Always the good soldier, Nancy Pelosi yesterday said in comments to the Huffington Post that she is willing to keep the House working on health care legislation through the August recess.
On the downside she acknowledges that such a course of action would be futile if the Senate does not move its own legislation by their August deadline.
Still, she has made herself clear and put to doubt any questions about whether she has the political will to move things forward. This clarification on her part puts the political football squarely in the hands of the Senate, where political will is apparently lacking.
Harry Reid? Are you out there? It would be nice to see similar leadership from you on this subject.
Some excerpts of Pelosi's comments follow below.
From Huffington Post: posted yesterday 4:30pm
"I always call Washington the city of the perishable. When you've got the votes, you take the vote," she said, punching her left hand hard with her right. "Because if you think you're going to wait around until you get more of this or that -- you just never know what happens."
"I think that some of the negotiations that are going on now will be facilitated by the Senate doing something, because it removes some questions as to what are they doing? What is it that they are doing? I say that respectfully," she said.
"I think that they should take [my statement] as more pressure for them to go forward, because this could be a chicken and egg forever. And we're not ever going to be a chicken," she said.
Staying in session through August was an option, she said, if that's what it takes to get the bill done. "My view is we're just about there and that it would be better for us to go before the recess. The idea that we should stay here until it is done is one that I'm okay with. The only thing is, if we're done, and they're not done and they're gone, what is the point? It's interesting to me that people are saying, 'Don't leave until it's done.' I don't know how much more we can do if the Senate is not going to move."
The Senate is scheduled to be in session one week longer than the House. "They could come out with something in the next 24 hours," said Pelosi. "I'd be a little more concerned if it were next Wednesday and they still hadn't shown anything, but they have another week."