"I consider myself a master legislator. Republicans fear me for that, but also because I am a successful fundraiser, enabling our candidates to have the resources they need to win. So from a political standpoint they have to take me down, and from an official standpoint they have to take me down. But I’m spending more time talking about it right now than I ever have thinking about it.
Said Nancy Pelosi, interviewed in Elle.
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127 comments:
Republicans are not the only ones who fear Nancy Pelosi. The Democrats in Congress also do.
She also lives behind walls.
Too bad she didn’t brag about being a master debater. I’d have loved to hear her give her usual stumbling rendition of that sentence.
I don't think respected is what she's achieved. Dingbat and who the hell is listening to her, is the attitude, I'd guess.
What’s the Left’s narrative regarding Pelosi?
What’s the Right’s?
Nancy should house illegals at her mansion in San Francisco, and her winery in Napa if she is so concerned about them. Instead, she hides behind walls. She doesn't care one lick about any middle class American, only cares about making herself richer.
When they gave out voting rights, they didn't overlook women. They considered it and rejected it.
"We must pass it to find out what's in it" = The height of her spectacular leadership skilz.
Obamacare was not masterful legislation.
The legislators who ran on a platform of not voting for Speaker Pelosi did it as a sign of respect.
Gracie Allen's act was partly impossibly imagining she was respected.
My favorite thing about quotes like this is that they remain evergreen once they finally lose. Doubly-evergreen if they lose for any of the reasons they mentioned as the core of their greatest strength. And triply-evergreen if they happen to fall flat shortly after saying them.
She ain't out o' the woods yet.
"Who votes for this shithead?" is not fear or respect. It's astonishment.
She’s right. Paul Ryan was a schlimazel next to her. (Loser, for those not familiar with Yiddish.)
I want to hear some follow-up about her grandson's wish to be Guatemalan so he could have beautiful brown skin.
Ya know, while Trump may not be the most adept politician ever to grace the White House, it ain't like Pelosi & Schumer are the reincarnations of Solon & Lycurgus, either.
So why did she have to agree to 4 year Speaket yet limit for herself?
She must have compromising photos of LOTS of politicians. It's the only possible explanation of her success.
I do think she's right; anyone who could pass a piece of legislation so throughly despised and hated as Obamacare must have been a master. I know a lot of progressives; that piece of work horrified them at the time: it looked _nothing_ like the health care plan they thought they were getting.
Pelosi and the Democrats basically followed Nate Silver's sage advice [paraphrased]: we're talking about a trillion-dollar wealth transfer to the poor, isn't there some way to work this out? They were willing to pass anything at all that did that.
Oops. should be “term limit”
Too bad she didn’t brag about being a master debater.
Debate is not permitted in Pelosi's caucus.
Too bad she didn’t brag about being a master debater.
Debate is not permitted in Pelosi's caucus.
I think she's right but also wrong: she is respected by most Dems and a fair number of GOPers, but of course that also shows the utter bankruptcy of American politics: that such a person could rise to power is indictment enough.
She was a master at passing something to see what was in it. Tells you all you need to know about the Dems.
Another answer from the interview:
Impeachment would be a sad thing for our country; it would be very divisive. What I’m more interested in is protecting the Mueller investigation, seeing where the facts take us. So I feel serious and strategic about the prospect of impeachment.
Pelosi is very smart. And strategic.
I'll always remember an anecdote from Robert Caro's LBJ biography. He was talking about the hapless Republican Senate Majority Leader (William Knowland) during the Eisenhower administration. Caro's comment was that LBJ knew how to count votes and Richard Nixon knew how to count votes. But not the Senate Majority Leader.
Pelosi knows how to count votes.
(eaglebeak)
Rather a vicious woman--her daughter Alexandra seems to think that's a good thing (see her recent comment about Mom would cut off your head, etc.), but perhaps most of us don't.
Pelosi needs to embrace the power of "and."
She's arguably the most effective house leader in modern times. She's gotten more stuff through than most have. It's just that it was all destructive. Few modern US legislators have caused as much misery. She successfully raised everyone's healthcare costs, increased people's distrust of the government, and greatly enriched herself and her cohort. Yeah, she's invoked fear I suppose.
