House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the most despised political figures in the country.
And, frankly, she doesn't give a damn.
"No, I don't care," Pelosi told POLITICO last Thursday, laughing heartily as she walked beneath the Capitol dome and plunged into a crowd of tourists.
Last week's Public Strategies Inc./POLITICO poll brought grim news for Pelosi, revealing that only a quarter of Americans trust the San Francisco Democrat -- putting her in the basement with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Mention of the "trust" question halted the click-clack of Pelosi's heels against Rotunda marble, and she turned to face the reporter who posed the question.
"I don't know about 'trust' -- I think I'm trusted," she said. "I certainly want to be trusted. I'm not particularly concerned if I'm liked."
We trust you to do the wrong thing, always, and for the benefit of your friends, backers and ACORN. Is that the kind of trust you're referencing?
But month after month of polling shows that the speaker is neither trusted nor liked by the general public -- even as she emerges from one of the most productive legislative periods any speaker has ever enjoyed.
'Productive'? I don't think that word means what the Politico reporter thinks it means ...
Gallup now measures Pelosi's unfavorability ratings at 48 percent -- with her favorability index registering a paltry 32 percent.
Right down there with Corzine and Patrick ...
That's 12 points lower than her numbers were just six months ago, during the first flush days of the Obama administration. And it puts the most powerful woman in the country's history on a par with Dick Cheney and only a few clicks better than Boehner, an unknown quantity to most Americans.
"Nancy Pelosi is not only vastly unpopular with the American public, but her credibility is waning within her own party," said Ken Spain, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
In a recent interview with POLITICO, Pelosi countered: "Our leadership team is so effective it is driving Republicans to distraction. And they and their allies have decided that I am their target, and they come after me relentlessly -- relentlessly. On the left, I have to put forth a bill that's going to fund the war and the rest, and they're not happy about that. So none of it is a popularity contest. You just have to be responsible for the job you're setting out to do."
The Dem leadership is so-o-o-o effective that they can't bring the health care bill to a vote in the House they control. And they had to bribe their own people with campaign cash for the cap and tax bill. Yup, real effective leadership ...
Being speaker is, as she says, an inside job. Pelosi is insulated from the negative effects of low national poll numbers because she answers only to two micro-constituencies -- her mostly affluent, overwhelmingly liberal Bay Area district and a 262-member Democratic caucus that respects, fears, follows and largely likes the 69-year-old workaholic.
Fear being the key word ...
"She's OK," says one member from the Northeast. "You don't have to love her, but she's good. ... She's solid with us, and that's all that matters, although she could take a real hit internally if we bungle the health care bill. ... This week's going to be the biggest week of her speakership."
Adds House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.): "She's what I like to call 'operational' -- she knows how to get things done."
Sources close to the speaker say she's so unconcerned with her own popularity she won't commission national polls, as many congressional leaders often do. But individual Democratic members do test her name in their districts, with results grimly similar to the national data in public surveys.
Conservatives have always hated Pelosi for her Left Coast brand of liberalism and her penchant for moralizing, with right-wing columnist Michelle Malkin caricaturing her as a "Queen Nancy" who surrounds herself with Evian, white lilies and vanilla-scented candles.
Her defenders say there's always been a strong undercurrent of misogyny in the criticism, a charge lent some credence by the sheer mass of anti-Pelosi vitriol in the blogosphere and in the comments section of news outlets such as POLITICO.
Misogyny is only okay if it's aimed at Sarah Palin ...
Rush Limbaugh has accused Pelosi of flip-flopping on waterboarding in order to make a "fashion statement." "She wears Armani clothes -- fashionable; Botox shots -- fashionable; she's against waterboarding -- fashionable," Limbaugh said earlier this year. "Of course, after 9/11 she was for waterboarding! That was fashion then."
These days, however, disdain for Pelosi has gone more mainstream, with her popularity ebbing among independents and centrist Republicans.
Her aides acknowledge that the current spike in anti-Pelosi sentiment was probably fueled by the speaker's handling of the waterboarding controversy this spring. Her muddled explanation of when she knew about enhanced interrogation left fellow Democrats scratching their heads and may have left some voters believing she can't be trusted.
