Swamp Thing ... The Sequel

Have you read the Op-Ed piece by Nancy Pelosi in USA TODAY?  (http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-11-10-column10_ST2_N.htm)  It’s great stuff and I agree with almost everything she says.

Her article touts the accomplishments of the 111th Congress over which she presided; stating that unnamed “Congressional experts” consider it to be “the most productive Congress in a half-century.”   You know me … I wanted to make sure that I completely understood the meaning of the word “productive,” so I looked it up.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “productive” as “having the power or quality of producing especially in abundance.”   In that regard, I agree with the assessment.  The 111th Congress produced a lot of things in abundance including, but not limited to pork-barrel deals for votes, a ridiculous number of new agencies and, of course, an unconscionable level of debt.  Nice job!

Nancy is so proud that she’s holding a reception “honoring the Accomplishments of the 111th Congress on Wednesday, the tenth day of November, two thousand ten at three thirty in the afternoon, Cannon Caucus Room 345, Cannon House Office Building.”   Somehow, my personal invitation must have gotten lost in the mail, but I’m sure she meant to send one to me.  I have a history of missing great events like this.  I’m told that George Armstrong Custer felt the same way about his 7th Cavalry and was planning a similar fete … or should I say fate.

Come to think of it, Custer and Pelosi have a lot in common.

• Both rose through the ranks; Custer was brevetted to Major General during the Civil War, and Nancy became the first female Minority Leader and then Speaker of the House.

• After the war, Custer remained in the Army and was appointed to the lesser military grade of Lieutenant Colonel; after the mid-term elections, Nancy is lobbying to become the new Minority Leader.

• Custer was sure that his forces would overwhelm the Indians at the Little Big Horn; Nancy chastised Press Secretary Gibbs (back in July) for even suggesting that there was a possibility that the Democrats could lose the House in the mid-term elections.

Of course, that’s where the similarities end.  Custer lost his own life as well as that of all his men.  Nancy was able to win reelection while the Democratic Party merely suffered a loss of its 77 member advantage in the House and move toward a 49 member disadvantage.  From Custer’s perspective, that’s hardly a flesh wound!

Interestingly enough, the prevailing thought back in 1874 (according to the Secretary of War) was that the Government’s largess of “coffee, sugar and beef”  had “taken the fight out of the Indians.”   Surely, if you give people something for “free,” they’ll “mellow out” and become complacent.  Political elitists are surely safe to verbally dismiss an apparent “grass roots movement” as nothing more than “Astroturf.”   Isn’t it funny how history repeats itself?  As George Santayana stated in Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol.1, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  By the way, nice title, George!  But I digress.

Back to Nancy’s Op-Ed piece.  Nancy is all smiles (no big surprise there) about 111th Congress.  It’s a little bit like Custer taking the position that he would have won the Battle of the Little Big Horn if only he wouldn’t have run out of men before the Indians ran out of ammunition. 

America’s Sweetheart tells us that “President Obama and this Congress were job creators from Day One, saving the country from the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression”  and that “The Recovery Act created or saved more than 3 million jobs, and America is moving forward. October marks the 10th straight month of private sector job growth.”  That’s why unemployment has plummeted to below 8 percent just as the President stated it would.  If you feel a Wizard of Oz moment coming on, just go with it …“Ignore the man behind the curtain.”  And while we’re at it Madame Speaker, you may want to get in line in front of the Scarecrow.

Nancy asserts that “Our Democratic members took tough votes to support America's working families, putting the American people before politics and thinking of the next generation, not the next election.”  Again, just ignore all the behind-closed-doors meetings and pork-barrel deals that were proffered during her reign.  They had nothing to do with politics.  And the $13+ trillion deficit?  It’s all for the next generation … really!

She incorporates the traditional “Wall Street” versus “Main Street” theme that has become so popular, a “Make It in America” phrase, and an allusion to “the largest investment in student aid in our nation’s history, reducing the cost of loans to families” that somehow apparently has the impact of “reducing the deficit.”

For comic relief, Nancy adds, “And we did all of this while restoring fiscal discipline to the Congress by making the pay-as-you-go rules the law of the land.”  That must explain the Congressional spending spree that amassed a $13+ trillion deficit that exceeded the debt of every prior Presidency … cumulatively.

