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Quotational Therapy: Part 112 -- Pelosi & Fairness.

Promises, Promises-

Nancy Pelosi, still nuancing her way through life:

"What they did was very effective in pulling up all the ladders for any other party to gain the majority," incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said last week of the Gingrich revolutionaries. "They just shut the doors to debate on the floor, to amendments coming, to even how special orders [speeches] were conducted. Everything they were effective in using to gain the majority they shut down."

"We're going to do the opposite," she pledged.

Yet, later in the same article...

But there are limits to such sentiments. In the 1990s, Republicans shifted the number of committee seats allotted to the majority and minority parties to virtually ensure that no cross-party collaboration would be needed to draft and pass legislation. When asked whether she may change those ratios as a goodwill gesture, Pelosi last week snapped, "I don't see a scenario where there is going to be much appetite for that."

So, nevermind, in other words.

Probably the same fate as this pledge:

Special-interest projects, which helped fuel several recent congressional scandals, are often anonymously slipped into spending bills by lawmakers at lobbyists' behest.

Pelosi's approach to the issue is certain to come under renewed scrutiny. In one of her first acts as speaker, she has pledged to crack down on earmarking.

"I would just as soon do away with all of them," she told reporters this week.

End earmarks, and you'll have a handful of very happy bloggers. You'll also annoy far more constituents who rely on or expect their member of Congress to bring home pork for the district. Will Nancy do away with all earmarks?

Ha.

Previous Quotational Therapy Session:

Charlie Rangel

The right quote can be therapeutic, so tune in to WILLisms.com for quotational therapy on Monday and Friday.

Posted by Will Franklin · 13 November 2006 04:46 PM

Comments

Posted by: zsa zsa at November 13, 2006 08:09 PM