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2010-03-12 --Tech & Moderator Notes
The beginning of the end for Nancy Pelosi (Rantburg Op-Ed)
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Posted by Steve White 2010-03-12 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ]  Top

#1 Political opportunity is a repeated theater in history. The excuse found to be used rather then the most direct approach for action. Way too many pols know they're literally one step ahead of the real pitchforks and tar. Many proverbial rats have been literally jumping the ship. This provides the 'excuse' for the survivalist Donks on the Good Ship Congress to for an inparty coup. Will they take it? BTW - the 'Ides of March' are just a few days way.
Posted by Procopius2k 2010-03-11 16:30||   2010-03-11 16:30|| Front Page Top

#2 I hope you're right, Doc, but I doubt you are. Pelosi has proven many times that she has no problemw with lying and cover-ups. She screwed the CIA - did that really bite her? Not so much that I know. I am hoping that demise of the healthcare bills will be the political end of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama. But I'm not holding my breath.
Posted by Spot  2010-03-11 16:34||   2010-03-11 16:34|| Front Page Top

#3 the House voted 402-1 today

Wow. Just... wow.
Posted by trailing wife 2010-03-11 16:39||   2010-03-11 16:39|| Front Page Top

#4 Who was the 1?
Posted by DoDo 2010-03-11 17:10||   2010-03-11 17:10|| Front Page Top

#5 Great catch, Dr. White. Interesting that Drudge hasn't picked this up. It would be too bad if Barney Frank got caught up in this scandal, too.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-03-11 17:14||   2010-03-11 17:14|| Front Page Top

#6 Couldn't find who the 1 was. The resolution isn't even on Thomas yet! Imagine that! But this didn't take long:
The Washington Post reported Thursday that staff in the office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., were told in October of concerns that Massa "was living with several young, unmarried male staffers and using sexually explicit language with them.''

The warning to Pelosi's staff came from Joe Racalto, Massa's chief of staff, who the Post reported was also concerned about a lunch date Massa made with a young man in his 20s working for Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts.


Oh, and if you were wondering Mr. Racalto worked for The Honorable Mr. Frank from 1996 when he began his congressional servicinge and by 2001 he was earning $36,000 per year, rising to $50,000 per year in 2008, whereupon he moved under The Honorable Mr. Massa at $135,000. Clearly The Honorable Mr. Frank trained him well.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-03-11 17:43||   2010-03-11 17:43|| Front Page Top

#7 Dr White, you forgot to mention the most nefarious aspect of this whole affair.

This guy's behavior was not enough to make the leadership move him along UNTIL it became apparent that he wasn't going to vote for socialized healthcare.

That fact could take us in several different directions, but NONE of them are good.

Nancy Pelosi will already go down as the worst Speaker in the history of the republic, but she can salvage whatever shred of goodness (if she even cares about such things) possible by leaving ASAP.
Posted by no mo uro 2010-03-11 18:22||   2010-03-11 18:22|| Front Page Top

#8 Disagree, Doc. This like Foley is small potatoes. The big scandal that brought down the GOP was DeLay-Abramoff. The Dems aren't there yet.
Posted by lex 2010-03-11 19:17||   2010-03-11 19:17|| Front Page Top

#9 Never underestimate the Democrats' capacity for circling the wagons around their ideological friends.

The only reason that Massa fellow was forced out was he threatened a NO on their precious Healthcare takeover of Government bill. (And yes: I meant it that way.)
Posted by eLarson 2010-03-11 19:37||   2010-03-11 19:37|| Front Page Top

#10 The MSM has been absolutely silent on another almost unanimous vote in the US House today--the Impeachment of a federal judge in Louisiana!

Not a word. They really DO NOT the word impeachment being mentioned in public right now.
Posted by  Anonymoose 2010-03-11 20:00||   2010-03-11 20:00|| Front Page Top

#11 Lex: I would agree that DeLay/Abramhoff was the bigger issue for a lot of people. What the Foley affair did was crystalize matters for a fair number of voters in 2006 who hadn't really been following along. They were disgusted but didn't know why, and one financial/insider scandal sounds like another. Then a sex scandal came along. That grabbed the attention of those who hadn't been following, and gave them a perfectly acceptable reason to vote against the Pubs.

