Originally posted by: RightIsWrong
I'm not a Dem (registered Ind. for almost 2 decades) although I am very socially liberal and I think that she has been pretty horrible.
Eskimospy, you are being a homer and dismissing very valid criticism against her.
1. Impeachment -- it should NEVER be "off the table". If a public official breaks the law or does things in such an unethical manner, you should have all things at your disposal.
2. Iraq -- She campaigned that she would do everything in their power to bring the troops home. After a couple of weak attempts, she ran with her tail between her legs whining about how powerless they were against Bush's veto power. Hogwash. She could have sent the exact same bill with timelines over and over and force his hand as funding was running out to commit to some sort of time table. She failed miserably.
3. Bailout -- although it eventually passed the House, it was more because of the effect of the Senate passing it putting pressure on the Reps than her leadership inspiring her colleagues.
4. Ethics reform -- sure they passed a bill addressing some of the issues, but they left enough loopholes to keep them comfortably safe even while doing unethical things (family members on campaign payrolls for example)
5. FISA -- retroactive immunity for companies that knowingly and willingly ran roughshod over the rights of American citizens? Puh-lease. That bill should have never made it out of committee with that stipulation in it and it certainly never should have passed a vote if the leadership of both parties were anywhere in the same area code with doing their sworn duties of upholding the Constitution.
I would agree that FISA is a knock against her. Not only did they give in to the administrations lawlessness, but they did so when it wasn't necessary. Very valid criticism. As far as ethics reform goes, I already mentioned that the ethics reform was half-hearted, but by any objective measure this Congress has certainly been an improvement. So, take that as you will.
Your other two examples are crap though I'm afraid. Impeachment was never going to happen no matter what. Impeaching GWB (when there's no way he would have been convicted) would have in fact made her an incredibly divisive speaker, for no real gain. She simply said out loud what everyone already knew. If you want to blame her for that, well... okay.
As I already said before, Pelosi acted in the best interests of our country on Iraq. The lives of our troops are not something to play a game of legislative chicken with. If GWB and the Congressional Republicans were unwilling to be adults, I am glad that Pelosi and Reid were not willing to take us off that cliff that would have lead to chaos. Yes, it sucks. It was the adult thing to do though and I can recognize that.
EDIT: It seems to me that most of the criticism present in this thread comes from people that haven't paid much attention to how Congress works until recently. If you don't like Pelosi, you probably would hate every other speaker we've ever had. Seems a bit silly to me.
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