But people close to Pelosi say there's another element in her growing unpopularity: Her willingness to walk the point for Obama on nearly every major legislative issue, drawing fire that have would otherwise been directed at the White House or the gun-shy Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
"She doesn't mind that role, but it certainly doesn't help her personally," said one Democratic strategist. "She's the tactician -- you always need someone to be driving the bus --it's about forward motion, not popularity."
Republicans have tried unsuccessfully to leverage Pelosi's problems against Democratic candidates for the past three cycles. But they believe the speaker has given them an opening in 2010 by moving so quickly on the cap-and-trade bill, which could be a drag on Democrats in about a dozen battleground districts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2009 11:06 ||
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#1
And, frankly, she doesn't give a damn.
Worked for Richard Nixon when the cards were down. At a certain point when the 'enemies list' becomes larger than the DC phone book, you'd better stay away from the steps on Capital Hill on the 15th of every March.
#3
Good for her. At least she's not whining ala Gates how "the Man" hates her because she's a black woman . If you're going to be a pimple on the ass of humanity, have the good grace not to bitch about no one liking you.
#4
Well, then, I guess I'll just keep despising you.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/27/2009 16:39 Comments ||
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#5
Unfortunately, it really doesn't matter if 99% of the US hates her guts and wishes her an untimely, painful death. As long as more than 50% of the voters in her district like her enough to vote for her, she will be re-elected and re-elected and ...
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/27/2009 17:40 Comments ||
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#6
Rambler,
Agreed, but she doesn't have to be Speaker.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/27/2009 18:09 Comments ||
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First-term state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias today firmly affixed his candidacy for the U.S. Senate to President Barack Obama, contending a new generation of leadership in the mold of the man he considers a mentor will outweigh any taint of scandal surrounding Obama's former Senate seat.
Giannoulias, 33, frequently invoked Obama in launching his bid for the Democratic Senate nomination. He portrayed the race as a choice between the politics of the future or the "tired politics that voters rejected in 2008"a veiled slap at recently announced GOP contender, North Shore U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, 49. It's a race between the Pub politics of the past versus the Chicago machine. Giannoulias is a card-carrying made man in the Daley organization.
Asked by reporters whether someone with little more than two years in public office was qualified to sit as a senator, Giannoulias said "they said the same thing about Barack Obama." ...and it looks like "they" were right.
"I don't think it's about who's held office the longest," he said. "I think it's about who's got the best ideas, who's going to move this country forward, who has a history of having an innovative principled office, someone who's going to bring some integrity back to the process so people can be proud of their United States senator."
Obama was a key ingredient in Giannoulias winning the state treasurer's office in 2006, backing the young banking heir over the state Democratic organization's slated candidate. Giannoulias had helped Obama raise seed money for the 2004 Senate race and provided Obama with connections in the city's Greek community.
Still, Giannoulias watched recently as the Obama White House unsuccessfully tried to recruit Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan as the favored Senate candidate. "I think the president and I will be just fine," said Giannoulias, a basketball buddy of Obama.
Other Democrats are considering a run, but Republicans see opportunity in the open-seat Senate contest created after appointed Sen. Roland Burris said he would not seek election. Burris was named by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich three weeks after Blagojevich's arrest on federal corruption charges that included allegedly trying to sell the seat left vacant by Obama's November victory. "People are disheartened and disgusted with politics, especially in Illinois where there's a black eye in Illinois politicsscandal and corruption and pay to play, which is why we need fresh leadership," Giannoulias said. ...and I want my piece of the pie. If I were the Republican running against Giannoulias, I'd make sure that each and every day of my campaign, I had a video, press release, and talking points out there on his and his family's involvement with the Broadway Bank. Google it.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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Doc, even if every literate voter in Illinois googles Broadway Bank and votes anti-Democrat as a result, Giannoulias should still carry the election, with a 100% vote from the illiterate and the dead.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood had to be asked the same question seven times in Friday's House Budget Committee hearing before he would finally give a straight answer.
Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., was grilling LaHood about a letter he had sent Arizona's governor, after an Arizona Republican senator questioned the effectiveness of the stimulus package. The letter was widely viewed as a political threat in retaliation for criticism of the stimulus.
On July 12, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., had suggested in a television interview that the stimulus should be cancelled, with the remaining unspent funds returned to the Treasury. LaHood, a former Republican member of Congress who joined Obama's administration in January, responded the following day with a letter to Arizona's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, effectively threatening to cut off some $521 million in Arizona projects funded by the stimulus package.
