Is Nancy Pelosi trying to position herself and the Democrats in Congress more towards the center?
Once again, even though I respect the Speaker-elect very much and think her progressive record is at least as consistent, if not more so, as anyone in Congress, I think that for too long, Democrats have tried to be the party of consensus, the "let's all get along" party. This is just another example of our endemic need to be agreeable, I guess.
Please join me below the fold for more, including an excerpt about the Democrats' decision to forgo impeachment and allowing gays in the military ...
What attracted me to the candidacy of Howard Dean was that he wasn't like that. He was pissed and he let everyone know it. The fiery attitudes of Democrats this year, in a "we're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore" sense, showed that Dr. Dean's strategy was the right idea, just as I believed it was in 2003-04.
Why close doors now? Why restrict options like this?
Already, House Democratic leaders have extracted a promise from the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, to rule out impeaching President Bush. Conyers is the lead sponsor of a bill that would investigate whether to recommend "grounds for possible impeachment."
Pelosi has also tempered hopes of reversing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on the service of gays and lesbians in the military, after two key [Massachusetts] Democrats -- Representatives Martin T. Meehan of Lowell and Barney Frank of Newton -- said last week that they want to repeal the policy.
Does anyone, especially on the left, truly believe that if the Republicans controlled Congress that they would attempt a move to the middle? When have they ever done that? 1994? Nope. 2000? No way.
Our Democratic leadership needs to quit being a bunch of simpering wussies and make change happen. That's why we voted for them. And now, we're watching.
(Cross-posted to Blast Off!)
UPDATE (11:45 am EST 11/21/06): Wow, my lack of coffee must have made me unclear. Please don't seize upon these two issues (impeachment and gays in the military) in isolation. My points were that:
- Agreeing not to pursue them is symptomatic of a larger issue in the Democratic Party, in my opinion, namely, that there is something to be gained by negotiating with Republicans and "just getting along."
- More importantly, I didn't say, or didn't mean to say, that impeachment and gays in the military should be the first issues tackled in January. I merely meant that it was premature, and in my opinion weak, to take them off of the table before the new Congress even convenes. What's wrong with giving the Republicans, and Hanoi George, a dose of their own medicine?