Oh noes! The conventional stupidity says Pelosi might screw up Obama's big chance to join the Greedy Oligarch's Party's class war, and to help them dismantle America's already tattered social safety net.
Pelosi's new mission: Limit Obama deals with GOP
Pelosi's mandate is diverging from the president's at a critical time, with potentially damaging consequences for Obama's ability to cut deals with Republicans in the new Congress.
Their partnership is strained after an election in which Pelosi and many Democrats feel the White House failed them by muddling the party's message and being too slow to provide cover for incumbents who cast tough votes for Obama's marquee initiatives.
Pelosi will lead Democrats "in pulling on the president's shirttails to make sure that he doesn't move from center-right to far-right," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., a co-chair of the liberal Progressive Caucus in the House. "We think if he'd done less compromising in the last two years, there's a good chance we'd have had a jobs bill that would have created real jobs, and then we wouldn't even be worrying about having lost elections."
During the Health Care Reform fight the White House compromised away progressive positions again and again that enjoyed wide popular support. Rahm's departure apparently hasn't disrupted the bubble that seals off Obama and his top advisers from the real world.
House Liberals Counting on Pelosi to Stop Obama From Giving Away Farm to GOP
Are outnumbered House Democrats worried about "triangulation" from a White House forced to work with majority Republicans in the U.S. House?
So far, Obama has warmly supported Pelosi as the new minority leader and has not signaled that he's going to go around the Democratic leadership in the House or the Senate to cook up deals with Republicans. But there are those Bush-era tax cuts. When the White House indicated it could accept a compromise extending tax relief for at least a period of time to high-income taxpayers as well as the middle class, Pelosi said she wasn't interested in such a deal. And earlier in the year, during the health care debate, she quashed a White House-initiated feeler for a smaller, less ambitious reform plan.
Pelosi can provide a balance for the Obama administration, said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) a prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus, a liberal bulwark. Democrats, he said "want to make sure they've got somebody at the [bargaining] table with the president, looking him eye-to-eye and saying basically, 'You've got some people who have been very, very loyal to you -- not just progressives but moderates too -- and they truly believe that that's not the right thing to do.' "
Republicans want nothing less that to dismantle the social contract between the American People and America's Corporate elites, to help these elites loot even more of the nation wealth, and usurp even more political power. In exchange American people get a lower standard of living, and a government even more devoted to servicing the wants of elites, instead of promoting the public good for all Americans. The last thing we need it a White House willing to help Republicans move toward their rancid goal.
As a Minority Leader Pelosi will have little power to get things done in the House, but she will have the Bully Pulpit. She can call out bad legislation and raise the political costs of a capitulation to Republicans by the Obama White House. Its no wonder John Boehner admonished Democrats not to make Pelosi Minority Leader, he would have much rather had a Minority Leader who was a wishy washy centrist pushover. Sorry to disappoint Boehner but House Democrats stuck with strong leader who isn't afraid to stand up and do the right thing.
America can't afford to let the Greedy Oligarch's Party dismantle the Middle Class. You and I can strengthen Pelosi's hand by speaking out.