Kyl had "publicly questioned whether the stimulus is working and stated that he wants to cancel projects that aren't presently under way," wrote LaHood. "If you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state, as Senator Kyl suggests, please let me know."
Garrett's questioning on Friday revolved around the administration's hypersensitivity to criticism of its $787 billion stimulus package, of which only $67 billion had been spent as of July 17.
"Should I have any concerns that I even raise this?" asked Garrett. "That I would get a letter sent to Governor Corzine of New Jersey saying, 'Well, the Congressman voted against the stimulus, and so therefore we're wondering whether you want to receive the money?'"
"Congressman, the letter was not sent because of anybody's vote," said LaHood. "It was sent because of a statement that was made on national television about 'maybe we should send the money back,' and I wanted to check with the elected official in the state that has responsibility ... We don't base our decisions on how people vote."
You do base them on public statements, apparently," came Garrett's acid reply.
Garrett then asked LaHood whether anyone in the administration had put him up to writing the letter. In fact, he had to repeat the question seven times and make an appeal to the chairman -- "Mr. Chairman, would the witness please answer the question?" -- before LaHood would answer. "No," LaHood finally replied.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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We don't base our decisions on how people vote.
I expect that bit is truth as well. If they have their way soon there will be no more messy votes to worry about ... or perhaps they'll heed Stalin and just install ACORN to count the vote.
#2
Ray LaHood is not a Republican, he is a founding member of the 'Illinois Combine' and this is precisely how the 'Combine' has done business since it was founded.
Information readily available to the 'MSM' if they went west of that impenetrable mountain barrier.
Governor Deval Patrick, fresh off signing a major tax increase and still battling through a historic budget crisis, has seen a huge drop in his standing among Massachusetts voters and faces a tough road to a second term, according to a new Boston Globe poll. ...and his dog bit a lady the other day.
The survey, taken 16 months before the election, shows that the public has lost faith in Patrick's non ability to handle the state's fiscal problems or bring reform to Beacon Hill, as he had promised. He is either losing or running neck-and-neck in matchups with prospective rivals, according to the poll, conducted for the Globe by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.
Patrick's favorability rating has dropped sharply over the past seven months, with just 36 percent of respondents holding a favorable opinion of him, and 52 percent viewing him unfavorably. As recently as December, 64 percent of voters viewed him favorably. I think it's the water...
The governor's job-approval rating, sampled after Patrick scored several major legislative victories but also approved $1 billion in new taxes, is even worse, with just 35 percent of respondents approving and 56 per cent disapproving of his performance. Just as ominously, 61 percent said the state is on the wrong track, compared with 31 percent who said it was headed in the right direction, down from 44 percent in December - numbers reminiscent of voters' mood before Patrick captured the corner office from Republicans in 2006.
Even the state Legislature, traditionally held in low esteem by the public, won higher marks when voters were asked whom they trust more to manage the state budget crisis and faltering economy. Forty percent said they put more faith in state lawmakers to handle fiscal issues, compared with 23 percent for Patrick. Geez, Deval. They rate those clowns higher then you? That's, like, pathetic.
"These numbers indicate that Patrick is in a very difficult position regarding his reelection,'' said Andrew E. Smith, director of the survey center. "Voters do not think he is up to the task of dealing with the state's fiscal problems, and he has lost his mantle as a reformer.''
The poll, conducted among 545 respondents statewide from July 15 to 21, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. Don't worry, Deval. I'm sure your buddy Barry's trying to find you a nice 6 figure no heavy lifting job in his administration when you get smoked in 2010. If not before then...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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"...A woman was hospitalized after Gov. Deval Patricks puppy Tobey bit her hand during a town-hall style meeting in Roxbury, leaving a red, pin-sized hole, authorities said...
A Patrick spokesman told Statehouse News Service the governor had brought the animal to the event to play with children of attendees while he took questions.
Animal Control was notified, but it was unclear whether the dog was taken into custody."
Posted by: Lord garth ||
07/27/2009 9:15 Comments ||
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I thought that if a dog bit someone, it had to be quarantined and checked for rabies.
Of course, as governor, Patrick is exempt from such mundane things as laws.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/27/2009 17:41 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