Will the Massa affair do the same to the Democrats? Don't know. People are far angrier than they were in 2006, as witness the Tea Parties. But it's still early in the election process, so Massa may be nothing more than old news and a sick joke by November.

no mo uro: Yep, it does look that way, doesn't it. Massa was tolerated until he went off the reservation. Now that his vote isn't reliable he's being tossed.

The problem with that theory is that it does seem that this was coming to a head (as it were); Massa's problems were going from rumor to insider news to more open circulation. He may have been tossed under the bus because well, they couldn't wait any longer.

Think about it: if I were Pelosi and I had that kind of dirt on a Congresscritter, he'd damned sure be voting 'yes'. He'd be my bitch until I decided I was done with him. That's the smarter play.

Nimble: I was wondering why there wasn't a peep from Drudge.
Posted by Steve White 2010-03-11 20:38||   2010-03-11 20:38|| Front Page Top

#12 Drudge bats from the opposite side of the plate IYKWIMAITYD

Teh Ghey stories hit too close to home for fun for him
Posted by Frank G 2010-03-11 20:51||   2010-03-11 20:51|| Front Page Top

#13 Oh, and if you were wondering Mr. Racalto worked for The Honorable Mr. Frank from 1996 when he began his congressional servicinge and by 2001 he was earning $36,000 per year, rising to $50,000 per year in 2008, whereupon he moved under The Honorable Mr. Massa at $135,000.

*sublimely happy sigh* Gorgeous use of the sarcastic honourable, devastating use of the curve of the salary over time, and the double entendre is simply to die for. I give it a nine point nine nine repeating out of ten, Mr. Spemble.
Posted by trailing wife 2010-03-11 22:11||   2010-03-11 22:11|| Front Page Top

#14 Couple of Nancy quotes:

Upon becoming the Speaker of the House -- the most ethical Congress ever.

Today, saying about Massa, "poor baby, poor baby

Pelosi appeared on Bloomberg to discuss Massa. Said Pelosi: "This is a sad case...This is a very sick person. He has been diagnosed with cancer. Perhaps his judgment is impaired because of the ethical issues that have arisen and he is no longer in the Congress. Poor baby. Poor baby. Sometimes we really exagerrate our own importance in a lot of these things."
Posted by Sherry 2010-03-11 22:25||   2010-03-11 22:25|| Front Page Top

#15 Dr. Steve, this is the single best commentary on this affair I have seen--and I'm an op-ed junkie, so I've seen a lot. Well done.
Posted by Mike 2010-03-12 06:48||   2010-03-12 06:48|| Front Page Top

#16 "Think about it: if I were Pelosi and I had that kind of dirt on a Congresscritter, he'd damned sure be voting 'yes'. He'd be my bitch until I decided I was done with him."

Exactly. Consider this, Massa was a freshman congressman, ultra progressive, gay, and a flake. A safe assumption is he’s one of Nancy’s “retards” Rham was talking about. Damn…if she can’t whip that cat…suppums zup.
Posted by DepotGuy 2010-03-12 09:33||   2010-03-12 09:33|| Front Page Top

#17 The story was on Good Morning America when I woke up -- including the bit about Speaker Pelosi's office knowing about it last October.
Posted by trailing wife 2010-03-12 09:50||   2010-03-12 09:50|| Front Page Top

#18 Hope you are right doc. We need a good spring cleaning or fall if we have to wait. This woman is like a cat; nine political lives.
Posted by JohnQC 2010-03-12 09:58||   2010-03-12 09:58|| Front Page Top

#19 She will slip thru da cracks in her botox..
Posted by crazyhorse 2010-03-12 11:32||   2010-03-12 11:32|| Front Page Top

#20 Even keeping her seat (likely) is no guarantee she'll still be Speaker. I hope she gets tossed back into the crowd.

Not that Hoyer would be much improvement. I'm hoping for a Republican Speaker. Time to seriously get up on our hind legs.
Posted by mojo  2010-03-12 12:05||   2010-03-12 12:05|| Front Page Top

23:03 gorb
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19:36 Rambler in Virginia









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