As the capstone of her effort to build a bi-partisan coalition to pass the financial system rescue bill today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attacked the president and the republicans whose votes she needed with an inflammatory, partisan speech.
Call it persuasion by napalm. Many of us disagree with the Speaker, but reasonable minds can differ. (Maybe we do need to do something... but I'm sure tired of bailing out people with incomes in six and seven and eight figures!) What her speech was not... was leadership, in a time of crisis.
Yes, yes, any Republican who changed his or her mind on the vote because of her remarks shouldn't be returned to office. But in the current blame competition, her constituents and Congress should remember that when her country called, she couldn't put down the banner of the Democratic Party long enough to pick up the American flag, and lead.
The bill didn't fail because of your speech, Madame Speaker. It failed because of your lack of leadership -- and your speech was just a symptom of the void.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Speaker Pelosi: A Symptom of the Void
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I'm not easily shocked, but I found her comments quite offensive. I was surprised...not at her naked ambition (that's always been clear), but that's she'd pick such a sensitive time for grandstanding.
I don't have a personal position on the bailout yet. I found Paul O'Neill's thoughts on the subject somewhat compelling...just put the authority of the country behind some of the assets, rather than taking on ownership of assets which are impossible to value anyway.
Here's the interview: http://audio.wnyc.org/bl/bl092408apod.mp3
I'm somewhat more disposed to put into place a smaller emergency provision as a backstop ONLY...and then to wait and see how the market handles it on its own. It's possible that the goverment won't need to be involved at all.
And I think it's time for the government to stop trying to put people in houses who can't afford the payments. Actually, that time passed long ago. It just doesn't seem that anyone is ready to stand up and say that yet...since they're still trying to do it as part of the bailout bill.
Pelosi is hardly the only one who lacks courage. I didn't see evidence of it from either side in the debate the other night. It would be nice to have some truth-tellers out there somewhere.
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