Nancy Pelosi kicking legislative ass.
******
At three critical points in the health care debate, Pelosi delivered.
First, she assembled a center-left coalition around the original House bill in November by pushing through a controversial amendment related to abortion that brought moderate Democrats on board with the legislation.
Second, when many Democrats, including top presidential advisers such as Rahm Emanuel, contemplated breaking up the bill after the Massachusetts election, Pelosi stood firm and defended holistic reform.
She "kept the steel in the President's back," Democrat Rep. Anna Eshoo told Politico. Finally, in the past week she displayed the kind of vote-gathering skills that have been displayed by legendary figures such as Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas.
She's just freaking awesome. OVARIES OF STEEL. [link]
Yeah, that's my Congresswoman.
You lucky sonofa!
I get Jim McDermott. He's reliable, I'll give him that, but he's no Pelosi.
Yeah, that's my Congresswoman.
I just realized, she must be mine now too, right?
I'm totally not worthy of her. However, I've twice had the good fortune to be represented by the Speaker of the House, Nancy and Tip when I was in Boston.
You wanna know how you can tell Nancy Pelosi is awesome?
When you google her one of the first thing that comes up is "Fire Pelosi" for the GOP main website.
Yeah, fuck you Boehner. Even your name means "dick" and you're the color of an Oompa Loompa.
Yep, it looks like I'm now in the 8th. Although, as strong women go, Jackie Speier from the 12th wasn't half bad either: [link]
Speier's first husband, Dr. Steve Sierra, died in a car accident in 1994 at the age of 53. At the time, she was two months pregnant with their second child, a daughter named Stephanie. They also had a son, Jackson Kent, to whom Speier gave birth in 1988 while she was serving as a member of the California State Assembly, the first woman in that legislature to do so. Speier then supported her children as a widowed single mother before marrying Barry Dennis, an investment consultant, in 2001.
Speier served as a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan. Speier was part of the November 1978 fact-finding mission to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by the Reverend Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers, almost all of whom were American citizens who had moved to Jonestown with Jones in 1977 and 1978... Several Peoples Temple members ambushed the investigative team and others boarding the plane to leave Jonestown on November 18. Five people died, including Congressman Ryan. While attempting to shield herself from rifle and shotgun fire behind small airplane wheels with the other members of the team, Speier was shot five times and waited 22 hours before help arrived.
Heh.
But since Teddy Roosevelt first tried to get universal healthcare nearly a century ago, no Congress had come as close as this one to finishing the job, and Democrats slowly woke up and realized that yes, they still controlled the House and Senate by wide majorities, and Obama was still in the White House. "We would not go to incrementalism, we would not go to some 'Kiddiecare' bill," Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., told reporters early Monday morning. "Whoever was thinking about that, they just forgot to call the speaker. And in fact, when they did, it was not pretty."
Yeah, I bet it wasn't pretty.
"How do you like those 220 votes?" Pelosi asked reporters as she swept through the Capitol on her way to a loud ovation from the staff waiting in her office.
How do you like my darkness now?
