Turn Your Attention To The Center Ring
I'm up on a tightwire
One side's ice and one is fire
It's a circus game with you and meI'm up on a tight rope
One side's hate and one is hope
But the top hat on my head is all you see
And the wire seems to be the only place for me
A comedy of errors and I'm falling
Like a rubber neck giraffe you look into my past
Well maybe you're just too blind to, see
(Leon Russel, Tightrope)
The Washington Post examines Nancy Pelosi's highwire act of promises of big reforms versus the day to day business as usual of Washington Politics. It is not a particularly flattering picture.
On June 15, beneath the crystal chandeliers and Corinthian pilasters of the Cannon Caucus Room, House Democrats had to decide how they really felt about the "culture of corruption." After months of expressing outrage over Republican scandals, what would they do about the $90,000 the FBI had found in the freezer of one of their own?
To House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the answer was obvious: Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) had to give up his coveted spot on the Ways and Means Committee. But at the closed-door caucus meeting, several black Democrats complained that Pelosi was not their emperor or queen, while Jefferson implored his colleagues to keep him on Ways and Means for the sake of Hurricane Katrina's victims. No one spoke up for Pelosi — except Pelosi.
She began by praising Jefferson's wife and five daughters: Jamila, Jalila, Jelani, Nailah and Akilah. But she quickly made it clear that Jefferson's legal problems had become her political problem: "I am not an emperor or a queen. But neither am I a fool."
Pelosi explained that Democrats should be the party of ethics, that appearances count, that dealing forcefully with Jefferson's scandal would help everyone else in the room. "You didn't elect me emperor or queen," she said. "You elected me leader."……
……But it is not yet clear whether Jefferson's ouster heralded a new era of honesty and accountability, or just a one-off political calculation inspired by the 2006 campaign. After the midterm elections, Pelosi ignored the ethical cloud around Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) to support his bid to be majority leader, and she nearly chose Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.) to chair the intelligence committee even though the House once impeached him when he was a federal judge. And, in December, when Jefferson faced a fight for his political life in a runoff against state Rep. Karen R. Carter, a black Democrat with none of his ethical baggage, Pelosi refused to get involved.
Today, Jefferson will take his seat in Pelosi's House. His inconvenient presence will be a constant reminder of the fine line the new speaker will have to walk between rhetoric and reality, between the cross-cutting demands of her caucus and the demands of the public.
You should read the story just to understand how the national party abandoned the candidate that could have easily knocked Jefferson out of his seat. They chose to ignore Karen Carter, instead. The WaPo puts the responsibility mostly at the feet of Pelosi, fastening the Jefferson albatross firmly to the new Speaker. I'm thinking that this sort of coverage is going to become more common in the next few months. Does it mean that the press is becoming less biased? Hardly. What it likely indicates is a power struggle within the Democratic party. The more centrist DLC Democrats versus the fringe elements who believe they have a right to shout down anyone who doesn't bow to them, including Democrats. As Karen Carter puts it later in the article:
"I kept saying: 'This is the culture of corruption, and you can help stop it,' " Carter said. "They chose to ignore me. If the leadership had made a clear statement that this kind of behavior was unacceptable, maybe they wouldn't have to deal with him anymore."
But now they do and Jefferson's continued presence in the House is bound tightly to Nancy Pelosi. Tightrope time.
