago, so I went out and raised some money.  And I may still have a primary, but I’m working at this, and I’m following the playbook, and I’m doing it right.  Don’t forget about me.

This tension that we see at both the national and the local levels is inherent to our style of politics and to our primary and general election system.  The tension is especially palpable this time around because we won’t have too many more opportunities like the magical one we had in 2006.  2008 looks like it will be great, too.  All the metrics say so. But after that, we won’t have George Bush to kick around anymore. If we have Democratic majorities in D.C. and if we get the White House, some voters will become disillusioned.  They’ll be saying that we elected these guys to change the world, and they only changed 30 percent of it.

So 2008 is the year to … do everything.  And the question won’t be where to start; it will be: if we can’t do everything who do we give the short end of the straw to?