If she isn't feeling the hatred, she's oblivious to how tens of millions of Americans think about her.
She's never had to deal with the likes of Trump. She'll get crushed.
1. Trump offers her a great DACA deal but the price goes up to $10b.
2. Trump offers her the Gateway Tunnel into NYC.
3. El Chapo gets convicted and Trump seizes all of his US assets. Mexico pays for the Wall. Trump addresses the nation from the Oval.
4. DACA kids and NYC commuters invade her office. Protest all night outside her house. Gov't workers harass her in the halls of Congress.
5. Nancy caves to Trump. Trump has this whole thing planned.
Perhaps Nancy can host the Oscars?
She put forth a change in the House Rules that require a majority of the Republican or Democrat caucus to be able to 'vacate' the Speaker seat.
It can no longer be threatened by one person.
Pelosi is, IMO, looking to her Right AND her Left (Alexandria Occasionally Coherent comes to mind immediately).
She doesn't want to be a King. She just wants to be 'Princeps civitatis'.
Much like Augustus owned all that Egyptian Money, Pelosi has locked up all that California money as one of the lynchpins of her power.
How did it go from Mexico paying for the wall, to stop paying American government employees until the American people pay for the wall?
Sounds like a bait and switch.
Nancy reminds me of the cattle baron in "Open Range." "I'll crush any man who stands against me."
He gets killed by Bluebonnet "Boss" Spearman played by the great Robert Duvall.
Trumps base will happily put up a tax on Americans to build the Wall if the Democrats would just get out of the way.
They won't because they know what a loser it is for them.
Ajnal said...
How did it go from Mexico paying for the wall, to stop paying American government employees until the American people pay for the wall?
Sounds like a bait and switch.
Shhhhh.
Blogger FIDO said...
Trumps base will happily put up a tax on Americans to build the Wall if the Democrats would just get out of the way.
The Democrats were out of the way.
Haha. Good explanation.
I do my best not to hate anybody. Hating people, especially people I don't know and only read or hear about thru media, is a waste of time and energy.
I've got better things to do.
I disagree with Pelosi on just about everything. That's different.
Ajnal. A comment is usually something more than repeating a Facebook meme word for word.
CWJ said...
Ajnal. A comment is usually something more than repeating a Facebook meme word for word.
Most commenters just repeat themselves. Self-meming.
Ajnal's question has been raised before, but the answer is always some version on how many Trumps can fit on the head of a pin.
Elle
Female magazines only fawn over democratics.
You got a source for that RHHARDIN?
Maybe even just for the "when they gave out voting rights"?
Nobody ever, to this day, has given ANYONE any voting rights in the federal Constitution.
ALL voting rights are state rights.
The closest the ffs came is saying that anyone who could vote for state rep could vote for federal rep.
But there was never any requirement for election of state reps.
Do you understand what the United States even are?
Do you know the definition of the word "state"?
Sheesh! The historical ignorance. It hurts.
John Henry
Henry said: "Pelosi knows how to count votes."
Yeah, NO.....https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/21/pelosi-told-trump-he-didnt-have-votes-house-so-what-happened/?utm_term=.374e714cde52
@wendybar -- good counter.
As a way to stick it to George W. Bush after the Florida recount failure, democrats in the House found the most liberal member, and put her in leadership.
Her name is Nancy Pelosi.
Sheesh! The historical ignorance. It hurts.
John Henry
I wish people would understand what the Constitution is. Its purpose. Understand that the states grew and prospered without a federal govt...for a couple of hundred years. The PEOPLE were the center of the decisions, not a government. We were extremely 'Statist' meaning the welfare of the individual state, in relation to the other states, was a primary consideration. The failure of the Confederation of States, and why. The new Constitution with very limited powers. So limited as to be restricted to enumerated powers. Powers granted by the people. ALL other powers were of the STATE.
Center these facts in how you see todays reality, try not to go mad.
Ajnal: "How did it go from Mexico paying for the wall, to stop paying American government employees until the American people pay for the wall?"
