Today, Nancy Pelosi was elected the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives. Today is the first day of a Democratic majority, a new direction for America, an era of accountability and responsible government. Nowhere is that more clear than the Democratic agenda which Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid put forward.
Ethics Reform – “Draining the Swamp”: “Breaking the link between lobbyists and legislation,” banning gifts from lobbyists; Committing to open, honest, and transparent government. No new deficit spending.
Raising The Minimum Wage: Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage to $7.25 an hour.
Making College More Affordable: Cutting the interest rates for student loans in half; raising the maximum amount for Pell Grants.
Implementing the Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission
Making Health Care More Affordable: Allowing the government to negotiate prices of prescription drugs.
Ending Subsidies For Big Oil
Funding Stem Cell Research
Today is the beginning of a new era.
Woohoo!
back in ‘04 when I was working on the herseth race in SD, people would ask me why I was doing it. I said two words: “speaker pelosi.” Now that statement was a bit a) immature and b) premature, since it took 2 & 1/2 years more to get here. But the sentiment is still the same today.
This is a historic congress. I am very hopeful for what this year, 2007, is going to bring.
Just passing through checking out reactions to the new Speaker’s first day.
I was thrilled to see Nancy Pelosi standing in that historic place, looking Presidential and establishing a new era in American politics.
I think the image of her serious discussion of foreign and domestic affairs in those august surroundings, being applauded like a President will hasten the day when we can actually elect a woman President.
I especially enjoyed seeing and hearing her speech with my 18 year old daughter.
We still have to endure two more years of Bush and Lord knows how many years of the Bush influence on the court, but , at least, the bad guys don’t have the Congress!
Nancy Pelosi is probably one of the worst things that has ever happened to Democrats in decades. Good luck in 2008. With her leading you guys, you will really need it.
I would personally like to distance myself from anything that has to do with her, because she has more to do with politics than with righteousness. And that makes you no better than Republicans. The downfall of American politics is going faster than ever before.
Politics = Politricks. And this time it does for real.
Giuliani for President in 2008!
On the other hand, Till Gore, I think that pre-judging a Speaker, and the party that she will lead is as potentially dangerous for the political process as anything you speak of. The Democrats have officially been in power for less than 24 hours now…I personally think we should give them at least a full day in session before we start throwing stones.
The first order of business yesterday was to debate a rules package to govern the House. It included much more strict practices to try to get the lobbyist hand out of the national government. I personally think that ethics and corruption were the biggest stain on this last congress. The new congress has already taken steps to correct some of the partisan rules that governed the Republican House. All in all, I think it was a good first day to get back to governing the country.
Let us sit back and see what unfolds as this 110th congress gets down to business. Throwing meaningless sound bites of criticism is not productive, nor thought provoking. If we really want the “politricks” to end in Washington, the practice should probably be put to an end in our own discussions first.
I don’t think that Democrats need a full day in session to prove the value of their leadership. Please check out this interview with your new Intelligence Committee Chairman:
http://public.cq.com/public/20061211_homeland.html
Here is a little taste of it:
Al Qaeda is what, I asked, Sunni or Shia?
“Al Qaeda, they have both,” Reyes said. “You’re talking about predominately?”
“Sure,” I said, not knowing what else to say.
“Predominantly — probably Shiite,” he ventured.
I think you can see that this man is obviously not qualified whatsoever to be the new Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. With this leadership, it has come down to political favoritism just like it has been with the Republicans.
And by the way, take a look at this article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/04/AR2007010401528_pf.html
It’s a nice showing of:
A.
“The attention quickly shifted — to Robert Byrd. The 89-year-old West Virginia Democrat, beginning his ninth term, wore a red-white-and-blue tie and punctuated the opening prayer with shouts of “Yes!” and “Mmmhmmm!” and “Yes, Lord!” and “Yes, in Jesus’s name!” When he was sworn in, he twice cried out “Hallelujah!” and then “Amen!” Minutes later, he was installed as Senate president pro tempore, the majority party’s most senior member. “Yeah, man! Yeah, man!” he shouted. “Hallelujah!” “I do, so help me God!” he shouted when the oath was administered. “Yeah, man!”"
The new Senate president pro tempore used to be an organizer of the KKK and actually started the organization in West Virginia (do a little bit of research on him and you will find out).
B. What Ms. Pelosi’s powerstruggle around the majority leader has done to Sen. Reid’s standing in Congress:
“The soft-spoken Democrat became the most powerful figure in the United States Senate yesterday. But the newly minted majority leader was quickly eclipsed — not just by the ascent of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi but even by Bill Clinton’s trip to the men’s room.”
So again, Good Night and Good Luck in 2008.
P.S. Check out my blog at http://the-daily-tilldo.blogspot.com/
To be quite honest, I am a little disappointed that noone has responded to my post. Is that how you justify putting your effort into a campaign for extended amounts of time?
By the way, check this out:
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash7.htm
“Democrats ran to expand the work week in the House to 5 days.
But guess how long that lasted?
Not even one week!
“Culture Shock on Capitol Hill: House to Work 5 Days a Week” front-paged the WASHINGTON POST in December.
Majority leader Steny Hoyer said members of the House will be expected in the Capitol for votes each week by 6:30 p.m. Monday and will finish their business about 2 p.m. Friday.
Explained the POST: “Forget the minimum wage. Or outsourcing jobs overseas. The labor issue most on the minds of members of Congress yesterday was their own: They will have to work five days a week starting in January.”
But on the morning after the night before, on the first full week of the new congress, Hoyer has pulled back from his vow!”
Thank you very much, Democrats!
Good Night and Good Luck in 2008.
I won’t defend Reyes, he’s a moron. That said, he’s infinitely more preferable than the Republican alternative, who has offered no oversight whatsoever.
Robert Byrd? I personally found that hilarious! The KKK thing is such a strawman argument, though. He’s long since learned the error of his ways, unlike, say, Strom Thurmond, a racist until the day he died. Robert Byrd today is not the man he was years ago.
The majority leader fight? Bah. That’s so inside baseball. No one outside of us political junkies actually know who the hell Steny Hoyer or Jack Murtha is. And, wow! A former President – and husband of a leading Presidential candidate – overshadowed the Senate Majority Leader!
5 day work week? Here we go again with the inside baseball.
I gotta hand it to ya, Till, you play the Republican part well, here. Strawmen, meaningless arguments, talking points… even a link to Drudge!
Thank you, Dave! Nonetheless, I don’t think that all these arguments are meaningless. I believe that many of us(including myself) need to rethink why we are Democrats, what we want (us and the Party) to stand for, and what we expect from the candidates that we support and believe in…