“We are proud to have passed historic health insurance reform that includes a Patient's Bill of Rights to lower health costs and improve quality,” she continues.  Of course, we have no empirical evidence that health care costs have been lowered or that the quality of health care has been improved, but she wouldn’t mislead us … she’s a politician!

Let’s have some fun and parse in a few comments to the rest of her Op-Ed piece (much like I do in my books, The Left isn’t Right and The Right is Wrong).  I’ll use bolded text to distinguish the comments of the Common Sense Czar from the "non-bolded, italicized quotations of the Speaker."

“Democrats will continue to put forward innovative ideas, engage in entrepreneurial thinking and work to create the jobs for middle class prosperity.”  Notice, I said “continue” as if we’ve actually been doing this for the past two years … much less for the four years that we’ve in fact controlled the House.  Under my leadership, we’ve pursued the “innovative” idea of spending well beyond our means with every intention of taxing our way out of the problem; and our idea of entrepreneurial thinking includes nationalizing industries while giving ownership to special interest groups that deliver money and votes to our campaigns.  Oops!  I mean unions that support the American way of life!  And we’re looking for ways to create “jobs for middle class prosperity.”  Screw poor people!  We’ve figured out that there aren’t enough of them that vote to get us reelected.

“Republicans and Democrats must work together, with President Obama, to prepare for our nation for the 21st century while creating clean energy and infrastructure jobs.”  Oh sure, some of you might point out that we’re already a tenth of the way through the 21st century, but it’s just a rhetorical expression.

“As we go forward, we welcome Republican ideas about job creation.”  Let’s face it … we have to!  They killed us in the last election, and we’ve got about as much of a chance of cramming through legislation as Charlie Sheen has of being a positive role model.

“Though they elected a new majority in Congress, Americans did not vote for the special interests.”  That’s exactly why we lost! 

“They voted for jobs.”  Which again is why we lost!

“Democrats remain committed to fighting for the people's interests, not the special interests.”  Okay, we’re just kidding.  We still intend to support unions as well as every “oppressed minority” we can identify and get to believe that we’re their champion!

“While the election is over, the urgent needs of the American people remain.”  Those "needs" remain because we did little to eliminate them during our reign.

“Over the past several days, I have spoken with my Democratic colleagues about where we go from here.”  Apparently, a lot of them are packing up their offices and moving back to their home States.  Maybe we can get unemployment benefits extended again because those guys are going to need them.

“I have heard from Americans across our country who are relying on us to continue our fight to create jobs, hopefully in a bipartisan way, and move our nation forward.”  Just between us girls, I think that was really their message in this past election.  We’d better start working together in a bipartisan way and move our nation forward.

“We will begin the 112th Congress with talented new colleagues, and also with a renewed dedication to fighting every day for jobs, economic recovery and the middle class.”  Notice that while we eschew “special interests,” we always single out the middle class.  The rest of Americans don’t count because there aren’t enough of them to restore us to power.

So ends the Speaker’s Op-Ed piece and the Common Sense Czar’s running commentary.  It seems to me that Nancy hasn’t learned a lot from her recent experience.  For the past two years, she’s gotten a “pass” for the 110th Congress that was also under her leadership.  You know … the one that passed the legislation that precipitated a lot of our current economic turmoil.  While it’s more fun to blame the President (be it Bush or Obama), the reality is that the real legislative power resides with the House and the Senate (read about Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution in The National Platform of Common Sense), and Nancy has been in charge of the House for two consecutive terms.

Still, you’ve got to admire our outgoing Speaker.  Who can forget her memorable quote from 2006, “You must drain the swamp if you are going to govern for the people.”   Just this Summer, she triumphantly stated, “Drain the swamp we did, because this was a terrible place.”  Democrats Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters (both reelected by overwhelming majorities) confirmed her assertion on their way to their respective ethics hearings.  Apparently, a large number of Americans didn’t get the memo and decided to do some additional cleansing on November 2nd. 

In all fairness to Nancy, as the old saying goes:  "When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's sometimes difficult to remember that your mission was to drain the swamp."  Personally, I think the “swamp” could still use a little more attention on both sides of the aisle.  Maybe we should put in a call to Wes Craven for a sequel.

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Copyright © 2010 Dr. T.J. O’Hara. To support viral distribution, this article may be copied, reprinted, forwarded, linked, or published in any form as long as proper attribution is given to the author and no changes are made.