All govt employees get all of their pay. But only all of it, so a paid vacation.
We are a representantive republic where Congress must approve all specific expenditures....even though in obamas last year the dems spent $300+billion in non-appropriated funds.
Thus endeth Civics 101 for the day.
All Schumer and Nancy need to do is fund a minuscule amount of border security.
Really - the shut down is on them. No matter what they say.
I think Pelosi is very old and out of touch. That does not equate to hatred.
Perhaps Pelosi sees hatred because she surrounds herself with people who hate Republicans.
Here we go.
The elite democratics do not listen to what the American people want.
This thread is like a reverse Pauline Kael Experience.
How can Pelosi be speaker when know one I know voted for her?
The Reverse Pauline Kael Experience is also the name of a Jimi Hendrix cover band.
The democrat party invites illegal immigration and illegal border crossing. Period.
All of the deaths fall smack dab on the leftist democratics who invited everyone to take the risks with their children.
Pride goes before a fall.
It has to do with paradigms doesn’t it? In the Pelosi/political/swamp paradigm she sees the choice as between being hated or respected. In the paradigm known as reality normals see the choice as between good or evil. Pelosi is evil.
"What I’m more interested in is protecting the Mueller investigation, seeing where the facts take us."
Process as punishment with no end.
Ditto, Iowan, except the word "granted" powers, not rights, are "delegated" not granted
The powers not delegated to the United States
10A
Grant means given up permanently.
Delegate means lent. Delegate means the states can take back those LIMITED powers delegated to DC
John Henry
She is effective and has been for years. I can't stand her, but as a politician, she's been great for her team. Bad for the country, but great for her team. Her team includes other politicians, as well as business people, union leaders, friends, her husband, her daughter, and more friends. She's pretty much a poster child for term limits. The average American gets hurt every time she pushes a new law into place. How's that Obamacare working out for ya?
Oh honey, you SHOULD feel hated. Because you ARE.
Thanks John Henry. Words do matter. Delegated. The reason the framers used the word. Lent, not given.
Just like I cringe every time some know-it-all talks about rights coming from the Constitution. Failing to know that rights are sourced from God, is the beginning of ignorance.
Ran into her last year at the funeral of a friend. You could tell, in her younger years, she was smoking hot. Add a brain - twisted, imo, as her's is - and therein lies her rise to prominence. That said, she's a room-divider, i.e. a bigger problem to young radical Dems than to right-thinking people.
She may not feel hated, but I guarantee there are millions that do. She stands for an evil that plagued humans since the beginning of time.
If you elect a house speaker from a safe district, he or she has a problem because he or she does not represent a broad cross section of American interests. If you elect a house speaker from a mixed district, he or she becomes a target for the other party.
One of the reasons Pelosi lost her majority in 2010 is because she led a radical caucus. She felt no need to moderate her party's positions.
Pelosi was the House Speaker who lost a record number of seats in 2010 and gave the GOP the majority it held 2011 until today. Pelosi's majority controlled the house for just 4 years, 2007-2011.
The main reason we lost the house is the CA cheat to win scheme. Even Trusting Paul Ryan took notice.
Nothing billionaires want more from their government than that it be for sale to the highest bidder. Democrats are living off of that fact.
Failing to know that rights are sourced from God, is the beginning of ignorance.
I think you meant to say "failing to believe." If the rights come from a silent guy who never shows his face, we are all in trouble.
Ajnal's question has been raised before, but the answer is always some version on how many Trumps can fit on the head of a pin.
You make a lot of assertions Henry based on the fact that they seem true to you.
@tim -- Argument by assertion is the coin of the realm here.
I try to joke about it.
Sounds like a bait and switch.
Only to you. To a lot of people it sounds like a big ask before a negotiation. I don't think that the people who are sick of competing with low wage illegals for jobs are really all that worried about who pays for the wall. It's only you guys who seem to think you have come up with some unassailable gotcha. "I guess if the Mexicans won't pay for it, we shouldn't secure our border..."
I see the French have started arresting leaders of the protests. If only we could have elected a responsible government like that here, like Hillary wanted!
