Letters to the Editor

• Take Some Blows For The Constitution, Pelosi: It's More Important

  [Read the article: House Democratic leadership: not just complicit but also self-destructive]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I watched Speaker Pelosi's weekly press conference last Thursday. She just seems to be wholly overmatched, on a personal level, by the powerful position of Speaker when it matters most - on intellectually challenging, historically profound or morally courageous issues - unless those closest to her are actively supporting her, guiding her and urging her to take a stand, above and beyond party politics. Beyond the sort of party politics by which she's charted her career, which have always buffered and protected her, and without which she is wandering lost in the desert, as she wields repeated claims of being "bipartisan" as though that's a charm that will ward off evil spirits (in Thursday's case, those represented by the corporate reporters whose hostile, leading questions are lobbed on behalf of the self-interests of their employers rather than in the public interest or in pursuit of truth). She effectively apologized to the reporters for 'telling you more than you want to know' about FISA when she tried to give a little, halting historical context about it.

  I don't think Nancy Pelosi has the will or the ability to lead even her small group of party powerbrokers beyond their practiced, poll-tested soundbites, or to coherently explain a position to her caucus in a way that would effectively persuade them to stand with her through thick and thin. I suspect she wants "consensus" above all else from her closest colleagues in order to feel safe ("bipartisan" and uncontroversial, and defended by party partisans), before acting in service to whomever wields the most power in her narrow corporate-defined world, and she's not willing to persuade or force except on utterly uncontroversial matters like feeding the children or saving puppies. Listening to 300 million American citizens who wish to be heard though they come to the debate empty-handed is, apparently, "off the table" for the Speaker of our House of "Representatives."

  Thus, if Mr. Reyes is prepared to spit on a Constitution he's probably never read, if Mr. Conyers wavers weakly beside him (again), if Mr. Hoyer gives in by pretending a minority of his caucus controls the agenda or wields the power of the Speaker, Nancy Pelosi will meekly follow along, wondering where her conscience went, even though all three would obey her and do her bidding if she gave a different, principle-driven, not party-driven, direction and simply had the courage of her convictions.

  Last Thursday, it sounded to me like exclusivity may be the bargaining chip Pelosi is using as her conscience-salve in return for giving away the store on retroactive immunity. [Perhaps along with some sort of pre-surveillance FISA Court approval per RESTORE - a bill which is clearly a more-than-adequate "fix" to the (only real) email/ISP problem under FISA.] If Pelosi gets those two fig leaves from Rockefeller in exchange for forbidding citizens from suing to enforce the Fourth Amendment, she seems to think she'll have saved face, done better than any leader of the Senate or White House has done for us (there's a vanishingly-low bar for a standard of conduct), and defended the Constitution enough 'for government work.'

  Pelosi doesn't really seem to grasp at all the profound, multi-level unConstitutional insult granting corporate lawbreaking immunity would be in this matter - or at least she was soft-pedaling what she knows last Thursday, compared to the other two points on which she's still trying to stand firm, although the reality of the Constitutional insult is just about the reverse of the one she stated.

  Nancy, don't bar the door of the courthouses of America to the American people, thereby effectively helping to repeal the Fourth Amendment and due process, further crippling our system of checks and balances by usurping the role of the Judicial Branch, and bastardizing the rule of law to benefit and unjustly reward the most powerful members of the Executive Branch and the Republican Party.

  Pelosi seemingly can't bring herself to contravene evidence of greed and cowardice, or sheer laziness, in her caucus on our behalf even on this most vital of democratic principles - principles at the heart of the founding and foundation of our nation, separate and apart from her low, mean, blindered party politics religion, and is thus unwilling to let Rush Holt or John Tierney do her arguing for her on the complicated FISA details with which she (and Reyes) may be unfamiliar.

  teachertun is right: This one is in the hands of Nancy Pelosi. She alone can make us or break us. Either way, she'll probably make history. It's her call which way she wants the history books to record her actions as Speaker in 2008.

  Permalink Monday, March 3, 2008 01:43 PM