At the Netroots Nation convention, I went to sleep early last night and got up early to hear Nancy Pelosi answer questions. Yesterday I'd heard some admiring comments on her willingness to come speak to a tough audience. I was looking forward to a lively question and answer session.
What a disappointment. The first two questions were, indeed, tough. They were on subpoenas and inherent contempt, and on FISA. She pretty much dodged them; Smintheus gives some details in his front page story
http://www.dailykos.com/...
After saying she wanted to give brief answers so we could get to more questions, she used up plenty of time on long winded answers to those questions. For a non-senator, she does a darn good filibuster.
It didn't get better. Some other gems of wisdom:
She said we need to elect a Democratic president to restore respect for the checks and balances. Gee, I always thought those checks and balances are there so Congress can make the President respect the Constitution. Shows how little I know.
She said she's been on the Intelligence Committee longer than anyone in Congress. Since I read Glenn Greenwald in Salon.com, that makes me wonder if that makes her the most compromised member of Congress. My bad; I guess that's what I get for paying attention to Glenn Greenwald.
She said she voted against the FISA bill, but that it wasn't her place to ask others in Congress to do that. Another epiphany -- I thought the Speaker of the House was a leader who was supposed to rally at least her own party's caucus on critical matters.
She said the first responsibility of Congress was to protect the American people. I knew that was a high priority, but I thought their oath of office was to protect the Constitution. Another misconception of mine corrected. Boy, I was learning fast!
And she said we need to win the next election; we need more Democrats, a bigger majority. I thought that was exactly what we helped deliver to her in 2006, but I guess it wasn't enough. She almost reminded me of a coach who blames losses on his team's players. To be fair, she can't bench members of her team who seem to be taking dives or playing for the other side -- at least not quickly. But I thought the speaker has a lot of power. Not this speaker, I guess.
Two people whom I spoke with today walked out on her. I was considering doing the same, but then Al Gore showed up.
What are our chances of getting a new speaker of the house next Congress?