To a lot of people it sounds like a big ask before a negotiation.
That's a perfect example of the scholasticism I was talking about!
Trump said X.
But he really meant Y.
And the initiated always know what he really means.
* * *
Everything Trump has ever said or done is a undisprovable proposition.
One thing Trump's voters understand is that details are negotiable. This has nothing to do with money, either for the Democrats or for Trump.
You are being obtuse Henry, because it makes you feel smart to do so.
Ajnal: "How did it go from Mexico paying for the wall, to stop paying American government employees until the American people pay for the wall?"
The problem for the government employees is that the Democrats are representing Mexicans and Central Americans and that Trump is representing Americans. Eventually the Democrats will fold. Trump should offer nothing to the Democrats. Indeed force them to swap funding for NYC's subways for an enlarged wall. Trump should tweet succinctly that why are the Democrats representing Mexicans and Central Americans instead of Americans?
Actually not, Tim. The obtuse thing is to argue about Trump's words as if simple declarative statements can be evaluated on their factual merits. I don't bother. It's a fools errand.
She’s right.
Tim in Vermont said . . .
I think you meant to say "failing to believe." If the rights come from a silent guy who never shows his face, we are all in trouble.
You seem to think that God is like the government or at least some sort of person who "gives" you things. The rights come from God because they are in our makeup. We can self govern, as individuals and as communities, and we can do so because of the way God made us.
Actually not, Tim. The obtuse thing is to argue about Trump's words as if simple declarative statements can be evaluated on their factual merits. I don't bother. It's a fools errand.
Sure. Because that’s how people communicate, they never use language figuratively, ironically, or in any other sense or mode other than direct declaritive speech, as if speaking to a small child. If they were to use, for example, irony, they would certainly wink or use irony marks or something. Each person in a negotiation always begins the negotiation with an exact statement of their absolute bottom line, nobody would ever state a position that might provide them advantage or room to maneuver unless it were their bottom line.
Well, that’s how it would work if the whole world were autistic anyways.
Even your statement there was written to imply something that could not be understood if it were evaluated as simple declarative language.
Fancy Nancy has an extremely high value for her immense accomplishments. Just ask the Red Chinese Intelligence Services. They paid her and paid her and paid her and she never disappointed them. Their new Weapon Systems are now the very best money can buy.
How come fatal diseases, heart attacks, strokes, old age rarely take out these Congressional dinosaurs? Pelosi, Schumer, Feinstein, Grassley, Hatch, Leahy and on and on.
The US Congress is effectively the world's most exclusive nursing home.
We can self govern, as individuals and as communities, and we can do so because of the way God made us.
Now you have rendered your conception of God to a kind of meaninglessness, where it is inseparable from the concept of the universe, which is how i generally use it by the way. I didn’t come up with that, Spinoza usually gets the credit.
The rights come from God because they are in our makeup.
Try to prove that to some of the lefties here without invoking the authority of God as our creator in some way. It’s reduced to a difference of opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I probably agree with you on the rights of man, but I figure that they come from our constitution here in the US, and if that bulwark is breached, it’s Katy bar the door.
"But I’m spending more time talking about it right now than I ever have thinking about it."
When you hold a True Belief you don't need to think about it. In fact it's probably best if you dont. It's True! Thinking about would only create problems. Then you would have to start rationalizing. Just say no to thinking. Bad, bad, bad.
When my politician says something ludicrous, it's because he's a sly negotiator. When your politician says something ludicrous it's because she's a lying windbag of pure evil.
It's a game where both sides print their own get out of jail free cards. Just not worth the energy to argue about.
Sure, it was ludicrous, but what is laughable about, for example, anjul’s position on this, is the idea that Trump’s supporters should feel betrayed by it, as if it were impossible for them to evaluate his words, and as if it weren’t clear which side is actually looking out for them.
There is such a thing as the law of supply and demand, and if you bring in a bunch of illegal labor, wages go down, if you don’t pay them medical benefits, they fill our emergency rooms, etc, etc, etc....
