Well the returns are in and once again, San Francisco Democrats re-affirmed their support of Our Speaker with 88% of the vote. I guess all the negative naysayers and nasty nabobs were a bit mistaken about the level of "discontent" with Our Speaker.
Also, Speaker Pelosi deserves high praise for her efforts to unify the party, pre and post election. Speaker Pelosi realizes we have a unique moment in history to right the many wrongs of the last 8 years (6 of which were one-party authoritarian rule), and move America forward.
Remember, you can always keep in touch with Our Speaker via her Facebook page, her account on YouTube.com, and her official site.
Hurray for Speaker Pelosi, and hurray for Sen. Barack Obama!
Speaker Pelosi must be doing something right if the rabid, right-wing extremists can attack her, right alongside the extreme left as well. It means she's listening to reason, and not to extreme rhetoric.
Now it seems that one of the local extremists who attacks Our Speaker has raised some money for a small cable buy. Interestingly enough, in the report, the attacker says a "group" named Act Blue is "funding" the ad.
That of course is not quite accurate - Act Blue is merely a conduit, or bundler, of contributions from all over the country which provides space online for various causes. But such mis-representations and errors seem to be at the heart of the extreme left's attacks on Our Speaker.
You see, according to the extreme screamers, Rep. Pelosi is not in fact, Speaker of the House of Representatives, but instead a unitary dictator, capable of issuing decrees all by herself, with no input from say, the President, the Senate, or the judiciary. That's how they start in on their deceptive attacks on Our Speaker.
Where they show no knowledge of basic high school civics, however, is the concept of "impeachment." While I have found the President and Vice President's behavior in office these past years to be atrocious, the fact is any attempt to "impeach" the President, either in 2007 or today, is simply not going to happen. Not because "Dictator" Pelosi (as the left would have you believe) won't do it - the politics and the numbers don't add up.
Getting even a majority in the House to support articles of impeachment is no sure thing, but let's assume that happened and the Speaker burned through what little political capital Democrats had after the 2006 elections to persue it, at the expense of any other legislation America might need. There is absolutely no evidnce the US Senate, as presently constituted, would EVER approve and vote to convict the President on said impeachment articles.
Moreover, the extremists who demand impeachment proceedings now (in some bizarre fantasy that somehow President Bush and possibly Vice President Cheney would be removed from office within days, or weeks of said proceedings), are simply deluding themselves. Does anyone honestly think the President (and maybe the Vice President) would simply roll over and play dead for a handful of activists? No, they wouldn't.
Oh and guess what? If we did somehow by some miracle get enough REPUBLICANS to vote for impeachment of the President and Vice President within days, guess who would become President of the United States? That's right - Speaker Pelosi. (Kids, read your high school textbooks, willya?)
But, even more basic - if we were to somehow lose Our Speaker (perhaps when Hell freezes over, pigs fly, and you can find parking in San Francisco on a regular basis), and "impeachment proceedings" were to begin in 2009 - well it'd be too late. See, there's this thing called a presidential election where we have the chance to vote for someone who will try and clean up the messes of 8 years of Bush/Cheney. Maybe the extreme left wants to impeach a potential President Obama? Hmm. What's up with that?
Frankly, though, I am getting sick and tired of people who put forth straw-man arguments and half-assed civics in their attacks on the Speaker. It is one thing to have an informed, civil discussion about the priorities of Our Speaker, the House of Representatives, and what the next president has to do to restore our country. We need that and surely the smart folks in Allegedly Smart and Liberal San Francisco are capable of that, right?
It is quite another to hurl insults, lies, and illogical tantrums that do nothing but help the extreme right maintain their hold on power.
We expect the far-right extremists, folks like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and the gang at FOX News to bash on San Francisco. It's almost required if you want to be part of the parasitical right these days.
While we're lucky in San Francisco to have Rep. Nancy Pelosi as our Member of Congress and Our Speaker of the House, not all of San Francisco is represented by her district. A good portion of our district was redrawn into Congressman Tom Lantos' district, aka the 12th CD.
Congressman Lantos has made the decision to retire, due to a diagnosis of cancer, and while we'll lose a representative who tirelessly fought the Reagan, Bush I and II administrations, stood up for human rights against dictators around the world, and had excellent constituent service, he's chosen to endorse a remarkable woman in California politics, Jackie Speier, who would be a wonderful addition to the Bay Area progressive team led by Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
Read all about her amazing kickoff event at Leo Ryan Park, and coverage from a fun writeup by Sweet Melissa in San Francisco. You should also check out the book Jackie co-authored as well.
The westside of San Francisco and San Mateo County have a chance to send an honest, smart, talented woman to Congress to help Rep. Pelosi fight the good fight in Washington DC. When Democrats have a chance to send solidly progressive, Democratic women to Congress, it will help all of us advance an agenda that takes us past the failures of the Bush Administration, and help any Democratic President advance an agenda that makes America strong again.