This is all supposed to go away because of some gotcha you came up with? Are the deplorables a lost cause who should just go away and let their betters run the country properly, which means that the jobs the deplorables have counted on for generations are simply gone, while Wall Street continues to make money regardless of where the jobs go?
"They wouldn’t come after me if I were not effective."
Based on Pelosi's logic Trump must be the most effective President in US history.
I don’t get why so many people want to keep the flow of scabs from the south flowing unimpeded. Well, yes I do, some want the votes, others want the cheap labor.
I don’t get why so many seem to have been upset that Trump renegotiated NAFTA so that it wasn’t just a fig leaf for Canada and Mexico to fence dumped Chinese steel into the US market.
There’s lots of things I don’t get, but worrying about whether Mexico will pay for the wall or not is not high on that list. Maybe in Henry’s world, there are perfect politicians who exactly represent his values and interests, but in my world, I take the lesser of the evils on offer.
What I don't like about her is the constant lying.
Pelosi will overreach, as the Dems are wont to do. They can rearrange the House rules furniture all they like, but they still must reconcile bills with the Senate to actually pass a bill into law.
Pelosi acquiesced to an usurping of Congressional power they may come to regret.
"I've got a pen and I've got a phone - and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward".
-Barack Obama
The House of Representatives has averaged 138 legislative days a year since 2001. Between Trump's pocket veto and McConnell slow walking bills, the House Dems could be rendered impotent by not opposing them, but simply running out the clock.
I'll give her grudging respect. Most women like her would be dead by now.
@ tim in Vermont....all Trump need do is add an administrative fee on the billions flowing south in remittances.
“If you like your plan, you can keep your plan!”
Not a lie because only a moron would have believed it. This stuff is settled in American politics. He had to lie to get it passed. These are the new rules.
"I consider myself a master legislator"
...
Well, I mean, I guess she can consider herself whatever she wants.
By the way, the Obama lies to pass Obamacare were a betrayal of his own supporters, the Mexico will pay for the wall is nothing of the kind.
So with the Democrat takeover of the House, is the gavel now back in the hands of America's* children?
* And by America's children, I of course mean Central America's children.
That quote is a decent point of view for a politician to have. She is effective; and as much as I would like to think otherwise, I have to admit she has now made Speaker of the House twice. That's an impressive feat that does demand respect, at least in terms of politics.
Now her first test is running a shutdown government from a position that she believes makes her a co-equal leader of the US. That's just nutty on her part.
I don’t necessarily feel hated. I feel respected.
With the amount of Botox pumped into her face over the years, it's a wonder she feels anything.
“I consider myself a master legislator....”
And Trump gets mocked for bragging about himself.
A master of partisan infighting is not necessarily a "master legislator."
The Democrats were out of the way.
If the Democrats were truly out of the way, they'd have put up the 60 votes needed to close debate in the Senate to show the Repubs didn't have the 50 votes they needed to pass it.
But that wasn't the case, so Schumer ordered the Dems to stand in the way.
In fact, probably not.
"I consider myself a master legislator."
It's nice when your adversary is actively delusional.
"She is effective and has been for years. I can't stand her, but as a politician, she's been great for her team. Bad for the country, but great for her team. Her team includes other politicians, as well as business people, union leaders, friends, her husband, her daughter, and more friends. She's pretty much a poster child for term limits. The average American gets hurt every time she pushes a new law into place. How's that Obamacare working out for ya?"
Not sure if I agree. Cutting Republicans completely out of the Obamacare negotiations effectively gave her party complete ownership of it, and when people started losing coverage, losing doctors, and spending much more on health insurance and their healthcare, their majority was going to be lost. As it was. But she is effective at passing legislation. I was frankly amazed that she could bribe or threaten enough vulnerable Democrats to fall on their swords in order to pass her legislation, knowing full well that as a result of those votes, they would be out of office in the next election, as they ultimately were. Very few in her caucus were given the discretion to opt out, and vote to save their Congressional careers.
It is interesting how different the two caucuses are in the House. For the Democrats, rule is top down, and most committee chairs are strictly by seniority. The Republicans have term limits on the important jobs, and a significant number can derail legislation, as happened with the CR without wall funding. If this had been the Dem caucus under Pelosi, that CR would have easily passed. At least in the past - her in on fisted top down management style may not work as well this time with such a large class of incoming freshmen, let by Ocasional-Cortex, and filled with a bunch of crazies. A lot of these newbies are roughly half the age of their Congressional leadership. Should be interesting.
Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi are indeed master legislators -- deal with it, Left and Right.
Well no one ever attacked Paul Ryan for being effective or for being a master legislator so she’s probably right.
@ Earnest Prole
McConnell ?? He is not even in the same league as Pelosi. Pelosi was able to push through Obamacare against strong opposition. McConnell could not push through even a partial Obamacare repeal even though his members ran on repeal for years.
Americans need to do more to make that despicable cunt feel hated.
An effective Pelosi would have made ACA tenable for at least one Republican.
I think the last truly effective legislators may have been the ones who forced Clinton to triangulate. Everyone since then has relied on raw political force.
no, because you ignore the purpose of the legislation, was to seize control of 1/7th of the us economy, on the way to fundamental transformation
McConnell ?? He is not even in the same league as Pelosi.
Holding Kennedy’s Supreme Court seat open for Trump to fill was the political equivalent of drawing an inside straight, not to mention the thing that kept Evangelicals with Trump at the moment they were inclined to flee, thereby makingTrump’s victory possible. Delivering the votes for Kavanaugh proved he could count. And it’s hard to blame McConnell when McCain rose unexpectedly from his deathbed and crossed the country with the sole purpose of fucking Trump. But I take your point.
The moment when you realize you are finally in violent agreement with Earnest Prole despite the number of times he has claimed you were.
Trump may not feel hated, but I guarantee there are millions that do. He stands for an evil that plagued humans since the beginning of time.
Mexico will pay for the Wall, one way or another, i.e. by the reduced influx of illegal migrants who wire money to Mexico as a consequence of the Wall.
“To a lot of people it sounds like a big ask before a negotiation.
That's a perfect example of the scholasticism I was talking about!
Trump said X.
But he really meant Y.
And the initiated always know what he really means.”
And the Trump Cultists always know what he really means and they daily try to convince everyone else that they are arbiters of What Trump Really Means.
If Trump isn't feeling the hatred, he’s oblivious to how tens of millions of Americans think about him.
Trump got his suckers/Cultists to believe that Mexico would pay for the wall, then when it became obvious to even the biggest Trump Cultists that Mexico was not going to pay for the wall, they, like good Cultists, twisted themselves into pretzels to try to convince themselves and everyone else what Trump really meant. Cultists have lost the ability to see reality, or they don’t want to because it might make them feel bad about themselves for being so stupid.
Remember when Leftist Collectivists were all big fans of Hillary Clinton ?
we will see whom blinks
it's a mexican standoff
Pelosi looks like a punch drunk fighter that has seen better days. She looks befuddled at her pressers. Repeatedly calling Trump "Bush". Even with a friendly press they can't always catch her falling down. Agreed, she was formidable in her prime but she's playing chicken with a Kamikaze fighter now, the old tricks won't be working this time.
At the conclusion of her first speech to Congress after becoming House Speaker again, Nancy Pelosi realized she “skipped a couple pages” of her remarks.
“As we take the oath of office today,” Pelosi said, “we accept responsibility as daunting and demanding as any previous generations of leadership have faced.
“Guided by the vision and values of our Founders, the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform,” she continued, “and the aspirations that we have for our children, let us meet that responsibility with wisdom, with courage, and with grace.”
Concluding moments later: “God bless you all and God bless the United States of America.”
Then she announced to herself, “I think I skipped a couple pages. I’m not sure,” on a hot mic.
cubanbob,
"swap funding for NYC's subways"
Wait, wait, wait.... and then wait some more...
What?
The federal government gives NYC money for its subway???
Why???????
I'm told on good authority that states like NY are where the real wealth in the country is generated, and cities like NYC are the reason that; whereas the red states are comparatively poor, backward, and benighted. So why would the country as a whole be giving money TO the city? Shouldn't they instead be helping those of us who are less fortunate?
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